Old Saxon

The old Saxon language includes the language of the ancient settlement area of ​​the Saxons and Angles from the beginnings of written tradition until the early Middle Ages. It belongs to the Germanic languages.

Terms

The terms altniederdeutsch and Old Saxon have the same meaning in general. The term altniederdeutsch has the disadvantage that it has also been used as a collective term for the Old Saxon and Old Dutch ( Altniederfränkische ).

Historical

Early as the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxon language had split off, resulting in England - quite in contact with the mainland Saxon - developed into Old English. The language of the Angles and Saxons in England is therefore usually not added to the Altniederdeutschen. The Development of Low German on the bottom of the East Frankish, later Holy Roman Empire has been influenced by the Great High German dialects since the conquest and forced conversion of northern Germany by Karl.

Relative

Particularly similar to the Old Saxon Old English and Old Frisian are. These three languages ​​are also summarized under the term North Germanic languages. Related languages ​​are Old Dutch and Old High German.

Descendants

The modern descendant of Altniederdeutschen is the modern Low German language, the German Platt.

Dissemination

The area of ​​Altniederdeutschen in the 9th century are poorly documented, but essentially comprises today's Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Lippe, Engern and Ostfalen, including the today Saxony-Anhalt belong linkselbischen areas (about Halle to Magdeburg ).

In the south of the language border was the Frankish and thus to the Old High German ( Upper German ) on a line of Merseburg, Göttingen, northwest of Kassel, Korbach to Sauerland and Ruhr. Thus, the northwestern part of Hesse belongs to the Old Saxon language area.

Parts of the Lower Rhine country and a part of the Netherlands about north of the Ruhr area to Groningen and in the west to the Zuiderzee also belonged to altniederdeutschen language area. South of it began altniederfränkische or Old Dutch language area. In the north the territory of Groningen limited to Bremerhaven to the Old Frisian language area, as well as in Schleswig- Holstein to the altdänische and the North East approximately on the line Plön and near Lüneburg the Elbgrenze along to the West Slavic language area.

Through the German eastward expansion to the east and north, as well as the flourishing trade, especially the Hanseatic cities, the altniederdeutsche language for font and lingua franca developed. The consequence is Middle Low German, the east of the Elbe led to a split in the old ancestral territory and the colonized territories were added to the numerous foreign influences. The differentiation process of Middle Low German lasted about 150 years. The Saxon Mirror represents the language level after this process.

Sources and documents

The old Saxon or altniederdeutsche language survives only in a few documents, so in some Taufgelöbnissen that had the Saxons under Charlemagne speak the Great, in which only fragmentary surviving Old Saxon Genesis and especially in the largest seal, the Heliand after as epic work the pattern of Germanic hero sagas, the story of Jesus Christ told. The few other sources are mostly translations from Latin and therefore limited in vocabulary.

In the investigation of written sources must also be remembered that they were usually not recorded from Saxony, but of francs or Bavarians, who were probably the Saxon language only limited powerful. Considerably richer is the source location for the Anglo-Saxon countries, such as the Beowulf epic.

Features

The Old Saxon shows numerous ingwäonische features such as the nasal spirant law. This describes the combinations of vowel -nasal spirant lost in later stages of the nasal voice. Unlike the English and Frisian, Low German, however, has added many new Nasal later:

Speech sample

Speech sample from the Heliand; portion corresponding in epic nacherzählender form the opening verses of the second chapter of the Gospel according to Luke:

Tho was fon Rûmuburg rikes man Obar alla thesa irminthiod Octaviânas ban endi bodskepi Obar thea is Bredon giwald cuman fon them kêsure cuningo gihuilicun, hêmsitteandiun sô Wido sô is heritable togon Obar al did landskepi liudio giweldun. Hiet man that alla thea elilendiun you iro odil sôhtin, helidos iro iro hand mahal angegen Herron Bodon, Quami te them cnôsla gihue, Thanan he cunneas what, giboran fon them burgiun. That was gibod gilêstid Obar thesa wîdon werold.

As happened from Rome (that) the dominant man about all this humanity, Octavian, Spell ' and message to the over which he had broad authority, come ( is ) from the emperor, to any kings Prince ( and ) as far as his dukes over all this landscape, the people ruled. ( It said ) that (all) abroad ( living ) people should consult their home, the heroes of their headquarters, their masters soil, despite, everyone would come to the clan, of which he had Ethnicity, to the castle, of which he was born. The commandment was followed this wide world.