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For the potato chip company, please see Old Dutch Foods. Old Dutch (Also Old Low Franconian, strictly Old West Low Franconian) is the West Germanic language or dialect group that was spoken and written during the early middle ages (c. 500 - 1150) in the present day Low Countries and areas of France near the North Sea coast. It is a direct descendant of the Old Frankish language. Language area The area where Old Dutch was spoken doesn't coincide with the area in which standard Dutch is spoken now. In the present provinces of Groningen, Friesland and along the coast of North Holland Frisian was spoken and in the East of the present day Netherlands (Achterhoek, Overijssel and Drenthe) Old Saxon was spoken. However in the South and South East the area in which Old Dutch was spoken was more extensive than the range of the modern standard. In the area which is now known as French Flanders and a large portion of the Lower Rhine and Westphalia Old Dutch was spoken. Relation with Old Low East Franconian The differences between Old Dutch and Old East Low Franconian are thought to have been minute. It has been known to occasionally show some Central German features but was most certainly mutually intelligible with Old Dutch. The difference in classification rests solely in the fact that when both dialects evolved into Middle Dutch, the dialects that decended from Old Low East Franconian did not contribute much to the creation of standard Dutch, whereas Old West Low Franconian (thus Old Dutch) did. Relation with Middle Dutch
Differences with Old Frisian A notable difference between Old Dutch and Old Frisian is the Germanic au. In Old Dutch the Germanic au became an ō (/o:/), in Frisian however it became an ā (/a:/). Example: The present Dutch village of Akersloot was spelled Ekerslat in Old Frisian texts. Differences with Old High German The main difference between the Western Old High German dialects, which were influenced by Frankish, the direct ancestor of Old Dutch, and Old Dutch is the latter’s lack of participation in the High German consonant shift. Because of this Old Dutch was closer to the original Frankish and its area can be seen as a remnant from which High Franconian has split off. There was still a dialect continuum though. Differences with Old Low Saxon At the time there was also a dialect continuum between Low Franconian and Low Saxon, which only was broken by the much later influence of standard languages. Despite a number of similarities there are also a lot of differences between Old Low Saxon and Old Dutch. Examples: Position of Old Dutch within West Germanic Old Dutch had a clear separate identity from the other West Germanic languages or dialect groups. It should be emphasized however that the other groups did not form a unity against this Low Franconian; the present situation where the continental West Germanic dialects all use German as their standard with the only true exception being the area using standard Dutch, cannot be correctly projected into the past, a past having no standards and in which it was still unclear which would develop and what their range would be. Surviving texts Old Dutch texts are extremely rare, and much more limited when compared to related languages like Old English and Old High German. Most of the earliest texts written in the Netherlands were written in Latin rather than Old Dutch. Some of these Latin texts however contained Old Dutch words interspersed with the Latin text. Also, it is extremely hard to determine whether a text actually is written in Old Dutch as the Germanic dialects spoken at that time were much more closely related. De Wachtendonckse Psalmen De Wachtendonckschen Psalmen are a number of psalms written in Latin and Old Dutch. Very little remains of them. They were named after a Canon called Arnold Wachtendonck who had been known to own them for quite some while. The original text dates from 9th century. De Leidse Willeram The Leidse Willeram, also called Egmondse Williram, is one of the oldest books written in Old Dutch written around 1100. It is a translation of a commentary of the German Abbot Williram on a Song of Solomon. The original text was written around 1059-1065 in a Old High German dialect, but proved to be so popular that an Old Dutch translation was made. This Dutch translation was made in an Abbey near Egmond, hence the second name of the work. Further sources Oldest Sentence The earliest sentence of what has clearly been identified as Old Dutch comes from the "Lex salica", written in the early 6th century: "Maltho thi afrio lito" ('I say I free you half free') This phrase was used to free a serf. Apart from this the Lex Salica also contains a number of loose Old Dutch words. The most famous sentence
Arguably, the most famous text containing "Old Dutch" is: Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), dating around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England. For a long time this sentence was considered to be the earliest in Dutch. However according to Luc de Grauwe the text could equally well be Old English, more specifically Old Kentish, which would make more sense considering it was written in England. However, there doesn't seem to be a general consensus on this matter. It should also be noted that Old (West) Dutch and Old English were very similar. Spelling Old Dutch was spelled using the Latin alphabet. Because the missionaries in the region now known as the Low Countries were mostly from the Old English and Old High German speaking areas one can spot some Old English and Old High German elements, which were never present in the spoken language of the native speakers. th is used to indicate the Germanic þ-sound. Example: thāhton ("dachten"). dh is used for the ð-sound. ‘‘C is often used for a k-sound if the beginning of a word contains a velar vowel. Example: cuning (Modern Dutch "koning", meaning "king"). In front of palatal vowels k is used. Example: kēron (Modern Dutch "keren", meaning "to turn"). In Latin and Old High German orthography c in front of palatal vowels was pronounced as . In positions other than the beginning of a word the use of c and k was interchangeable. ‘‘U represented the vowel u and consonant v. Example: uusso ("foxes", genitive plural). In this example the first u represents the consonant v and the second one the vowel u. The w-sound was normally represented as uu as the letter w didn't exist yet. g was most likely a fricative, much like in modern Dutch. This is based on the change between weh (Modern Dutch "weg", meaning "way" accusative) and wege ("way", dative). h represents an h-sound (close to ) and a ch-sound (close to or ). Examples: holto (Modern Dutch "hout" - wood-), naht (Modern Dutch "nacht" -night-). i is used for both the vowel i and the consonant j. Examples: witton (Modern Dutch "weten" - to know-), iār (Modern Dutch "jaar" - year-). qu always represents a kw-sound. Example: quāmon vs. modern Dutch kwamen ("they came"). z rarely appears and when it does, it's pronounced . Example: quezzodos vs. modern Dutch kwetsen ("you hurt"). The length of a vowel was not represented in writing, probably because the monks, who were the ones capable of writing and teaching how to write, tended to base the written language on Latin which also does not make a distinction in writing. Examples: Example: dag ("day", short vowel), thahton ("they thought", long vowel). Later on, the long vowels were sometimes marked with a horizontal line (macron) to indicate a long vowel: ā. In some texts long vowels were indicated by simply doubling the vowel in question: Examples: Heembeke, and the given name Oodhelmus (both from deeds, written in 941 and 797 respectively). Translation of Old Dutch sentence in Middle and Contemporary Dutch The following sentence of Old Dutch offers an evolutionary view of the Dutch language starting with an Old Dutch sentence written around 900 till the modern Dutch language. Old Dutch "Irlôsin sol an frithe sêla mîna fan thên thia ginâcont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi." | |||||||||
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