Old Dutch

Old Dutch or Altniederfränkisch is the forerunner of Middle Dutch in the early Middle Ages (ca. 600-1150 ). The Old Dutch is a group of related, partly altniederfränkischen dialects. There is no standard language, just as little as the Middle Dutch.

• 4.1 The great texts 4.1.1 The Wachtendonckschen Psalms
• 4.1.2 The Willeram
• 4.1.3 The Rhenish rhyme Bible

• 4.2.1 The oldest record
• 4.2.2 Hebban olla vogala ...
• 4.2.3 Lobesvers from Munsterbilzen
• 4.2.4 Other sources

• 8.1 monophthongization
• 8.2 h in the initial sound disappears
• 8.3 Vowel reduction
• 8.4 devoicing
• 8.5 hs is to s
• Disappears 8.6 h between vowels
• 8.7 lenition of f and s

Old Dutch and Altniederfränkisch

The two terms Old Dutch and Altniederfränkisch are often confused because of the Altniederfränkischen the Brabants dialects and Dutch have emerged, which later formed the basis for modern standard Dutch.

For an equation of the terms and Old Dutch Altniederfränkisch speak the North Sea Germanic ( or North seeger manic -influenced ) dialects in the west of the language area ( West Flemish, Dutch ), especially in the early Netherlandish time.

Language area

The area in which the Old Dutch is spoken, is not identical with the modern Dutch-speaking region: In the space of Groningen and Friesland as well as on the Dutch coast they spoke Frisian or North Sea Germanic least ( " ingwäonische " ) dialects. To the east of the present-day Netherlands ( Achterhoek, Overijssel, Drenthe) Old Saxon dialects were spoken. In the south and south-east the former Old Dutch language area was slightly larger than today neuniederländische: French Flanders and part of the area between the province of Limburg and the Rhine were at that time still the Dutch language area.

Accruals

Differentiation from the Middle Dutch

Although there are sometimes large differences, Old Dutch and Dutch funds flow smoothly into one. The border between the two language levels is hard to draw. In general, it is 1150 or 1200.

The most striking difference is the vowel reduction: in the Old Dutch there is full vowels in unstressed syllables in Middle Dutch, the reduced to a " schwa " [ ə ].

Examples:

• Anl vogala, Bird '→ mnl. Vogele
• Anl dago, daga, Day '→ mnl. daghe
• Anl Brecan, break '→ mnl. Breken
• Anl gescrivona written '→ mnl. gheschreven

The examples are taken from the chapter by A. Quak, in: Van den Toorn ea (1997 ) (see references).

Differences from the Old Frisian

A characteristic difference for Frisian at that time was the Germanic au. In the Old Dutch Germanic au was (ie to a long o) become ō, while it had become in the Old Frisian to ā ( a long a). Example: The neuniederländische place name Akersloot called in old Frisian charters Ekerslat.

Differences from the Old High German

The most obvious difference between the Old Dutch and Old High German was the fact that in Old High German the second sound shift had taken place in the Old Dutch is not.

Differences from the Old Saxon

There are, despite all the similarities, some differences between the Old Dutch and Old Saxon. Examples:

• The Germanic sound hl ( chl ) at the beginning of the word is preserved in Old Saxon, Old Dutch but simplified to l.
• The Old Saxon has the verb form a unit for 1st, 2nd and 3rd person plural, while the Early Netherlandish there has three different forms ( -on, and -et/it - unt ). Example: blīvon anl, we remain ' - Blivet, you remain ' - blīvunt, they remain ' against asächs. bilīvad, we / they stay, you stay. '

• Example: anl fluot, tide ' against asächs. flod.

Tradition

From Old Dutch only some texts and fragments survive. These texts and fragments are teksten in Corpus van Nederlandse Middelburg ( tot en met het jaar 1200) edited by Maurits Gysseling. The written tradition is so much lower than those of related languages ​​, such as Old English or Old High German.

In the Early Netherlandish text fragments is not always clearly established whether it is Old Dutch, Old Saxon or Old Frisian. This is due to the meager tradition and the fact that the Germanic languages ​​( or dialects ) were similar at the time stronger. There was a dialect continuum, ie transitions between related languages ​​or dialects.

The great texts

The Wachtendonckschen Psalms

The Wachtendonckschen Psalms are a collection of psalms to Old Dutch. They are named after the owner Wachtendonck Arnold, a scholar of Liege, 1598 of the humanist scholar Justus Lipsius lent a hand with these texts. Lipsius examined the manuscript and wrote off some psalms. The manuscript itself is lost. The original text is from the 9th or 10th century.

The language of the text is Old Dutch, but the Psalms 1 to 3 have a significant impact in central Franconia. Generally, it is considered that the surviving text is the altniederfränkische editing a Middle Franconian template.

Is as yet unclear where the original text has been created. Willy Sanders takes on the basis of linguistic properties to an area on the Lower Rhine. H.K.J. Cowan, however, assumes a place in the Dutch or Belgian province of Limburg.

The Willeram

The Leuven Willeram (also called Egmonder Williram ) is the longest text that has clearly Netherlandish flag. The manuscript, which contains this text is in the Leiden University Library. The language of the text is a mixture of Old High German and Old Dutch. The text is a linguistically superficial translation of a comment to the Song of Solomon from the Bible. The template for this text was written by the monk Williram of Ebersberg. The Old Dutch text is from the 11th century.

The Rhenish rhyme Bible

The Rhenish rhyme Bible (also called Middle Franconian rhyme Bible ) is a Bible in rhyme, probably in the 12th century in the room If arose. It is available in different fragments.

Some minor texts and text fragments

The oldest record

The oldest antiquated phrase comes from the Salic Law, from the 6th century.

This formula was pronounced at the free - explaining a half-free. The Salic Law contains many individual Use keywords ( the so-called Malbergse glosses ), which are regarded as Old Dutch.

Hebban olla vogala ...

The most famous old Dutch sentence reads:

The usual explanation goes as meaning that it is a write attempt, so a play with a feather pen ( Latin probatio pennae ). The text comes after this statement from a Flemish monk in an English monastery.

This set is located between other fragments of text on the back of an old English sermon manuscript. In these fragments, there is also a Latin version of the Old Dutch sentence:

See main article: Hebban olla vogala.

Lobesvers from Munsterbilzen

From the time in 1130, the phrase comes from a nunnery in Munsterbilzen in Belgian Limburg.

The first part of this sentence is Old Dutch, the second part is in Latin.

Other sources

• Taufgelöbnisse
• Incantations
• Glosses ( for example, the glosses to the Salic Law )
• Place names
• Personal names

Exploration of the Old Dutch

2007, published the Oudnederlands Woordenboek ( " Altniederländisches dictionary " ) Instituut voor Nederlandse the Lexicologie (INL ). It has 4500 dictionary articles and is usable over the Internet. It covers the period up to 1200. Later texts are included in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek ( " Early Middle Dutch dictionary ").

Many of Early Netherlandish texts and text fragments are teksten in Corpus van Nederlandse Middelburg ( tot en met het jaar 1300), the so-called Corpus Gysseling published.

Spelling

The Early Netherlandish was written with the Latin alphabet. Since the missionaries came from the Old English and Old High German from the language area in the Low Countries, we may assume Old English and Old High German elements in Early Netherlandish texts.

Th is used to the Germanic þ According to reproduce. Example: thāhton, they thought '. See also voiceless dental fricative and Þ.

That is used to the voiced ð- According to reproduce. See also voiced dental fricative and Ð.

C is used for the k- sound, and although at the beginning of a word before velar ( 'dark' ) vowels. Example: cuning, King ' ( nl. koning ). Before palatal ( " bright " ) vowels is k Example: Keron, reverse, turn '. In Latin and Old High German tradition c was pronounced before palatal vowels as [ ts ]. In positions other than at the beginning of a word spellings with c and k could change: ic and ik 'I'.

U stands for the vowel u and the consonant v. Example: uusso, foxes ' (Gen. Pl ). In this example, the written u v only for the consonants, then for the vowel u, the w - sound is mostly played uu. Between the present graphemes u and v was therefore not distinguished, and a w - grapheme so there was not. See also V and W.

G was probably pronounced spiral table, or about how in today's Dutch. The one concludes from the change of uueh, way ' ( accusative ) and uuege ( Dat. ). See also voiced velar fricative.

H is an h- sound ( in some [ h] ) and for a ch- sound ( in some [ χ ] or [x]). Examples: holto, wood ' (Gen. Pl ), approaching, night '.

I is used for the vowel i and j for said consonant. Examples: uuitton know ', IAR, year '. It was therefore not between today graphemes i and j are distinguished. See also J.

Qu always stands for kw. Example: quāmon, they came ' ( nl. zij kwamen ).

The length of vowels is not played normally in Scripture. Example: dag 'day' ( with a short a), thahton, they thought ' ( with a long a). For the sake of clarity, the long vowels are here marked with a horizontal line: â. In some texts, the long vowels are written twice. Examples: Heembeke (today's village name Hembeke ), the first name Oodhelmus (both from documents from the years 941 and 797 ).

Mark

An important characteristic of the Old Dutch is the occurrence of full vowels in unstressed syllables.

The following examples show only the old Dutch word, then the neuniederländische correspondence ( Nnl. ) and then the German meaning:

Vogala, Bird ' ( nl. bird ), hebban have ' ( nl. hebben ) geuon, give ' ( nl. geven - in ancient texts was no distinction between u and v), herro, Lord ' ( nl. heer ), gesterkon, amplify ( nl. versterken ) geuuisso, certainly ' ( nl. certain ) fardiligon, destroy ' ( nl. verdelgen ).

Another important feature is the frequent occurrence of grammatical cases (case ). Also, Middle Dutch has grammatical cases, but the Early Netherlandish forms can be identified clearly. As an example is the Old Dutch noun dag:

Singular:

Plural:

According to development

Monophthongization

The old Germanic diphthongs ai and au were ē in the Old Dutch to the long monophthongs and ō. Examples: HEM, home ', slot, ditch ' ( nl. sloot, dug watercourse ').

The same development took place in the Old Saxon.

A similar development took place in the North Sea Germanic languages ​​Old Frisian and Old English.

In Old Frisian ai became ē ( rarely ā ), but au became ā. Examples: HEM (or HAM), SLAT.

In Old English ai was to ā and au to an EA diphthong. Examples: Ham, Sleat.

H vanishes in the initial sound

In the Old Dutch disappears the h- sound at the beginning of the word during the 9th century. So is anl ringis 'Ring' (Gen. ) against asächs. and aengl. Hring.

Vowel reduction

In the Wachtendonckschen Psalms fall within the unstressed syllables, the vowels e and i together, just as o and u This leads to variants such as dagi and by contrast, day ' ( dative singular) and variants such as tungon and tungun, tongue; Language ' ( genitive, dative, accusative singular and nominative, dative, accusative plural). From the 11th century the unstressed vowels are probably only a schwa [ ə ]. This sound not only e, but also a will written ( in Egmonder Williram ).

Devoicing

The Old Dutch has final devoicing. This means that voiced consonants at the end of a word become voiceless.

Examples:

• Uuort 'word' (nom. ) against uuordes (Gen. )
• Gif, give! ' ( imperative) against geuon ( infinitive )
• Uueh, way ' ( accusative ) over uuege ( Dat. )

Notes:

• The uu in the first example corresponds to the present w.
• The U in the second example ( geuon ) corresponds to the current Dutch v (eg in geven ).
• The EH in the last example is not a long e and h is not a strain -H. The word uueh was pronounced approximately [ wɛç ] or [ vɛχ ].

Hs is to s

The combination of sounds hs, so ch s, was in the Old Dutch a ( voiceless ) see example: anl uusso, foxes ' (Gen. Pl ) versus PGmc. * fuχsō ⁿ.

The notation for the Proto-Germanic word fuχs - called no long u, but a short u followed by a ch [ χ ] as in Bach. This ch- sound is sometimes written χ instead of h.

In German and in English, the combination of sounds hs has become [ ks ] (German Fuchs, Eng. Fox ).

Disappears h between vowels

In the Old Dutch disappears According h when it is between vowels.

Examples:

• Anl thione, flourish 'with respect to OHG Dihan
• Anl (ge) sian, see ' against OHG Sehan

In modern German, the h is indeed written between vowels, but not pronounced. In Old High German this hour was actually spoken.

Lenition of f and s

Over the period, the Early Netherlandish language voiceless spirant [f ] and [ s] were voiced, ie [v ] and [ z], when they stood at the beginning of the word. In the Psalms Wachtendonckschen this development is rarely seen. In the place name in the 10th and 11th centuries there are varying spellings, suggesting that the debate changed in time.