The Frankish Language
The Frankish language, also Old Frankish, was the language of the Franks. Classified as a West Germanic language, it was spoken in Merovingian times, preceding the 7th century. Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day western Germany, eastern and northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The Franks first established themselves in the Netherlands and Flanders before they started to fight their way down south and east. The language had a significant impact on Old French. It evolved into Old Low Franconian in the north and it was replaced step by step by Langue d'oïl in the south.
Old Frankish is not directly attested except in glosses and small phrases. It has been reconstructed from loanwords in Old French and from Old Dutch (see also Comparative method). One known phrase in Old Frankish is found in the Salic law of the early sixth century, and is used to free a serf:
- Maltho thi afrio lito.
- I say to you, I free you, half-free.
Old Low Franconian (also Old Low Frankish) was a group of dialects spoken in the Low countries. It was a daughter language of the Old Frankish language.
Read more about this topic: Low Franconian Languages
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“The reader uses his eyes as well as or instead of his ears and is in every way encouraged to take a more abstract view of the language he sees. The written or printed sentence lends itself to structural analysis as the spoken does not because the reader’s eye can play back and forth over the words, giving him time to divide the sentence into visually appreciated parts and to reflect on the grammatical function.”
—J. David Bolter (b. 1951)