Frisian–Dutch translation via the Oersetter API
De Oersetter is the Fryske Akademy’s Frisian–Dutch machine translation system, which already performs hundreds of translations a day on Frysker.nl. Now through the API, you can bring the same technology into your own product!
Main researchers: Eduard Drenth, Martijn Kingma, Nanna Hilton
More than a translation tool
De Oersetter is one of the most used digital language services of the Fryske Akademy, and it is also a building block for Frisian language technology more broadly.
Machine translation now sits underneath website translation, editorial and content management workflows, mobile apps, chatbots and voice assistants, multilingual search, and other AI tools that need to handle Frisian.
When you use the API, your project becomes part of a growing ecosystem of Frisian digital tools, and each improvement to De Oersetter reaches every application built on it.
Why De Oersetter
Built for Frisian
It runs on translation technology developed specifically for Frisian and is trained on Fryske Akademy language data, which makes it more reliable than general-purpose systems.
Proven in practice
It already runs behind Afûk’s Oersetter app and in research projects, such as the Frisian-speaking social robot developed by Dylan Rose, a joint PhD candidate at the Fryske Akademy and Campus Fryslân (University of Groningen).
Transparent and trustworthy
It’s developed and maintained by a public research institute, following FAIR principles
Who is involved
Nanna Haug Hilton
Researcher
Nanna Hilton is a senior researcher and programme coordinator for Linguistics at the Fryske Akademy. Her research covers sociolinguistics, language attitudes and phonetics, citizen science, language planning and policies with a focus on the Frisian speech community.
Eduard Drenth
Software architect
Eduard Drenth is a software architect at the Fryske Akademy, where he is co-responsible for ICT policy . He is also involved in the Fryske Akademy’s language databases (Frysker) and the online Dutch-Frisian dictionary as a developer.
Martijn Kingma
Researcher
Martijn Kingma is a postdoctoral researcher at the Fryske Akademy. His PhD research focused on studies variation and change in the Frisian vowel system, combining sociolinguistic and phonetic methods.
