Frankish language in shaping Old French
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frankisk),[6][7] also known as Old Franconian or Old
Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul (roughly, present-day France), its speakers
in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance
dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual
country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known in
some languages by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day
Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish
varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the
Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and
Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.[8]
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish
loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 9th to 12th
centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary
record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in
Frankish, or Old Dutch.[9]
Nomenclature
Germanic philology and German studies have their origins in the first half of the 19th
century when Romanticism and Romantic thought heavily influenced the lexicon of the linguists
and philologists of the time, including pivotal figures such as the Brothers Grimm. As a result,
many contemporary linguists tried to incorporate their findings in an already existing historical
framework of "stem duchies" and Altstämme (lit. "old tribes", i.e. the six Germanic tribes then
thought to have formed the "German nation" in the traditional German nationalism of the elites)
resulting in a taxonomy which spoke of "Bavarian", "Saxon", "Frisian", "Thuringian", "Swabian"
and "Frankish" dialects. While this nomenclature became generally accepted in traditional
Germanic philology, it has also been described as "inherently inaccurate" as these ancient ethnic
boundaries (as understood in the 19th century) bore little or limited resemblance to the actual or
historical linguistic situation of the Germanic languages. Among other problems, this traditional
classification of the continental West Germanic dialects can suggest stronger ties between
dialects than is linguistically warranted. The Franconian group is a well known example of this,
with East Franconian being much more closely related to Bavarian dialects than it is to Dutch,
which is traditionally placed in the Low Franconian sub-grouping and with which it was thought
to have had a common, tribal origin.[10]
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old
Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the
High German consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant
shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Low
Franconian not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees.[11] As
a result, the distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old
Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected
and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[12]
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North
Germanic.[13] Their exact relation is difficult to determine, and they remained mutually
intelligible throughout the Migration Period, rendering some individual varieties difficult to
classify.
The language spoken by the Franks was part of the West Germanic language group, which
had features from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West
Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations
not found in North and East Germanic.[14] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally
split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine
Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). While each had its own distinct characteristics, there
certainly must have still been a high degree of mutual intelligibility between these dialects. In
fact, it is unclear whether the West Germanic continuum of this time period, or indeed
Franconian itself, should still be considered a single language or if it should be considered a
collection of similar dialects.[15]
In any case, it appears that the Frankish tribes, or the later Franks, fit primarily into the
Istvaeonic dialect group, with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest (still seen in
modern Dutch), and more Irminonic (High German) influences towards the southeast.
Salian and Ripuarian Franks (3rd century–5th century)
The scholarly consensus concerning the Migration Period is that the Frankish identity
emerged during the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups,
including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii,
Batavi, and Tungri. It is speculated that these tribes originally spoke a range of related Istvaeonic
dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic. Sometime in the 4th or 5th centuries, it
becomes appropriate to speak of Old Franconian rather than an Istvaeonic dialect of Proto-
Germanic.[16]
Gaul
The Franks expanded south into Gaul as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth
century. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old
Franconian expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect.
For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Latin and Franconian). The
language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks
who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the common
Latin of the local population. This Colloquial Latin language acquired the name of the people
who came to speak it (Frankish or Français); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the
language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather
came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language".[20] Urban T. Holmes has proposed
that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in
western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a
spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[22]
German Franconia
Further information: Franconia
The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had
some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the
development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At
the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany,
there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or
second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took
place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably
beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest
written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting
language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most
part did not experience the shift.
Franconian languages
Main article: Franconian languages
The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in
Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern
branches of Franconian languages.
The dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the Low Countries (Old Dutch, also referred
to as Old West Low Franconian) developed into the Dutch language, which itself has a number
of distinct dialects. Afrikaans developed from early Modern Dutch's Hollandic dialect spoken in
the Cape Colony.
The Old East Low Franconian dialects are represented today in Limburgish. Old
Limburgish continued to develop under heavy Low Rhenish and Dutch influence which
gradually made it more mutually intelligible with neighboring varieties[citation needed]. Since the
incorporation of Limburg into the Dutch state in the late 16th century, Limburgish has
experienced heavy influence from Dutch, to the point where the two are today mutually
intelligible to a significant degree[citation needed]. Limburgish itself has a number of dialects.
It is speculated that the dialects originally spoken by the Ripuarian Franks in Germany
possibly developed into, or were subsumed under, the German dialects called the Central
Franconian dialects (Ripuarian Franconian, Moselle Franconian and Rhenish Franconian). These
languages and dialects were later affected by serious language changes (such as the High
German consonant shift), which resulted in the emergence of dialects that are now considered
German dialects. Today, the Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the core territory of the
Ripuarian Franks. Although there may not be definite proof to say that the dialects of the
Ripuarian Franks (about which very little is known) developed into the Central Franconian
dialects, there are—apart from mere probability—some pieces of evidence, most importantly the
development -hs → ss and the loss of n before spirants, which is found throughout Central
Franconian but nowhere else in High German. Compare Luxembourgish Uess ("ox"), Dutch os,
German Ochse; and (dated) Luxembourgish Gaus ("goose"), Old Dutch gās, German Gans. The
language spoken by Charlemagne was probably the dialect that later developed into the
Ripuarian Franconian dialect.[23]
The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighboring France and Germany. The
language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did
not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.
The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the
Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of
Frankfurt and the area of Franconia. The Franks brought their language with them from their
original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages.
However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects
are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even
overwhelmed, by later developments.
