Old Franconian language

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Old Franconian
Period early 3rd to 8th centuries

Formerly spoken in

lower Lower Rhine , Middle Rhine area; Roman province of Gallia Belgica (until the 7th century)
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in -
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

gem (Germanic languages)

ISO 639-3

frk

Spread of the Sal and Rhine Franks until the 5th / 6th century
The bergakker inscription from the years 425 to 450, the oldest known writing testimony of the old-fashioned language

With Altfränkisch or Fränkisch is in the historical linguistics the language of the Germanic Franks , a major association of several tribes, which in the late 3rd century beyond the Lower Germanic Limes settled and later large parts of Western Europe conquered called. The language was spoken in the southern Netherlands, Belgium, parts of northern France and the Lower and Middle Rhine area.

Tradition and Classification

The runic inscription by Bergakker is the only surviving text source which, in all probability, is the Old Franconian language. The historical presence of the Franks in the find area and some features that correspond to the later Old Lower Franconian support this claim. Linguist Bernard Mees interprets the runes as haþuþȳwas ann kusjam logūns , meaning “Haþuþȳws. I (he?) Grant (lend) a flame (sword) to the elect ”. Except for this text fragment, the Old Franconian language has not been passed down directly. It has been partially reconstructed using the Old Dutch language and Germanic loanwords in Old French .

The temporal spectrum of Old Franconian encompasses, in the broadest sense, the period between the splitting off of the Weser-Rhine Germanic variants from South Germanic in the 4th century to the appearance of the second sound shift in the 6th – 7th centuries . Century. In the literature, the terms "Old Dutch" and "Old Franconian" are sometimes used synonymously, but it is more common and more accurate to speak of Old Dutch from the 6th century onwards , as Old Franconian was divided into a postponed and an unshifted variant during this period. The sub-category "Old West Franconian" is largely synonymous with Old Dutch, as there is no shifted form of West Franconian. Although the continuity between Old Franconian and Old Dutch is generally accepted, it is less clear for the Germanic dialects in the former East Franconia because of the High German phonetic shift and the assimilation of southern German features.

In what is now northern France and Wallonia , it was assimilated to Gallo-Roman and Old French by the majority of the Romansh-speaking population there . In the course of the assimilation of Old Franconian to Gallo-Roman or Old French , this took over several hundred Franconian loanwords.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tineke Looijenga: Texts & contexts of the oldest Runic inscriptions . Leiden 2003, p. 318.
  2. ^ Bernard Mees: The Bergakker Inscription and the Beginnings of Dutch. In: Erika Langbroek, Annelies Roeleveld, Paula Vermeyden, Arend Quak: Amsterdam contributions to older German studies . 56, 2002, ISBN 90-420-1579-9 . ( online )
  3. ↑ Luc de Grauwe: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies, Volume 57: West Frankish: bestaat dat? Over Westfrankisch en Oudnederlands in het oud-theodiske variëteitencontinuüm, 2003, pp. 94–95
  4. ^ Alfred Klepsch: Der Name Franken In: Franconian Dictionary (WBF) , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, accessed on July 31, 2020.