Old Dutch: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Indo-European language}} |
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{{for|the potato chip company|Old Dutch Foods}} |
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{{About|the medieval language|the food manufacturing company|Old Dutch Foods|the restaurant in Rotterdam|Old Dutch (restaurant)}} |
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{{Infobox Language |
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{{Infobox language |
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|name=Old Dutch |
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| name = Old Dutch |
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|familycolor=Indo-European |
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| altname = Old Low Franconian |
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|region=the [[Low Countries]] |
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| nativename = ''*thiudisc'' |
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|extinct=developed into [[Middle Dutch]] by the middle of the 12th century |
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| ethnicity = |
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|iso3=odt |
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| region = The [[Low Countries]] |
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|fam2=[[Germanic languages|Germanic]] |
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| states = [[Holland]], [[Austrasia]], [[Zeeland]] and [[Flanders]] |
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|fam3=[[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] |
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| era = Gradually developed into [[Middle Dutch]] by mid-12th century<ref name="Nederlands vroeger en nu 2005, p. 47-50">Guy Janssens & Ann Marynissen: ''Het Nederlands vroeger en nu'', 2nd ed., Acco, Leuven (België), 2005 (1st ed. 2003), p. 47-50.<!-- As for the dating esp. p. 47: "''Man noemt deze dialecten [...] pas vanaf de 8ste eeuw Oudnederlands [...]. Het eindpunt [...], dat tevens als beginpunt van het Middelnederlands geldt, wordt rond het midden van de 12de eeuw gesitueerd.''" --></ref><ref>Ann Marynissen: ''De lange weg naar een Nederlandse standaardtaal: Een beknopte geschiedenis van de standaardisering van het Nederlands'', in: ''De vele gezichten van het Nederlands in Vlaanderen. Een inleiding tot de variatietaalkunde'', edited by Gert De Sutter, Acco, Leuven / Den Haag, 2017, p. 60-79, here p. 61 ([https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/10770/ online])</ref> |
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|fam4=[[Low Franconian languages|Low Franconian]] |
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| familycolor = Indo-European |
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|script=[[Latin alphabet]]}} |
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| fam2 = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] |
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| fam3 = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] |
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| fam4 = [[Weser–Rhine Germanic]] |
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| ancestor = [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] |
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| ancestor2 = [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] |
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| ancestor3 = [[Frankish language|Frankish]] |
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| iso3 = odt |
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| glotto = oldd1237 |
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| glottorefname = Old Dutch-Old Frankish |
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| glotto2 = oldd1238 |
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| glottorefname2 = Old Dutch |
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| linglist = odt |
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| script = [[Elder Futhark|Runes]], [[Latin script|Latin]] (later) |
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| notice = IPA |
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| map = File:OldDutcharea.png |
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| mapcaption = The areas where the Old Dutch language was spoken |
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}} |
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In linguistics, '''Old Dutch''' ([[Dutch language|Modern Dutch]]: ''{{lang|nl|Oudnederlands}}'') or '''Old Low Franconian''' (Modern Dutch: ''{{lang|nl|Oudnederfrankisch}}'') <ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=M. C.|editor-last1=van den Toorn|editor-first2=W.J.J.|editor-last2=Pijnenburg|editor-last3=van Leuvensteijn|editor-first3=J.A.|editor-last4=van der Horst|editor-first4=J.M.|display-authors=etal|title=Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal|language=nl|date=1997|page=37}} ([https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/toor004gesc01_01/toor004gesc01_01_0006.php dbnl.org]): "''De term Oudnederlands (vanuit een ander perspectief ook wel Oudnederfrankisch genoemd) ...''"</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=G.|last1=Janssens|first2=A.|last2=Marynissen|title=Het Nederlands vroeger en nu|language=nl|edition=2nd|date=2005|pages=38, 54}}</ref> is the set of dialects that evolved from [[Frankish language|Frankish]] spoken in the [[Low Countries]] during the [[Early Middle Ages]], from around the 6th<ref name="15 eeuwen">{{cite book|last1=van der Sijs|first1=Nicoline|title=15 eeuwen Nederlandse taal|language=nl|location=Gorredijk|publisher=Sterck & De Vreese|date=2019}} Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeuw dateren de oudst bekende geschreven woorden en tekstjes in de Lage Landen, waarmee de periode van het oud-Nederlands begint.''" [From the 6th century date the oldest known text from the Low Countries, with which the period of Old Dutch begins.]</ref> or 9th<ref name="Verhaal">{{cite book|last1=De Vries|first1=Jan W.|first2=Roland|last2=Willemyns|first3=Peter|last3=Burger|title=Het verhaal van een taal|language=nl|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Prometheus|date=2003|pages=12, 21–27}} Page 27: "''Aan het einde van de negende eeuw kan er zeker van Nederlands gesproken worden; hoe long daarvoor dat ook het geval was, kan niet met zekerheid worden uitgemaakt.''" [It can be said with certainty that Dutch was being spoken at the end of the 9th century; how long that might have been the case before that cannot be determined with certainty.]</ref> to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.<ref>Webster's New World Dictionary:{{full citation needed|date=March 2023|edition/year?}} Old Dutch</ref> |
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'''Old Dutch''' (aka '''Old West Low Franconian''') is a linguistic term denoting the forms of West Franconian spoken and written during the early [[Middle Ages]] (c. 600 - 1150) in the Netherlands and the northern part of present-day Belgium. Old Dutch is considered the first stage in the development of a separate Dutch language and is succeeded by [[Middle Dutch]] in the later Middle Ages. |
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Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the [[Salian Franks]] who occupied what is now the southern [[Netherlands]], northern [[Belgium]], part of northern France, and parts of the [[Lower Rhine]] regions of Germany. It evolved into [[Middle Dutch]] around the 12th century. The inhabitants of northern Dutch provinces, including [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]], [[Friesland]], and the coast of [[North Holland]], spoke [[Old Frisian]], and some in the east ([[Achterhoek]], [[Overijssel]], and [[Drenthe]]) spoke [[Old Saxon]]. |
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==Distribution== |
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One-time inhabitants of much of present-day [[Netherlands]], northern [[Belgium]], parts of northern France as well as in the Lower Rhine and [[Westphalia]] regions of Germany spoke Old Dutch. |
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==Terminology== |
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One-time inhabitants of present-day Dutch provinces that include [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]], [[Friesland]] and along the coast of [[North Holland]] spoke [[Old Frisian]]. East from here ([[Achterhoek]], [[Overijssel]] and [[Drenthe]]), inhabitants spoke [[Old Saxon]]. |
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Within the field of historical philology, the terminology for the oldest historical phase of the Dutch language traditionally includes both ''Old Dutch'' as well as ''Old Low Franconian''. In English linguistic publications, ''Old Netherlandic'' is occasionally used in addition to the aforementioned terms. |
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''Old Low Franconian'', derives from the linguistic category first devised by the German linguist [[Wilhelm Braune]] (1850–1926), who used the term ''Franconian'' as a [[wastebasket taxon]] for the early West Germanic texts that he could not readily classify as belonging to either [[Low German|Saxon]], [[Alemanic German|Alemannic]] or [[Bavarian language|Bavarian]] and assumed to derive from the [[Old Frankish|language of the Franks]].<ref name="Historisches Lexikon Bayerns"/> He subsequently further divided this new grouping into [[Low Franconian|Low]], [[Central Franconian languages|Middle]] and [[High Franconian German|High Franconian]] based on the absence or presence of the [[Second Germanic consonant shift]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Herbert Augustus |last1=Strong |first2=Kuno |last2=Meyer |title=Outlines of a History of the German language |location=London |publisher=Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey |date=1886 |page=68}}</ref> With the exception of Dutch, modern linguistic research has challenged the [[Historical Linguistics|direct diachronical connection]] to [[Old Frankish]] for most of the varieties grouped under the broader "Franconian" category.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Germanic Languages |first=Wayne Eugene |last=Harbert |location=Cambridge / New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2007 |series=Cambridge Language Surveys |pages=15–17}}</ref><ref name="Historisches Lexikon Bayerns"/> Nevertheless, the traditional terminology of the West Germanic varieties along assumed [[Late Classical]] tribal lines, typical of 19th and early 20th century Germanic linguistics, remains common.<ref name="Historisches Lexikon Bayerns">Alfred Klepsch: ''Fränkische Dialekte,'' published on 19th of October 2009; in: [http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Fränkische_Dialekte Historisches Lexikon Bayerns] (accessed November 21st 2020)</ref> |
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==Linguistic Boundaries== |
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===Relation with Old East Low Franconian {{Anchor|Relation with Old East Low Franconian}}=== <!-- This section is linked from [[Old Frankish]]. --> |
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Within historical linguistics ''Old Low Franconian'' is synonymous with ''Old Dutch''.<ref>Alderik H. Blom: ''Glossing the Psalms: The Emergence of the Written Vernaculars in Western Europe from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries'', Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2017, p. 134-135.</ref><ref>Hans Frede Nielsen: ''The Germanic Languages: Origins and Early Dialectal Interrelations'', University of Alabama Press, 1989, p. 2: "''The earliest extant material in ''Old Low Franconian'' (or ''Old Dutch'') is from the 9th century ...''"</ref> Depending on the author, the temporal boundary between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is either defined by the onset of the [[Second Germanic consonant shift]] in Eastern Frankish, the assimilation of an unattested coastal dialect showing [[North Sea Germanic]]-features by West Frankish during the closing of the [[9th century]],<ref>Michiel de Vaan: ''The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200'', John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017, p. 32 (in chapter 5: ''History of research on the 'Frisian question' in Belgium and the Netherlands'').</ref> or a combination of both. Some linguists use the terms ''Old Low Franconian'' or ''West Frankish'' to specifically refer to the (very sparsely attested) varieties of Old Dutch spoken prior its assimilation of the coastal dialect. |
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Scholars believe that few differences exist between Old Dutch (Old West Low Franconian) and Old East Low Franconian excepting that Old East Low Franconian shares aspects with some [[Central German]]. Scholars suggest that while both predecessor languages contribute to [[Middle Dutch]], Old East Low Franconian does not contribute much to [[Dutch language|standard Dutch]]. |
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Old Dutch itself is further divided into Old West Dutch and Old East Dutch, with the descendants of Old West Dutch forming the dominant basis of the Middle Dutch literary language and Old East Dutch forming a noticeable substrate within the easternmost Dutch dialects, such as [[Limburgish]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} |
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===Relation with Middle Dutch=== |
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[[Image:OldDutcharea.png|thumb|300px|right|Area in which Old Dutch was spoken.]] |
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Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch, with a number of noticeable differences that are comparable to those found in most medieval West Germanic languages. 1150 is often cited as a cut-off point, but this date really marks the beginning of a period of profuse writing in Dutch, where the vernacular dialects are markedly different from Old Dutch. |
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== Origins and characteristics == |
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The biggest difference between Old and Middle Dutch is a feature called vowel reduction. While round vowels occurring in word-final syllables are rather frequent in Old Dutch, in Middle Dutch they spread and levelled into a ''[[schwa]]''. |
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[[File:Historical West Germanic language area.png|350px|thumb|The approximate extent of continental West Germanic languages in the early 10th century:<ref>Map based on: Meineke, Eckhard & Schwerdt, Judith, Einführung in das Althochdeutsche, Paderborn/Zürich 2001, pp. 209.</ref>{{legend|#f5e82b|Old Dutch}} |
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{{legend|#97d17b|[[Old High German]]}} |
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{{legend|#ffd29f|[[Old Frisian]]}} |
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{{legend|#dc99bd|[[Old Saxon]]}} |
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{{legend|#e51b19| Line marking the boundaries of the continental West Germanic dialect continuum}}]] |
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Before the advent of Old Dutch or any of the Germanic languages, [[Proto-Germanic|Germanic dialects]] were [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]]. The [[Ingvaeonic languages|North Sea Germanic]] dialects were spoken in the whole of the coastal parts of the Netherlands and Belgium. [[Old Frisian]] was one of these dialects, and elements of it survived through the [[West Frisian language|Frisian language]], spoken in the province of [[Friesland]] in the North of the Netherlands. In the rest of the coastal region, these dialects were mostly displaced following the withdrawal to [[England]] of the migrating [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], [[Saxons]] and [[Jutes]], who gave rise to Old English. |
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Examples: |
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It was largely replaced by [[Istvaeones|Weser–Rhine Germanic]] dialects, spoken by the [[Salian Franks]]. It spread from northern Belgium and the southern Netherlands to the coast and evolved into Old Dutch. It has, however, a North sea Germanic [[Substratum (linguistics)|substrate]].<ref name="Verhaal" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Willemyns|first1=Roland|title=Dutch: Biography of a Language|date=11 April 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press USA|isbn=9780199858712|pages=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xo2MGkyEfbMC&q=when+started+old+english%2C+old+dutch%2C+old+high+german&pg=PA33|language=en}}</ref> Linguists typically date this transition to around the 5th century.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://taalunieversum.org/inhoud/geschiedenis-van-het-nederlands|title=Geschiedenis van het Nederlands|website=Taalunieversum.org|access-date=2017-08-27|language=nl}}</ref> |
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* [Old Dutch] vog'''a'''l''a'' --> [Middle Dutch] vogele (bird) |
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* [Old Dutch] dag'''o/a''' --> [Middle Dutch] daghe (day) |
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* [Old Dutch] brec'''a'''n --> [Middle Dutch] breken (break) |
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* [Old Dutch] gescriv'''o'''n'''a''' --> [Middle Dutch] ghescreven (written, past tense) |
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===Relation with other West Germanic languages=== |
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A notable difference between Old Dutch and [[Old Frisian]] is the Germanic ''au''. |
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In Old Dutch the Germanic ''au'' became an ''ō'' (/o:/); in Frisian, however, it became an ''ā'' (/a:/). |
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Example: |
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====Central Franconian and Old High German==== |
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The present Dutch village of ''Akersl'''oo'''t'' was spelled ''Ekersl'''a'''t'' in Old Frisian texts. |
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Old Dutch is divided into Old West Low Franconian and Old East Low Franconian ([[Limburgish|Limburgian]]); however, these varieties are very closely related, the divergence being that the latter shares more traits with neighboring historical forms of [[Central Franconian dialects]] such as [[Ripuarian language|Ripuarian]] and [[Moselle Franconian]]. While both forms of Low Franconian were instrumental to the framing of [[Middle Dutch]], Old East Low Franconian did not contribute much to [[Dutch language|Standard Dutch]], which is based on the consolidated [[Hollandic dialect|dialects of Holland]] and [[Brabantian dialect|Brabant]]. |
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During the [[Merovingian Dynasty|Merovingian]] period, the Central Franconian dialects were influenced by Old Low Franconian (Old Dutch), resulting in certain linguistic loans which yielded a slight overlap of vocabulary, most of which relates to [[warfare]]. In addition is the subsumption of the [[High German consonant shift]], a set of phonological changes beginning around the 5th or 6th century that partially influenced Old Dutch, and extensively influenced Central Franconian and other [[Old High German]] dialects. |
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===Differences with Old High German=== |
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The main difference between the Western [[Old High German]] dialects, which were influenced by Frankish, the direct ancestor of Old Dutch, and Old Dutch is the latter’s lack of participation in the [[High German consonant shift]]. Because of this Old Dutch was closer to the original Frankish and its area can be seen as a remnant from which High Franconian has split off. There was still a [[dialect continuum]] though. |
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====Old Saxon, Old English and Old Frisian==== |
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[[Old English]], [[Old Frisian]] and (to a lesser degree) [[Old Saxon]] share the application of the [[Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law]]. Old Dutch was considerably less affected than those other three languages, but a dialect continuum formed/existed between Old Dutch, Old Saxon and Old Frisian. Despite sharing some particular features, a number of disparities separate Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old English and Old Dutch. One such difference is that Old Dutch used ''-a'' as its plural a-stem noun ending, while Old Saxon and Old English employed ''-as'' or ''-os''. Much of the grammatical variation between Old Dutch and Old Saxon is similar to that between Old Dutch and Old High German. |
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It is also found that Old Dutch had lost the dual number for its pronouns, unlike Old English, which used {{lang|ang|wit}} to refer to "the two of us". Old Dutch would have used {{lang|odt|we}} both to refer to that and to refer to many more people in the "us" group, much like Modern Dutch and English. |
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*The Germanic sound ''hl'' (''chl'') at the beginning of a word was preserved in Old Saxon and Old English but changed to ''l'' in Old Dutch. |
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*Old Saxon and Old English verbs have the same verb ending in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person plural while Old Dutch has three different verb endings, namely: ''-on'', ''-et'' and ''-unt''. |
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*The Germanic ''ō'' (/o:/) became a diphthong in Old Dutch while Old Saxon and Old English kept the Germanic ''ō'', this resulted in Old Dutch ''fluot'' versus Old Saxon ''flōd''. |
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*In Old Saxon and Old English plural noun endings are often ''-as'' or ''-os'' whereas Old Dutch mostly uses ''-a''. |
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*Old Dutch experienced "[[final obstruent devoicing]]" much earlier than Old Saxon. For example: Old Dutch ''fluo'''t''''' versus Old Saxon ''flō'''d'''''. |
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===Relation to Middle Dutch=== |
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Old Dutch naturally evolved into [[Middle Dutch]] with some distinctions that approximate those found in most medieval West Germanic languages. The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse [[Medieval Dutch literature|Dutch writing]] whose language is patently different from Old Dutch. |
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It should be emphasized however that the other groups did not form a unity against this Low Franconian and other German dialect groups; the present situation where the continental West Germanic dialects all use [[German language|German]] as their standard with the only true exception being the area using [[standard Dutch]], cannot be correctly projected into the past, a past having no standards and in which it was still unclear which would develop and what their range would be. |
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The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is [[vowel reduction]]. Back vowels (''a'', ''o'') in non-stressed syllables are rather frequent in Old Dutch, but in Middle Dutch, they are reduced to a [[schwa]]: |
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==Surviving texts== |
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Old Dutch texts are extremely rare, and much more limited when compared to related languages like [[Old English]] and [[Old High German]]. Most of the earliest texts written in the Netherlands were written in [[Latin]] rather than Old Dutch. Some of these Latin texts however contained Old Dutch words interspersed with the Latin text. Also, it is extremely hard to determine whether a text actually is written in Old Dutch as the [[Germanic dialects]] spoken at that time were much more closely related. |
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:{| class="wikitable" |
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===Some larger texts=== |
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|- |
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====The Wachtendonck Psalms==== |
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! Old Dutch !! Middle Dutch !! English |
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The ''Wachtendonck Psalms'' are a number of [[psalm]]s written in Latin and an eastern variety of Old Franconian. It is unclear whether the dialect is Old [[Limburgish language|Limburgish]] or a variety of [[Rhine Franconian]]. [[:nl:s:Wachtendonkse Psalmen|Very little]] remains of them. The psalms were named after a manuscript which has not come down to us, but out of which scholars believe the surviving fragments must have been copied. This manuscript was once owned by [[Canon (priest)|Canon]] Arnold Wachtendonck. The surviving fragments are handwritten copies made by the Renaissance scholar [[Justus Lipsius]] in the sixteenth century. Lipsius made a number of separate copies of apparently the same material and these versions do not always agree. In addition, scholars conclude that the numerous errors and inconsistencies in the fragments point not only to some carelessness or inattentiveness by the Renaissance scholars but also to errors in the now lost manuscript out of which the material was copied. The language of the Psalms suggests that they were originally written in the 10th century. A number of editions exist, among others by the 19th-century Dutch philologist [[Willem Lodewijk van Helten]] and, more recently, the diplomatic edition by the American historical linguist [[Robert L. Kyes]] (1969) and the critical edition by the Dutch philologist Arend Quak (1981). As might be expected from an interlinear translation, the word order of the Old Franconian text follows that of the Latin original very closely. |
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|- |
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| ''vog'''a'''l'''a''''' || ''vog'''e'''l'''e''''' || bird (fowl) |
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|- |
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| ''dag'''a''''' / ''dag'''o''''' || ''dagh'''e''''' || days (nominative/genitive) |
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|- |
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| ''brec'''a'''n'' || ''brek'''e'''n'' || to break |
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|- |
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| ''gescriv'''o'''n'''a''''' || ''ghescrev'''e'''n'' || written (past participle) |
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|} |
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The following is a translation of [[Psalm 55]]:18, taken from the [[Wachtendonck Psalms]]; it shows the evolution of Dutch, from the original Old Dutch, written {{circa}} 900, to modern Dutch, but so accurately copies the [[Latin]] [[word order]] of the original that there is little information that can be garnered on Old Dutch [[syntax]]. In Modern Dutch, recasting is necessary to form a coherent sentence. |
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====The Leiden Willeram==== |
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:{| class="wikitable" |
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The ''Leiden Willeram'' is the name given to a manuscript containing a Low Franconian version of the Old High German commentary on [[Song of Solomon]] by the German abbot [[Williram]] (ultimately by [[Isidore of Seville]]). Until recently, based on its orthography and phonology the text of this manuscript was believed by most scholars to be Middle Franconian, that is Old High German, with some Limburgic or otherwise Franconian admixtures. But in 1974, the German philologist [[Willy Sanders]] proved in his study ''Der Leidener Willeram'' that the text actually represents an imperfect attempt by a scribe from the northwestern coastal area of the Low Countries to translate the [[East Franconian]] original into his local vernacular. The text contains many Old Dutch words not known in Old High German, as well as mistranslated words caused by the scribe's unfamiliarity with some Old High German words in the original he translated, and a confused orthography heavily influenced by the Old High German original. For instance, the grapheme <z> is used after the High German tradition where it represents Germanic ''t'' shifted to /ts/. Sanders also proved that the manuscript, now in the University Library of [[Leiden University]], was written at the end of the 11th century in the Abbey of [[Egmond]] in modern North Holland, whence the manuscript's other name ''Egmond Willeram''. |
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|- |
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! Old Dutch |
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| ''Irlōsin sal an frithe sēla mīna fan thēn thia ginācont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi.'' |
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|- |
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! Middle Dutch |
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| ''Erlosen sal hi in vrede siele mine van dien die genaken mi, want onder menegen hi was met mi.'' |
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|- |
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! Modern Dutch (with old word order) |
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| ''Verlossen zal hij in vrede ziel mijn van zij die aanvallen mij, want onder velen hij was met mij.'' |
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|- |
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! Modern Dutch (with new word order) |
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| ''Hij zal mijn ziel verlossen in vrede van hen die mij aanvallen, want onder velen was hij met mij.'' |
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|- |
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! English |
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| He will deliver my soul in peace from those who attack me, for, amongst many, he was with me. |
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|} |
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==Surviving texts== |
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====The Rhinelandic Rhymebible==== |
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[[File:Old Dutch manuscripts discoveries.png|300px|thumb|Discoveries of Old Dutch texts.<br>1. [[Bergakker]] [[Bergakker inscription|inscription]]<br>2. [[Doornik]] (birthplace of [[Clovis I]]): [[Salic law]]<br>3. [[Utrecht]] [[Utrecht Baptismal Vow|Baptismal Vow]]<br>4. [[Munsterbilzen]]: [[Wachtendonck Psalms]]<br>5. [[Egmond Abbey|Egmond]] [[Leiden Willeram|Willeram]]<br>6. [[West Flanders]]: [[Hebban olla vogala]]<br>7. [[Werden]]: [[Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible]]]] |
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An other important source for Old Dutch is the Rhinelandic Rhymebible (Dutch: ''Rijnlandse Rijmbijbel'' and German: ''Rheinische Reimbibel''). This is an in Old Dutch written rhymebible which was written in the 12th century in the [[Rhineland]] (Germany). Most likely it was written in the [[Abby of Werden]] and was passed down in various fragments. In German this rhymebible is also called "Mittelfränkische Reimbibel". The Rhinelandic Rhymebible shows a mixure of Old Dutch (Low-Franconian) and [[Rhine-Franconian]] elements. |
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Old Dutch texts are extremely rare and much more limited than for related languages like [[Old English]] and [[Old High German]]. Most of the earliest texts written in the Netherlands were written in [[Latin]], rather than Old Dutch. Some of the Latin texts, however, contained Old Dutch words interspersed with the Latin text. Also, it is hard to determine whether a text actually was written in Old Dutch, as the [[Germanic languages]] spoken at that time were not standardised and were much more similar to one another. |
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===Oldest word (108)=== |
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Several words that are known to have developed in the Netherlands before Old Dutch was spoken have been found, and they are sometimes called {{lang|nl|Oudnederlands}} (English: "Old Netherlandic" or "Old Dutch") in a geographic sense. The oldest known example, {{lang|gem|[[wikt:wad#Dutch|wad]]}} 'mudflat', is already mentioned {{circa|107–108 AD}} in [[Tacitus]]' ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'' (Book 5), in Latinised form as ''vadam'' (acc. sg.), as the name of a village, ''Vada'', probably reflecting Early Germanic ''*wada''. The word exclusively referred to the region and ground type that is now known as the [[Wadden Sea]]. However, since the word existed long before Old Dutch did (and even before its parent language, [[Frankish language|Frankish]]), it cannot be considered part of the vocabulary of Old Dutch but rather of [[Proto-Germanic]]. |
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*[[Gloss]]es |
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*Place names |
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*Personal names |
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===Bergakker inscription (425–450)=== |
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==Older Sentences== |
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{{Main article|Bergakker inscription}} |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|Haþuþȳwas. Ann kusjam logūns.}}</blockquote> |
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[[File:Bergakker runes.png|thumb|The Elder Futhark runes from the 5th-century Bergakker inscription, found in Netherlands.]] |
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This sentence has been interpreted as "Haþuþyw's. I/He grant(s) a flame (i.e. brand, sword) to the select". It was discovered on a [[Bergakker inscription|sword sheath mounting]], excavated in 1996 in the Dutch village of [[Bergakker]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mees |first=Bernard |editor-last1=Langbroek |editor-first1=Erika |editor-last2=Quak |editor-first2=Arend |editor-last3=Roeleveld |editor-first3=Annelies |editor-last4=Vermeyden |editor-first4=Paula |contribution=The Bergakker Inscription and the Beginnings of Dutch |title=Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik |publisher=Rodopi |location=Amsterdam – New York, NY |date=2002 |pages=23–26 |volume=56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W91nBn0l96wC |isbn=90-420-1579-9}}</ref> and is perhaps better described as [[Frankish language|Frankish]] than Old Dutch (Frankish was the direct parent language of Old Dutch).<ref>{{cite book|editor1-first=William W. |editor1-last=Kibler |editor2-first=Grover A. |editor2-last=Zinn|title=Medieval France: an encyclopedia|date=1995|publisher=Garland|location=New York|isbn=0824044444|pages=703|edition=2nd}}</ref> The text however, shows the beginning of Old Dutch morphology. The word ''ann'', found in the partially-translated inscription is coined as the oldest Dutch by linguists Nicoline van der Sijs and Tanneke Schoonheim from {{lang|nl|[[Genootschap Onze Taal]]|italic=no}}. They attribute that word to the ancestor of the modern Dutch verb root ''[[wikt:gunnen#Dutch|gun]]'', through the addition of the prefix [[wikt:ge-#Dutch|''ge-'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kennislink.nl/publicaties/meer-dan-hebban-olla-uogala|title=Meer dan hebban olla uogala|language=nl}} (Auteurs: Nicoline van der Sijs en Tanneke Schoonheim | 6 juni 2007)</ref> (An English [[cognate (etymology)|cognate]] probably survives in ''[[wikt:own#English|to own (up)]]'' in the sense of 'to acknowledge, concede'.) Its modern meaning is roughly "to think someone deserves something, to derive satisfaction from someone else's success", and it is commonly translated as "grant" or "bestow". |
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=== Salic Law (6th century) === |
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An earlier sentence of what could be considered Old Dutch comes from the "[[Lex salica]]", written in the early 6th century: |
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{{Main article|Lex Salica}} |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|Maltho thi afrio lito}}</blockquote> |
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[[Gloss (annotation)|Glosses]] to the Salic law code (the ''[[Salic law#Malberg glosses|Malberg glosses]]'') contain several Old Dutch words and this full sentence written in the early 6th century, which is likely the earliest in the language. It translates as "I tell you: I am setting you free, serve". The phrase was used to free a [[serf]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Dutch: Biography of a Language|last=Willemyns|first=Roland|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-932366-1|page=41}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBu9lOijWYcC&q=Maltho+thi+afrio+lito&pg=PA41|title=Dutch: Biography of a Language|first=Roland|last=Willemyns|date=15 March 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199323661|access-date=26 August 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> A ''lito'' (English: ''half-free'') was a form of serf in the [[feudal system]], a half-free farmer, who was connected to the land of the lord for whom he worked but not owned by that lord. In contrast, a slave was fully owned by the lord. The Old Dutch word and the Modern Dutch counterpart ''laat'' are both etymologically and in meaning undoubtedly related to the verb root ''laat'' (English: 'let go', 'release'), which may indicate the fairly free status of such person in relation to that a slave. The Old Dutch word ''lito'' is particularly recognisable in the verb's past tense ''lieten''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/laat2 |title=Etymologiebank.nl |access-date=2017-02-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827051320/http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/laat2 |archive-date=2017-08-27 }}</ref> |
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=== Utrecht Baptismal Vow (8th century) === |
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"Maltho thi afrio lito" |
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{{Main article|Utrecht Baptismal Vow}} |
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('I say, I free you, half-free') |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|End ec forsacho allum dioboles uuercum and uuordum, Thunær ende Uuôden ende Saxnôte ende allum thêm unholdum thê hira genôtas sint.}}</blockquote> |
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The ''Utrecht Baptismal Vow'', or ''Old Saxon Baptismal Vow'', is a 9th-century [[Baptismal vows|baptismal vow]] that was found in a monastery library in the German city of [[Mainz]] but was written in the Dutch city of [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]]. The sentence translates as "And I renounce all the deeds and words of the devil, Thunear, Wōden and Saxnōt, and all those fiends that are their companions". It mentions three [[Germanic paganism|Germanic pagan]] gods of the early [[Saxons]] which the reader is to forsake: Uuôden ("[[Woden]]"), [[Thor|Thunaer]] and [[Saxnōt]]. Scholar [[Rudolf Simek]] comments that the vow is of particular interest because it is the sole instance of the god Saxnōt mentioned in a religious context. One of many baptismal vows, it is now archived in the [[Holy See|Vatican]] Codex pal. 577.<ref name="SIMEK276">Simek, p.276.{{full citation needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> Sometimes interpreteted as Old Saxon, a number of Dutch scholars have concluded the Baptismal Vow was actually written in the 8th century in Old Dutch.<ref>{{cite book |first=N. |last=Van der Sijs |title=Calendarium van de Nederlandse Taal |date=2006 |language=nl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.grupello.de/dateien/C018.pdf |author=Marco Mostert |title=Utrecht zwischen York und Fulda |work=Ulrike Zellmann, Angelika Lehmann-Benz, Urban Küsters (eds.): "»Wider den Müßiggang ...«: Niederländisches Mittelalter im Spiegel von Kunst, Kult und Politik", 2004, p. 21ff. |language=de |access-date=2017-02-01 |archive-date=2012-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920070458/http://www.grupello.de/dateien/C018.pdf |url-status=dead}} "''Aus dem kodikologischen Kontext und aus der Geschichte des mit der Handschrift verbundenen Bonifatiusklosters Fulda ist zu schließen, daß Utrecht – auch wenn die sprachliche Argumentation an sich ungenügend ist, um die Texte dem kleinen Kloster zuzuschreiben – die beste Kandidatur für die Autorschaft besitzt. Die monastische Schriftkultur ist also in den nördlichen Niederlanden im 8. Jahrhundert seßhaft geworden.''"</ref> The difficulty in establishing whether the text was written in Old Saxon or Old Franconian is that those languages were very much alike. |
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This phrase was used to free a [[serfdom|serf]]. Apart from this the Lex Salica also contains a number of loose words. |
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=== The Wachtendonck Psalms (10th century) === |
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In 1996 an even older (425-450) sentence was discovered [[Old_Frankish#The_sword_sheath_of_Bergakker|on the sword sheath of Bergakker]] that is perhaps better described as [[Old Frankish]] than Old Dutch. Given the paucity of the remains of either, the demarcation between the two is hard to make although often a date of 800-900 is given for the transition. In that case both the Lex Salica and the Bergakker find should be considered Old Frankish. |
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{{Main article|Wachtendonck Psalms}} |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|Irlôsin sol an frithe sêla mîna fan thên thia ginâcont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi}}</blockquote> |
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The ''Wachtendonck Psalms'' are a collection of Latin [[psalm]]s, with a translation in an eastern variety of Old Dutch (Old East Low Franconian) which contains a number of Old High German elements.<ref>{{cite book |first=M. C. |last=Van den Toorn |display-authors=et al |title=Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal |date=1997 |page=41}} With reference to Gysseling 1980;{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}} Quak 1981;{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}} De Grauwe 1979, 1982.{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}}</ref> The example sentence above translates as "He will deliver my soul in peace from those who attack me, for, amongst many, he was with me." Probably based on a Central Franconian original, very little remains of the psalms. They were named after a manuscript that has not survived but was the source from which scholars believe the surviving fragments must have been copied. The manuscript was once owned by Canon Arnold Wachtendonck. The surviving fragments are handwritten copies made by the Renaissance scholar [[Justus Lipsius]] in the sixteenth century. Lipsius made a number of separate copies of what appeared to be the same material, but the versions do not always agree. In addition, scholars conclude that the numerous errors and inconsistencies in the fragments point not only to some carelessness or inattentiveness by the Renaissance scholars but also to errors in the now-lost manuscript out of which the material was copied. The language of the Psalms suggests that they were originally written in the 10th century. |
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==The |
=== The Leiden Willeram (1100) === |
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{{Main article|Leiden Willeram}} |
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{{main|Hebban olla vogala}} |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|Thes naghtes an minemo beddo vortheroda ich minen wino. Ich vortheroda hine ande ne vand sin niet.}}</blockquote> |
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<blockquote> |
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This example sentence taken from the ''Leiden Willeram'' translates as "All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him". The manuscript, now in the library of the [[Leiden University]] in the Netherlands, contains an Old Dutch translation of an Old High German (East Franconian) commentary on [[Song of Solomon]], written by the German abbot [[Williram of Ebersberg]]. The translation was done by a monk of the [[Egmond Abbey|Abbey of Egmond]], and so the manuscript's other name is ''Egmond Willeram''. The text represents an imperfect attempt to translate the original into the local Old Dutch vernacular. The text contains many Old Dutch words as well as mistranslated words since the scribe must have been unfamiliar with some Old High German words in the original. It could nevertheless be regarded as the first book written in Old Dutch. However, since the book never left the abbey, it cannot be regarded as the start of a Dutch literature and did not influence later works. |
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''Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic''<br> |
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''enda thu uuat unbidan uue nu.'' |
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</blockquote> |
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Arguably, the most famous text containing "Old Dutch" is: ''Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu'' ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), dating around the year 1100, written by a Flemish [[monk]] in a [[convent]] in [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], [[England]]. For a long time this sentence was considered to be the earliest in Dutch. However according to professor Luc de Grauwe the text could equally well be [[Old English]], more specifically Old Kentish, which would make some sense considering it was written in England. However, there doesn't seem to be a general consensus on this matter. It should also be noted that Old (West) Dutch and Old English were very similar. |
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<ref>[http://www.vandale.nl/nieuws/taalnieuws/83023 'Olla vogala' is Engels]<br> |
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[http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=GHK9U8HC 'Olla Vogala' nog even in woordenboek]<br> |
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[http://www.inl.nl/onw/literatuur-vogala.html Hebban olla uogala]</ref> |
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=== Hebban olla vogala (1100) === |
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==Spelling== |
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{{Main article|Hebban olla vogala}} |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu, uuat unbidan uue nu.}}</blockquote> |
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Arguably the most famous text containing Old Dutch, the fragment is translated as "All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for?" The text is dated from around 1100 and written by a West Flemish monk in a convent in [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], [[England]]. For a long time, the sentence was commonly but erroneously considered to be the earliest in Dutch.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=GHK9U8HC |title='Olla Vogala' nog even in woordenboek |website=Standaard.be |date=2 November 2004 |access-date=2017-08-26 |language=nl}}</ref><ref name="auto"/> However, it could be considered the oldest Dutch non-religious poetry. The text is usually considered a [[West Flemish]] dialect,<ref>{{cite journal |first=M. |last=Schönfeld |title=Een Oudnederlandsche zin uit de elfde eeuw (met reproduktie) |journal=Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde |volume=52 |date=1933 |pages=1–8}}</ref> but certain [[Ingvaeonic]] forms might be expected in any of the coastal dialects of Old English, Old Frisian, Old Saxon or Old Dutch. However, the ''-n'' of the third-person plural ''hebban'', which is absent in both Old English and Frisian, identifies the language as Old Dutch ([[Old High German]] ''habent'' uses a different stem). ''Hagunnan'' and ''hi(c)'' have a [[prothesis (linguistics)|prothetic]] ''h'', which points also to West Flemish in which the ''h'' was frequently dropped or, in the written language, added before vowels (compare ''abent'' in the Latin version). However, it has been postulated that the text could equally well be [[Old English]], more specifically [[Kentish dialect (Old English)|Old Kentish]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Luc |last=De Grauwe |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_tij003200401_01/_tij003200401_01_0004.php |title=Zijn ''olla vogala'' Vlaams, of zit de Nederlandse filologie met een koekoeksei in (haar) nest(en)? |journal=Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde |language=nl |volume=120 |date=2004 |pages=44–56}}</ref> |
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=== The Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible (12th century) === |
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Old Dutch was spelled using the Latin alphabet. Because the missionaries in the region now known as the Low Countries were mostly from the Old English and Old High German speaking areas, one can spot some Old English and Old High German elements, which were never present in the spoken language of the native speakers. |
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{{Main article|Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible}} |
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<blockquote>{{lang|odt|nu saget mir einen kuning other greven, the an uren got wille gelouven, that se sagent, that ist gelogen, thes ist thaz arme volc bedrogen.}}</blockquote> |
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Translated as "Mention one king or earl who wants to believe in their god, what they say is a lie, that's how the people are being deceived", this fragment comes from an important source for Old Dutch: the Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible (Dutch: {{lang|nl|Rijnlandse Rijmbijbel}}; German: {{lang|de|Rheinische Reimbibel}}). The verse translation of biblical histories is attested only in a series of fragments from different writers. It contains Old Dutch (Low Franconian), Low German (Low Saxon) and High German (Rhine-Franconian) elements.<ref>{{cite book |first=David A. |last=Wells |title=The "Central Franconian Rhyming Bible" ("Mittelfränkische Reimbibel"): An early-twelfth-century German verse homiliary |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Rodopi |date=2004}}</ref> It was likely composed in the northwest of Germany in the early 12th century, possibly in [[Werden Abbey]], near [[Essen]]. |
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==Phonology== |
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*''th'' is used to indicate the Germanic ''þ''-sound.(''th'' in three) |
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Example: ''thāhton'' ("dachten"). |
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===Early sound developments=== |
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*''dh'' is used for the ''ð''-sound.(''th'' in this) |
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Phonologically, Old Dutch stands in between [[Old Saxon]] and [[Old High German]], sharing some innovations with the latter, and others with the former. |
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;Characteristics shared with Old Saxon: |
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*''c'' is often used for a ''k''-sound if the beginning of a word contains a velar (back) vowel. |
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Example: ''cuning'' (Modern Dutch "koning", meaning "king"). In front of palatal (front) vowels the earlier texts (especially names in Latin deeds and charters) used ''ch''. By the later tenth century, the newer letter ''k'' (which was rarely used in Latin) was starting to replace this spelling. Example: ''kēron'' (Modern Dutch "keren", meaning "to turn"). It is not exactly clear how ''c'' was pronounced in Old Dutch. In Latin orthography ''c'' in front of front vowels stood for an assibilated sound {{IPA|ts}}; it is quite likely that early Dutch had a similar pronunciation. The spellings ''ch'' and ''k'' both stood for the regular velar [[plosive]]. In later texts the consistent distinction between ''c'' and ''ch/k'' starts to break down. |
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* The Old Germanic diphthongs ''ai'' and ''au'' become the long vowels ''ē'' and ''ō''. Examples: ''hēm'', ''slōt''. There are, however, several examples that show that a diphthong ''ei'' remained in some cases. |
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*''u'' represented the vowel ''u'' and consonant ''v''. |
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* Loss of Proto-Germanic ''z'' word-finally in single-syllable words, e.g. ''thi'' vs Old High German ''thir''/''dir'' < PG ''*þiz'' (dative of the second-person singular pronoun). |
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Example: ''uusso'' ("foxes", genitive plural). |
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In this example the first ''u'' represents the consonant ''v'' and the second one the vowel ''u''. |
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The ''w''-sound was normally represented as ''uu'' as the letter w didn't exist yet. |
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;Characteristics shared with Old High German: |
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*''g'' was pronounced likely as a [[stop]] {{IPA|/ɡ/}} only after nasals (e.g. brengan) and when geminated (e.g. segghan); otherwise, was most likely a [[fricative]] {{IPA|/ɣ/}} as in modern Dutch. |
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This is based on the change between ''weh'' (Modern Dutch "weg", meaning "way" accusative) and ''wege'' ("way", dative). |
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* The West Germanic ''ō'' ({{IPA|/oː/}}) and ''ē'' ({{IPA|/eː/}}, from Proto-Germanic ''ē<sup>2</sup>'') become diphthongs ''uo'' and ''ie'' in stressed syllables. Old Dutch ''fluot'' versus Old Saxon ''flōd'', Old Dutch ''hier'' versus Old Saxon ''hēr''. |
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*''h'' represents an ''h''-sound (close to {{IPA|h}}) and a ''ch''-sound (close to {{IPA|χ}} or {{IPA|ç}}). |
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* The ''h''-sound in consonant clusters at the beginning of a word disappears around the 9th century while it is retained in the northern languages. Examples include Old Dutch ''ringis'' ("ring", genitive), Old High German ''ring'' versus Old Saxon and Old English ''hring'', or ''ros'' ("steed") versus Old English ''hros'' ("horse"). |
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Examples: ''holto'' (Modern Dutch "hout" - wood-), ''naht'' (Modern Dutch "nacht" -night-). |
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* ''j'' is lost when following two consonants, with ''-jan'' becoming ''-en''. It is most prominent in ja- and jō-stem nouns and adjectives, and in verbs of the first weak class. |
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;Characteristics not shared with either Old Saxon or Old High German: |
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*''i'' is used for both the vowel ''i'' and the consonant ''j''. |
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Examples: ''witton'' (Modern Dutch "weten" - to know-), ''iār'' (Modern Dutch "jaar" - year-). |
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* [[Final obstruent devoicing]]. This later spread to the other Germanic dialects (as well as several [[Romance languages]] such as [[Old French]] and [[Old Occitan]]). |
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*''qu'' always represents a ''kw''-sound. |
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* ''h'' disappears between vowels (shared with the [[Anglo-Frisian languages]]). Old Dutch ''thion'', Old English ''þēon'' versus Old High German ''dîhan'', or Old Dutch ''(ge)sian'', Old English ''sēon'' versus Old High German ''sehan''. (The ''h'' in modern German ''sehen'' {{IPA|/ˈzeː.ən/}} became mute only in later stages of German.) |
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Example: ''quāmon'' vs. modern Dutch ''kwamen'' ("they came"). |
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* The sound combination ''hs'' ({{IPA|/xs/}}) becomes a geminated ''ss''. Example: Old Dutch ''vusso'' versus Old Saxon ''fohs'', Old High German ''fuhs''. (A development shared by the [[Middle Franconian]] dialects of High German: compare [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]] ''Fuuss''. The Anglo-Frisian languages instead shift ''hs'' to ''ks'': compare Old English ''fox'', [[Old Frisian]] ''foks''.) |
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===Consonants=== |
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*''z'' rarely appears and when it does, it's pronounced {{IPA|ts}}. |
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The table below lists the consonantal phonemes of Old Dutch. For descriptions of the sounds and definitions of the terms, follow the links on the headings. |
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Example: ''quezzodos'' vs. modern Dutch ''kwetsen'' ("to hurt") (infinitive). |
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{|class="wikitable" style=text-align:center |
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The length of a vowel was not represented in writing, probably because the monks, who were the ones capable of writing and teaching how to write, tended to base the written language on Latin which also does not make a distinction in writing. |
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|+ Old Dutch consonant phonemes |
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Examples: |
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!colspan=3| |
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Example: ''dag'' ("day", short vowel), ''thahton'' ("they thought", long vowel). |
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! [[Labial consonant|Labial]] |
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! [[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br/>[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] |
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! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]] |
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! [[Velar consonant|Velar]] |
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! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]] |
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|- |
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!colspan=3| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]] |
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| {{IPA link|m}} |
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| {{IPA link|n}} |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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|- |
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!rowspan=2 colspan=2|[[Plosive consonant|Plosive]] |
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!{{small|[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]}} |
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| {{IPA link|p}} |
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| {{IPA link|t}} |
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| |
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| {{IPA link|k}} |
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| |
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|- |
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!{{small|[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}} |
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| {{IPA link|b}} |
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| {{IPA link|d}} |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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|- |
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!rowspan=3|[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]] |
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!{{small|[[sibilant]]}} |
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!rowspan=2|{{small|[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]}} |
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| |
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| {{IPA link|s}} |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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|- |
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!rowspan=2|{{small|non-sibilant}} |
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| {{IPA link|f}} |
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| {{IPA link|θ}} |
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| |
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| |
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| {{IPA link|h}} |
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|- |
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!{{small|[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}} |
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| {{IPA link|v}} |
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| |
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| |
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| {{IPA link|ɣ}} |
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| |
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|- |
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!colspan=3| [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]] |
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| |
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| {{IPA link|l}} |
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| {{IPA link|j}} |
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| {{IPA link|w}} |
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| |
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|- |
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!colspan=3| [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]] |
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| |
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| {{IPA link|r}} |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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|} |
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Notes: |
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Later on, the long vowels were sometimes marked with a [[macron|horizontal line (macron)]] to indicate a long vowel: ''ā''. In some texts long vowels were indicated by simply doubling the vowel in question: |
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* {{IPA|/m, p, b/}} were most likely [[Bilabial consonant|bilabial]] whereas {{IPA|/f, v/}} were most likely [[Labiodental consonant|labiodental]]. |
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Examples: ''Heembeke'', and the given name ''Oodhelmus'' (both from deeds, written in 941 and 797 respectively). |
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* {{IPA|/n, t, d, s, l/}} could have been either dental {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|n̪}}, {{IPAplink|t̪}}, {{IPAplink|d̪}}, {{IPAplink|s̪}}, {{IPAplink|l̪}}]}} or alveolar {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|n|n͇}}, {{IPAplink|t|t͇}}, {{IPAplink|d|d͇}}, {{IPAplink|s|s͇}}, {{IPAplink|l|l͇}}]}}. |
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===Translation of Old Dutch sentence in Middle and Contemporary Dutch=== |
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** {{IPA|/n/}} had a velar allophone {{IPAblink|ŋ}} when it occurred before the velars {{IPA|/k, ɣ/}}. |
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A translation of the following sentence from the "Wachtendonck Psalms" in Middle Dutch and Modern Dutch offers an evolutionary view of the Dutch language starting with an Old Dutch sentence written around 900 and ending with the modern Dutch language. The sample preserves the word order of the original Latin and therefore provides little information on Old Dutch syntaxis. To form a coherent sentence in contemporary Dutch, at least, rearrangement is necessary. |
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** {{IPA|/l/}} had a velarised allophone {{IPAblink|ɫ}} between a back vowel and {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}}. It might have also been used in other environments, as it is the case in Modern Dutch. |
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====Old Dutch==== |
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* {{IPA|/θ/}} was likely [[Dental consonant|dental]] {{IPAblink|θ|θ̪}}, but it could have also been alveolar {{IPAblink|θ̠|θ͇}}, as it is the case in Modern Icelandic. |
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:"''Irlôsin sol an frithe sêla mîna fan thên thia ginâcont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi.''" |
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* {{IPA|/r/}} was most likely [[Alveolar consonant|alveolar]], either a [[Trill consonant|trill]] {{IPAblink|r|r͇}} or a [[Tap consonant|tap]] {{IPAblink|ɾ|ɾ͇}}. |
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====Middle Dutch==== |
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* Most consonants could be [[Gemination|geminated]]. Notably, geminated {{IPA|/v/}} gave {{IPA|[bb]}}, and geminated {{IPA|/ɣ/}} probably gave {{IPA|[ɡɡ]}}. Geminated {{IPA|/h/}} resulted in {{IPA|[xx]}}. |
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:"''Erlosen sal hi in vrede siele mine van dien die genaken mi, want onder menegen hi was met mi''" |
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* In the course of the Old Dutch period the voiceless spirants {{IPA|/f, θ, s/}} gained voiced allophones {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|v}}, {{IPAplink|ð}}, {{IPAplink|z}}]}} when positioned at the beginning of a syllable. The change is faithfully reflected for {{IPA|[v]}}, the other two allophones continuing to be written as before. In the Wachtendonck Psalms, it is very rare, but much later, it can be seen in the spelling of Dutch toponyms. Thus, the sound change was taking place during the 10th and 11th century. |
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====Modern Dutch==== |
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* {{IPA|/v/}} also occurred word-medially as an independent phoneme, developed from Proto-Germanic {{IPA|[β]}}, the fricative allophone of {{IPA|/b/}}. |
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* After {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/ɣ/}} was realized as a plosive {{IPAblink|ɡ}}. |
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* Postvocalic {{IPA|/h/}} was realized as velar {{IPAblink|x}}. |
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====Final-obstruent devoicing==== |
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('''Using same word order''') |
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[[Final-obstruent devoicing]] of Proto-Germanic {{IPA|[β]}} to {{IPA|[f]}} occurred across the West Germanic languages, and thus also in Old Dutch. Old Dutch spelling also reveals final devoicing of other consonants, namely: |
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:"''Verlossen zal hij in vrede ziel mijn van zij die genaken mij, want onder menigen hij was met mij''" |
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* {{IPA|[d]}} > {{IPA|[t]}}: ''wort'' ("word", nominative) versus ''wordes'' (genitive) |
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('''Using correct contemporary Dutch word order''') |
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* {{IPA|[ɣ]}} > {{IPA|[x]}}: ''weh'' {{IPA|[wex]}} ("way", accusative) versus ''wege'' ("way", dative) |
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:"''Hij zal mijn ziel verlossen in vrede van hen die mij genaken, want onder menigen was hij met mij''" |
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Final devoicing was countered by the syllable-initial voicing of voiceless fricatives, which made {{IPA|[v]}} and {{IPA|[f]}} allophones of each other. |
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==Characteristics== |
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Final devoicing appears much earlier in Old Dutch than it does Old Saxon and Old High German. In fact, by judging from the [[Bergakker inscription|find at Bergakker]], it would seem that the language already had inherited this characteristic from [[Old Frankish]]{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} whereas Old Saxon and Old High German are known to have maintained word-final voiced obstruents much later (at least 900). |
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An important feature of Old Dutch is the use of full vowels in final position. Examples: ''vogala'' ("bird/fowl"), ''hebban'' ("to have"), ''gevon'' ("to give"), ''herro'' ("lord"), ''gesterkon'' ("reinforce"), ''gewisso'' ("certainly"), ''fardiligon'' ("exterminate"): compare to present Dutch: ''vogel'', ''hebben'', ''geven'', ''heer'', ''gesterken'', ''gewis'' and ''verdelgen''. |
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===Vowels=== |
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Another clear characteristic is the survival of the Germanic four-case system, which by Middle Dutch had started to become less distinct as a result of the collapse of full vowels in final position. |
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{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center |
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|+Old Dutch monophthong phonemes |
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!rowspan=3| |
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!colspan=3| [[Front vowel|Front]] |
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!colspan=2| [[Back vowel|Back]] |
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|-class=small |
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!colspan=2| [[Roundedness|unrounded]] |
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! [[Roundedness|rounded]] |
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!colspan=2| rounded |
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|-class=small |
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! [[Short vowel|short]] |
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! [[Long vowel|long]] |
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! short |
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! short |
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! long |
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|- |
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! [[Close vowel|Close]] |
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| {{IPA|i}} |
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| {{IPA|iː}} |
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| {{IPA|y}} |
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| {{IPA|u}} |
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| {{IPA|uː}} |
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|- |
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! [[Mid vowel|Mid]] |
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| {{IPA|e}} |
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| {{IPA|eː}} |
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| {{IPA|ø}} |
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| {{IPA|o}} |
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| {{IPA|oː}} |
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|- |
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! [[Open vowel|Open]] |
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| {{IPA|a}} |
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| {{IPA|aː}} |
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| |
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|colspan=2| |
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|} |
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Notes: |
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dag "day" |
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* Phonetic realisation of {{IPA|/uː/}} differed by area. In most areas, it was probably realised phonetically as central {{IPAblink|ʉː}} or front {{IPAblink|yː}} or a diphthong {{IPA|[ʉ̞w ~ ʏw]}} before a vowel, but it was probably retained as back {{IPA|[uː]}} or {{IPA|[ʊw]}} in others (at least in Limburg). While there is no direct evidence for this in Old Dutch, it can be inferred by later developments in Middle Dutch. |
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singular: |
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* Long vowels were rare in unstressed syllables and occurred mostly because of suffixation or compounding. |
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:dag (nominative) |
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* {{IPA|/y/}} and {{IPA|/ø/}} were originally [[Germanic umlaut|umlaut]] allophones of {{IPA|/u/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} before {{IPA|/i/}} or {{IPA|/j/}} in the following syllable. They were, however, partly phonemicised when the conditioning sounds were gradually lost over time. Sometimes, the fronting was reverted later. Regardless of phonemic distinction, they were still written as ''u'' and ''o''. |
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:dages (genitive) |
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* As in northwestern [[High German]], {{IPA|/u/}} was lowered to {{IPA|[o]}} by the end of the Old Dutch period and is no longer distinguished from {{IPA|/o/}} (likely {{IPA|[ɔ]}}) in writing. In western dialects, the two phonemes eventually merge. |
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:dage (dative) |
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* {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/e/}} were also similar in articulation, but they did not merge except in some small and frequently used monosyllables (such as ''bin'' > ''ben'', 'I am'). They, however, merged consistently when they were later lengthened in open syllables. |
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:dag (accusative) |
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* The backness of {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} is unknown. They may have been front {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|a}}, {{IPAplink|aː}}]}}, central {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ä}}, {{IPAplink|äː}}]}}, back {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɑ}}, {{IPAplink|ɑː}}]}} or mixed (for example, {{IPA|/a/}} was back {{IPAblink|ɑ}} whereas {{IPA|/aː/}} was front {{IPAblink|aː}}, as in modern Dutch). |
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** {{IPA|/a/}} probably had a rounded allophone {{IPA|[ɒ]}} before velarised {{IPA|[ɫ]}}. It eventually merged with {{IPA|/o/}} in this position, as in Low Saxon, but in Dutch, the velar {{IPA|[ɫ]}} [[L-vocalization|vocalised]], creating a diphthong. |
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In unstressed syllables, only three vowels seem to have been reliably distinguished: open, front and back. In the Wachtendonck Psalms, the ''e'' and ''i'' merged in unstressed syllables, as did ''o'' and ''u''. That led to variants like ''dagi'' and ''dage'' ("day", dative singular) and ''tungon'' and ''tungun'' ("tongue", genitive, dative, accusative singular and nominative, dative, accusative plural). The forms with ''e'' and ''o'' are generally found later on, showing the gradual reduction of the articulatory distinction, eventually merging into a [[schwa]] ({{IPA|/ə/}}). A short phrase from the [[gospel book]] of [[Munsterbilzen Abbey]], written around 1130, still shows several unstressed vowels distinguished: |
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plural: |
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:daga (nominative) |
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:dago (genitive) |
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:dagon (dative) |
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:daga (accusative) |
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: Tesi samanunga was edele unde scona |
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Compare it with the declension of "day" in [[Old English]]: |
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: ''This community was noble and pure'' |
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That was a late monument, however, as the merging of all unstressed short vowels was already well underway by that time. Most likely, the difference was maintained only in spelling traditions, but it had been mostly lost in speech. With the introduction of new scribal traditions in the 12th and 13th century, the practices were abandoned, and unstressed vowels were consistently written as ''e'' from that time onward. |
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singular: |
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:dæg (nominative) |
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:dæges (genitive) |
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:dæge (dative) |
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:dæg (accustative) |
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{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" |
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Plural: |
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|+ Old Dutch diphthongs |
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:dagas (nominative) |
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! |
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:daga (genitive) |
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! [[Front vowel|Front]] |
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:dagum (dative) |
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! [[Back vowel|Back]] |
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:dagas (accustative) |
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|- |
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! Opening |
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| {{IPA|ie}} ({{IPA|ia}} {{IPA|io}}) |
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| {{IPA|uo}} |
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|- |
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! Height-harmonic |
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| colspan="2"| {{IPA|iu}} |
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|- |
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! Closing |
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| {{IPA|ei}} |
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| ({{IPA|ou}}) |
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|} |
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Notes: |
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==Sound developments== |
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* The closing diphthongs {{IPA|/ei/}} and {{IPA|/ou/}} occurred systematically only in the southeastern dialects, having merged with {{IPA|/eː/}} and {{IPA|/oː/}} elsewhere. The other dialects retained only {{IPA|/ei/}}, in words where earlier {{IPA|/ai/}} had been affected by umlaut (which prevented it from becoming {{IPA|/eː/}} in many Old Dutch dialects, but not in Old Saxon). |
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===Monophthong changes=== |
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* The situation for the front opening diphthongs is somewhat unclear, but it seems similar to the situation for unstressed short vowels. Words written with ''io'' in [[Old High German]] are often found written with ''ia'' or even ''ie'' in Old Dutch. They had likely merged with each other already during the Old Dutch period. |
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* Similarly {{IPA|/iu/}} eventually merged with the other opening diphthongs in some dialects. In the others, it merged with {{IPA|/uː/}} in most cases (after having passed through an intermediate stage such as {{IPA|[yu]}}). |
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* There also existed 'long' diphthongs {{IPA|/aːu/}} and {{IPA|/eːu/}}, but these were treated as two-syllable sequences of a long vowel followed by a short one, not as proper diphthongs. |
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==Orthography== |
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The Old Germanic diphthong ''ai'' and ''au'' became the long monotones ''''ē'' and ''ō'' in Old Dutch. Examples: ''hēm'', ''slōt''. |
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Old Dutch was spelt using the Latin alphabet. |
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The length of a vowel was generally not represented in writing probably because the missionaries, who were the ones capable of writing and teaching how to write, tended to base the written language on Latin, which also did not make a distinction in writing: ''dag'' "day" (short vowel), ''thahton'' "they thought" (long vowel). Later on, the long vowels were sometimes marked with a [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] to indicate a long vowel: ''ā''. In some texts long vowels were indicated by simply doubling the vowel in question, as in the placename ''Heembeke'' and personal name ''Oodhelmus'' (both from charters written in 941 and 797 respectively). |
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A similar development can be found in the Anglo-Frisian languages Old Frisian and Old English, but in Old English the West Germanic ''ai'' became ''ā'' and ''au'' became an ''ēa''-sound. |
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Examples: West Germanic ''*haim-'' (compare Mod. Germ. ''heim'') yields Old English ''hām'' (Scottish ''hame'', Modern English ''home''), ''*slaut-'' became ''slēat''. |
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* ''c'' is used for {{IPA|[k]}} when it is followed by ''u'', ''o'' or ''a'': ''cuning'' {{IPA|[kuniŋk]}} 'king' (modern ''koning''). In front of ''i'' or ''e'', the earlier texts (especially names in Latin deeds and charters) used ''ch''. By the later tenth century, the newer letter ''k'' (which was rarely used in Latin) was starting to replace this spelling: ''kēron'' {{IPA|[keːron]}} 'to turn around' (mod. ''keren''). |
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===''h'' disappears in root-initial consonant clusters=== |
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* It is not exactly clear how ''c'' was pronounced before ''i'' or ''e'' in Old Dutch. In the Latin orthography of the time, ''c'' before front vowels stood for an affricate {{IPA|[t͡s]}}; it is quite likely that early Dutch spelling followed that pronunciation. |
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In Old Dutch the ''h''-sound in consonant clusters at the beginning of a root disappears around the 9th century. |
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* ''g'' represented {{IPA|[ɣ]}} or its allophone {{IPA|[ɡ]}}: ''brengan'' {{IPA|[breŋɡan]}} 'to bring', ''segghan'' {{IPA|[seɡɡan]}} 'to say', ''wege'' {{IPA|[weɣe]}} 'way' (dative). |
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Examples include Old Dutch ''ringis'' ("ring", genitive) versus Old Low German and Old English ''hring'' or ''ros'' ("steed") versus English ''hros'' ("horse"). |
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* ''h'' represents {{IPA|[h]}} and its allophone {{IPA|[x]}}: ''holto'' {{IPA|[hoɫto]}} 'wood' (mod. ''hout''), ''naht'' 'night' (mod. ''nacht''). |
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* ''i'' is used for both the vowels {{IPA|[i]}} and {{IPA|[iː]}} and the consonant {{IPA|[j]}}: ''ik'' {{IPA|[ik]}} 'I' (mod. ''ik''), ''iār'' {{IPA|[jaːr]}} 'year' (mod. ''jaar''). |
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* ''qu'' always represents {{IPA|[kw]}}: ''quāmon'' {{IPA|[kwaːmon]}} 'they came' (mod. ''kwamen''). |
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* ''s'' represented the consonant {{IPA|[s]}} and later also {{IPA|[z]}}. |
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* ''th'' is used to indicate {{IPA|[θ]}}: ''thāhton'' {{IPA|[θaːxton]}} 'they thought' (mod. ''dachten''). Occasionally, ''dh'' is used for {{IPA|[ð]}}. |
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* ''u'' represented the vowels {{IPA|[u]}} and {{IPA|[uː]}} or the consonant {{IPA|[v]}}: ''uusso'' {{IPA|[vus:o]}} 'foxes' (genitive plural). |
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* ''uu'' was normally used to represent {{IPA|[w]}}. It evolved into the separate letter ''w'' during the later Middle Ages. See [[W#History]]. |
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* ''z'' rarely appears, and when it does, it is pronounced {{IPA|[ts]}}: ''quezzodos'' {{IPA|[kwetsodos]}} 'you hurt' (past tense, now ''kwetste''). |
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==Grammar== |
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===Reductions of vowels=== |
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In the Wachtendonckse Psalmen with unstressed syllables the ''e'' and ''i'' merge together, as with ''o'' and ''u''. |
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This led to variants like ''dagi'' and ''dage'' ("day", dative singular) and ''tungon'' and ''tungun'' ("tongue", genitive, dative, accusative singular and nominative, dative, accusative plural). |
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From the 11th century onwards, unvoiced vowels were reduced to [[schwa]] ({{IPA|ə}}). |
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This sound wasn't only spelled as ''e'' but also as ''a'' (like "Egmondse Williram"). |
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===Nouns=== |
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===Final obstruent devoicing=== |
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Old Dutch may have preserved at least four of the six cases of Proto-Germanic: [[nominative case|nominative]], [[accusative case|accusative]], [[genitive case|genitive]] and [[dative case|dative]]. A fifth case, the [[instrumental case|instrumental]], could have also existed. |
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Old Dutch already underwent "[[Final obstruent devoicing]]". This term means that voiced consonants become voiceless at the end of a word. |
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It did so very early on. In fact, judging from the find at Bergakker, it would seem that the language already had inherited this characteristic from [[Old Frankish]], whereas Old Saxon and Old High German are known to have maintained voiced obstruents much later (at least 900). |
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=== {{anchor|d1}} The ''a'' declension === |
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Examples: |
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The ''-s'' ending in the masculine plural was preserved in the coastal dialects, as can be seen in the Hebban Olla Vogala text where ''nestas'' is used instead of ''nesta''. Later on, the ''-s'' ending entered Hollandic dialects and became part of the modern standard language. |
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*''wort'' ("word", nominative) versus ''wordes'' (genitive) |
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*''gif'' ("give!", imperative) versus ''geuon'' ("to give", infinitive) |
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*''weh {{IPA|wɛç}}'' ("way", accusative) versus ''wege'' ("way", dative) |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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Final devoicing has become systematic in modern Dutch. It is reflected in spelling for f/v (leef-leven), s/z (kaas-kazen) but not for t/d, i.e., ''woord'', "word", is spelled with a /d/ but pronounced with a [t]. |
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! rowspan="2" | |
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! colspan="4" | Masculine: ''dag'' (day) |
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! colspan="4" | Neuter: ''buok'' (book) |
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|- |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
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! colspan="2" | Plural |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
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! colspan="2" | Plural |
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|- |
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! Nominative, Accusative |
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| dag || '''–''' || daga(s) || '''-a(s)''' || buok || '''–''' || buok || '''–''' |
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|- |
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! Genitive |
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| dages / dagis || '''-es / -is''' || dago || '''-o''' || buokes / buokis || '''-es / -is''' || buoko || '''-o''' |
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|- |
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! Dative |
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| dage / dagi || '''-e / -i''' || dagon || '''-on''' || buoke / buoki || '''-e / -i''' || buokon || '''-on''' |
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|} |
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=== {{anchor|d1}} The ''o'' declension & weak feminine declension === |
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===''hs'' becomes ''s''=== |
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During the Old Dutch period, the distinction between the feminine ''ō''-stems and ''ōn''-stems began to disappear, when endings of one were transferred to the other declension and vice versa, as part of a larger process in which the distinction between the strong and weak inflection was being lost not only in feminine nouns but also in adjectives. The process is shown in a more advanced stage in Middle Dutch. |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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The sound combination ''hs'', as in ''ch+s'', became a voiceless ''s''. |
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! rowspan="2" | |
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Example: Old Dutch ''vusso'' versus common West Germanic ''fuhs'' ({{IPA|fux}}). |
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! colspan="4" | Feminine: ''ertha'' (earth) |
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|- |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
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! colspan="2" | Plural |
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|- |
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! Nominative, Accusative |
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| ertha || '''-a''' || ertha / erthon || '''-a / -on''' |
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|- |
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! Genitive |
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| erthon || '''-on''' || erthono || '''-ono''' |
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|- |
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! Dative |
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| ertho || '''-o''' || erthon || '''-on''' |
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|} |
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=== {{anchor|d1}} The ''i'' declension === |
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In German and English the ''hs'' sound became {{IPA|ks}}: German ''Fuchs'', English ''fox'' |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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===''h'' disappears between vowels=== |
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! rowspan="2" | |
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In Old Dutch, the ''h''-sound disappears when it occurs between vowels. The same happened in [[Old English]] |
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! colspan="4" | Masculine: ''bruk'' (breach) |
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! colspan="4" | Feminine: ''gift'' (gift) |
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|- |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
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! colspan="2" | Plural |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
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! colspan="2" | Plural |
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|- |
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! Nominative, Accusative |
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| bruk || '''–''' || bruke / bruki || '''-e / -i''' || gift || '''–''' || gifte / gifti || '''-e / -i''' |
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|- |
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! Genitive |
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| brukes / brukis || '''-es / -is''' || bruko || '''-o''' || gifte / gifti || '''-e / -i''' || gifto || '''-o''' |
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|- |
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! Dative |
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| bruke / bruki || '''-e / -i''' || brukin || '''-in''' || gifte / gifti || '''-e / -i''' || giftin || '''-in''' |
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|} |
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=== {{anchor|d1}} The weak masculine and neuter declensions === |
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Examples: |
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*Old Dutch ''thion'', Old English þēon versus Old High German ''dîhan'' |
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*Old Dutch ''(ge)sian'', Old English sēon versus Old High German ''sehan'' |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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Similarly, in modern German, an '''h''' may appear intervocalically in writing, but is not pronounced. In [[Old High German]], however, it was pronounced [x]. |
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! rowspan="2" | |
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! colspan="4" | Masculine: ''balko'' (beam) |
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! colspan="4" | Neuter: ''herta'' (heart) |
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|- |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
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! colspan="2" | Plural |
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! colspan="2" | Singular |
|||
! colspan="2" | Plural |
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|- |
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! Nominative |
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| balko || '''-o''' || balkon || '''-on''' || herta || '''-a''' || herton || '''-on''' |
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|- |
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! Accusative |
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| balkon || '''-on''' || balkon || '''-on''' || herta || '''-a''' || herton || '''-on''' |
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|- |
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! Genitive |
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| balkin || '''-in''' || balkono || '''-ono''' || hertin || '''-in''' || hertono || '''-ono''' |
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|- |
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! Dative |
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| balkin || '''-in''' || balkon || '''-on''' || hertin || '''-in''' || herton || '''-on''' |
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|} |
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===Verbs=== |
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===Voicing of ''f'' and ''s''=== |
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Old Dutch reflects an intermediate form between Old Saxon and Old High German. Like Old High German, it preserved the three different verb endings in the plural (''-on'', ''-et'' and ''-unt'') while the more northern languages have the same verb ending in all three persons. However, like Old Saxon, it had only two classes of weak verb, with only a few relic verbs of the third weak class, but the third class had still largely been preserved in Old High German. |
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In the course of the Old Dutch period the voiceless spirants {{IPA|f}} and {{IPA|s}} became voiced, ({{IPA|v}} and {{IPA|z}}) when positioned at the beginning of the word. In the Wachtendonckse Psalmen this feature is very rare while much later it can be seen in the spelling of Dutch toponyms which indicated the sound change was taking place during the 10th and 11th century. |
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==Sources== |
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<references /> |
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*A. Quak en J.M. van der Horst, ''Inleiding Oudnederlands''. Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2002). |
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*Maurits Gysseling m.m.v Willy Pijnenburg, ''Corpus van Middelnederlandse teksten (tot en met het jaar 1300)'' reeks II (literaire handschriften), deel 1: Fragmenten. 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980. |
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*M. Gysseling, "Prae-Nederlands, Oudnederlands, Vroegmiddelnederlands", in: ''Vierde Colloquium van hoogleraren en lectoren in de neerlandistiek aan buitenlandse universiteiten''. Gent, 1970, pp. 78-89. |
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*M.C. van den Toorn, W.J.J. Pijnenburg, J.A. van Leuvensteijn, e.a., ''Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal''. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997. |
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*Willy Sanders, ''Der Leidener Willeram. Untersuchungen zu Handschrift, Text und Sprachform.'' München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1974. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Line 243: | Line 459: | ||
*[[Low Franconian languages]] |
*[[Low Franconian languages]] |
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== |
==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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[http://gtb.inl.nl/?owner=ONW| Old Dutch dictionary (nl)] |
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==Bibliography== |
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*{{cite book|first1=A.|last1=Quak|first2=J. M.|last2=Van der Horst|title=Inleiding Oudnederlands|language=nl|location=Leuven|publisher=Leuven University Press|date=2002}} |
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*{{cite book|first1=Maurits|last1=Gysseling|first2=Willy|last2=Pijnenburg|title=Corpus van Middelnederlandse teksten (tot en met het jaar 1300): Reeks II (literaire handschriften)|language=nl|volume=1|location=The Hague|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff|date=1980}} |
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*{{cite book|first=M.|last=Gysseling|contribution=Prae-Nederlands, Oudnederlands, Vroegmiddelnederlands|title=Vierde Colloquium van hoogleraren en lectoren in de neerlandistiek aan buitenlandse universiteiten|language=nl|location=Ghent|date=1970|pages=78–89}} |
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*{{cite book|first1=M. C.|last1=Van den Toorn|first2=W. J. J.|last2=Pijnenburg|first3=J. A.|last3=Van Leuvensteijn|display-authors=etal|title=Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal|language=nl|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|date=1997}} |
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*{{cite book|first=Willy|last=Sanders|title=Der Leidener Willeram. Untersuchungen zu Handschrift, Text und Sprachform|language=de|location=Munich|publisher=Wilhelm Fink|date=1974}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Germanic philology}} |
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* [http://gtb.inl.nl/?owner=ONW Old Dutch dictionary] {{in lang|nl}} |
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{{Germanic languages}} |
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[[Category:Dutch language]] |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:Language histories]] |
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[[Category:Post-medieval linguistic constructs about the Middle Ages]] |
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[[Category:West Germanic languages]] |
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[[Category:Old Dutch| ]] |
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[[af:Oudnederlands]] |
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[[Category:Languages attested from the 6th century]] |
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[[de:Altniederländisch]] |
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[[Category:History of the Dutch language]] |
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[[nl:Oudnederlands]] |
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[[Category:West Germanic languages]] |
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[[no:Gammelnederlandsk]] |
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[[Category:Low Franconian languages]] |
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[[fi:Muinaishollanti]] |
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[[Category:Languages of the Netherlands]] |
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[[vls:Oudnederlands]] |
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[[Category:Languages of Belgium]] |
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[[it:Antico olandese]] |
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[[Category:Languages of Germany]] |
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[[Category:Medieval languages|Dutch, Old]] |
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[[Category:Languages of France]] |
Latest revision as of 18:23, 29 October 2024
Old Dutch | |
---|---|
Old Low Franconian | |
*thiudisc | |
Native to | Holland, Austrasia, Zeeland and Flanders |
Region | The Low Countries |
Era | Gradually developed into Middle Dutch by mid-12th century[1][2] |
Early forms | |
Runes, Latin (later) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | odt |
odt | |
Glottolog | oldd1237 oldd1238 |
The areas where the Old Dutch language was spoken | |
In linguistics, Old Dutch (Modern Dutch: Oudnederlands) or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: Oudnederfrankisch) [3][4] is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th[5] or 9th[6] to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.[7]
Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the Salian Franks who occupied what is now the southern Netherlands, northern Belgium, part of northern France, and parts of the Lower Rhine regions of Germany. It evolved into Middle Dutch around the 12th century. The inhabitants of northern Dutch provinces, including Groningen, Friesland, and the coast of North Holland, spoke Old Frisian, and some in the east (Achterhoek, Overijssel, and Drenthe) spoke Old Saxon.
Terminology
[edit]Within the field of historical philology, the terminology for the oldest historical phase of the Dutch language traditionally includes both Old Dutch as well as Old Low Franconian. In English linguistic publications, Old Netherlandic is occasionally used in addition to the aforementioned terms.
Old Low Franconian, derives from the linguistic category first devised by the German linguist Wilhelm Braune (1850–1926), who used the term Franconian as a wastebasket taxon for the early West Germanic texts that he could not readily classify as belonging to either Saxon, Alemannic or Bavarian and assumed to derive from the language of the Franks.[8] He subsequently further divided this new grouping into Low, Middle and High Franconian based on the absence or presence of the Second Germanic consonant shift.[9] With the exception of Dutch, modern linguistic research has challenged the direct diachronical connection to Old Frankish for most of the varieties grouped under the broader "Franconian" category.[10][8] Nevertheless, the traditional terminology of the West Germanic varieties along assumed Late Classical tribal lines, typical of 19th and early 20th century Germanic linguistics, remains common.[8]
Within historical linguistics Old Low Franconian is synonymous with Old Dutch.[11][12] Depending on the author, the temporal boundary between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is either defined by the onset of the Second Germanic consonant shift in Eastern Frankish, the assimilation of an unattested coastal dialect showing North Sea Germanic-features by West Frankish during the closing of the 9th century,[13] or a combination of both. Some linguists use the terms Old Low Franconian or West Frankish to specifically refer to the (very sparsely attested) varieties of Old Dutch spoken prior its assimilation of the coastal dialect.
Old Dutch itself is further divided into Old West Dutch and Old East Dutch, with the descendants of Old West Dutch forming the dominant basis of the Middle Dutch literary language and Old East Dutch forming a noticeable substrate within the easternmost Dutch dialects, such as Limburgish.[citation needed]
Origins and characteristics
[edit]Before the advent of Old Dutch or any of the Germanic languages, Germanic dialects were mutually intelligible. The North Sea Germanic dialects were spoken in the whole of the coastal parts of the Netherlands and Belgium. Old Frisian was one of these dialects, and elements of it survived through the Frisian language, spoken in the province of Friesland in the North of the Netherlands. In the rest of the coastal region, these dialects were mostly displaced following the withdrawal to England of the migrating Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who gave rise to Old English.
It was largely replaced by Weser–Rhine Germanic dialects, spoken by the Salian Franks. It spread from northern Belgium and the southern Netherlands to the coast and evolved into Old Dutch. It has, however, a North sea Germanic substrate.[6][15] Linguists typically date this transition to around the 5th century.[16]
Relation with other West Germanic languages
[edit]Central Franconian and Old High German
[edit]Old Dutch is divided into Old West Low Franconian and Old East Low Franconian (Limburgian); however, these varieties are very closely related, the divergence being that the latter shares more traits with neighboring historical forms of Central Franconian dialects such as Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian. While both forms of Low Franconian were instrumental to the framing of Middle Dutch, Old East Low Franconian did not contribute much to Standard Dutch, which is based on the consolidated dialects of Holland and Brabant.
During the Merovingian period, the Central Franconian dialects were influenced by Old Low Franconian (Old Dutch), resulting in certain linguistic loans which yielded a slight overlap of vocabulary, most of which relates to warfare. In addition is the subsumption of the High German consonant shift, a set of phonological changes beginning around the 5th or 6th century that partially influenced Old Dutch, and extensively influenced Central Franconian and other Old High German dialects.
Old Saxon, Old English and Old Frisian
[edit]Old English, Old Frisian and (to a lesser degree) Old Saxon share the application of the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law. Old Dutch was considerably less affected than those other three languages, but a dialect continuum formed/existed between Old Dutch, Old Saxon and Old Frisian. Despite sharing some particular features, a number of disparities separate Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old English and Old Dutch. One such difference is that Old Dutch used -a as its plural a-stem noun ending, while Old Saxon and Old English employed -as or -os. Much of the grammatical variation between Old Dutch and Old Saxon is similar to that between Old Dutch and Old High German.
It is also found that Old Dutch had lost the dual number for its pronouns, unlike Old English, which used wit to refer to "the two of us". Old Dutch would have used we both to refer to that and to refer to many more people in the "us" group, much like Modern Dutch and English.
Relation to Middle Dutch
[edit]Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch with some distinctions that approximate those found in most medieval West Germanic languages. The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing whose language is patently different from Old Dutch.
The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is vowel reduction. Back vowels (a, o) in non-stressed syllables are rather frequent in Old Dutch, but in Middle Dutch, they are reduced to a schwa:
Old Dutch Middle Dutch English vogala vogele bird (fowl) daga / dago daghe days (nominative/genitive) brecan breken to break gescrivona ghescreven written (past participle)
The following is a translation of Psalm 55:18, taken from the Wachtendonck Psalms; it shows the evolution of Dutch, from the original Old Dutch, written c. 900, to modern Dutch, but so accurately copies the Latin word order of the original that there is little information that can be garnered on Old Dutch syntax. In Modern Dutch, recasting is necessary to form a coherent sentence.
Old Dutch Irlōsin sal an frithe sēla mīna fan thēn thia ginācont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi. Middle Dutch Erlosen sal hi in vrede siele mine van dien die genaken mi, want onder menegen hi was met mi. Modern Dutch (with old word order) Verlossen zal hij in vrede ziel mijn van zij die aanvallen mij, want onder velen hij was met mij. Modern Dutch (with new word order) Hij zal mijn ziel verlossen in vrede van hen die mij aanvallen, want onder velen was hij met mij. English He will deliver my soul in peace from those who attack me, for, amongst many, he was with me.
Surviving texts
[edit]Old Dutch texts are extremely rare and much more limited than for related languages like Old English and Old High German. Most of the earliest texts written in the Netherlands were written in Latin, rather than Old Dutch. Some of the Latin texts, however, contained Old Dutch words interspersed with the Latin text. Also, it is hard to determine whether a text actually was written in Old Dutch, as the Germanic languages spoken at that time were not standardised and were much more similar to one another.
Oldest word (108)
[edit]Several words that are known to have developed in the Netherlands before Old Dutch was spoken have been found, and they are sometimes called Oudnederlands (English: "Old Netherlandic" or "Old Dutch") in a geographic sense. The oldest known example, wad 'mudflat', is already mentioned c. 107–108 AD in Tacitus' Histories (Book 5), in Latinised form as vadam (acc. sg.), as the name of a village, Vada, probably reflecting Early Germanic *wada. The word exclusively referred to the region and ground type that is now known as the Wadden Sea. However, since the word existed long before Old Dutch did (and even before its parent language, Frankish), it cannot be considered part of the vocabulary of Old Dutch but rather of Proto-Germanic.
Bergakker inscription (425–450)
[edit]Haþuþȳwas. Ann kusjam logūns.
This sentence has been interpreted as "Haþuþyw's. I/He grant(s) a flame (i.e. brand, sword) to the select". It was discovered on a sword sheath mounting, excavated in 1996 in the Dutch village of Bergakker[17] and is perhaps better described as Frankish than Old Dutch (Frankish was the direct parent language of Old Dutch).[18] The text however, shows the beginning of Old Dutch morphology. The word ann, found in the partially-translated inscription is coined as the oldest Dutch by linguists Nicoline van der Sijs and Tanneke Schoonheim from Genootschap Onze Taal. They attribute that word to the ancestor of the modern Dutch verb root gun, through the addition of the prefix ge-.[19] (An English cognate probably survives in to own (up) in the sense of 'to acknowledge, concede'.) Its modern meaning is roughly "to think someone deserves something, to derive satisfaction from someone else's success", and it is commonly translated as "grant" or "bestow".
Salic Law (6th century)
[edit]Maltho thi afrio lito
Glosses to the Salic law code (the Malberg glosses) contain several Old Dutch words and this full sentence written in the early 6th century, which is likely the earliest in the language. It translates as "I tell you: I am setting you free, serve". The phrase was used to free a serf.[20][21] A lito (English: half-free) was a form of serf in the feudal system, a half-free farmer, who was connected to the land of the lord for whom he worked but not owned by that lord. In contrast, a slave was fully owned by the lord. The Old Dutch word and the Modern Dutch counterpart laat are both etymologically and in meaning undoubtedly related to the verb root laat (English: 'let go', 'release'), which may indicate the fairly free status of such person in relation to that a slave. The Old Dutch word lito is particularly recognisable in the verb's past tense lieten.[22]
Utrecht Baptismal Vow (8th century)
[edit]End ec forsacho allum dioboles uuercum and uuordum, Thunær ende Uuôden ende Saxnôte ende allum thêm unholdum thê hira genôtas sint.
The Utrecht Baptismal Vow, or Old Saxon Baptismal Vow, is a 9th-century baptismal vow that was found in a monastery library in the German city of Mainz but was written in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The sentence translates as "And I renounce all the deeds and words of the devil, Thunear, Wōden and Saxnōt, and all those fiends that are their companions". It mentions three Germanic pagan gods of the early Saxons which the reader is to forsake: Uuôden ("Woden"), Thunaer and Saxnōt. Scholar Rudolf Simek comments that the vow is of particular interest because it is the sole instance of the god Saxnōt mentioned in a religious context. One of many baptismal vows, it is now archived in the Vatican Codex pal. 577.[23] Sometimes interpreteted as Old Saxon, a number of Dutch scholars have concluded the Baptismal Vow was actually written in the 8th century in Old Dutch.[24][25] The difficulty in establishing whether the text was written in Old Saxon or Old Franconian is that those languages were very much alike.
The Wachtendonck Psalms (10th century)
[edit]Irlôsin sol an frithe sêla mîna fan thên thia ginâcont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi
The Wachtendonck Psalms are a collection of Latin psalms, with a translation in an eastern variety of Old Dutch (Old East Low Franconian) which contains a number of Old High German elements.[26] The example sentence above translates as "He will deliver my soul in peace from those who attack me, for, amongst many, he was with me." Probably based on a Central Franconian original, very little remains of the psalms. They were named after a manuscript that has not survived but was the source from which scholars believe the surviving fragments must have been copied. The manuscript was once owned by Canon Arnold Wachtendonck. The surviving fragments are handwritten copies made by the Renaissance scholar Justus Lipsius in the sixteenth century. Lipsius made a number of separate copies of what appeared to be the same material, but the versions do not always agree. In addition, scholars conclude that the numerous errors and inconsistencies in the fragments point not only to some carelessness or inattentiveness by the Renaissance scholars but also to errors in the now-lost manuscript out of which the material was copied. The language of the Psalms suggests that they were originally written in the 10th century.
The Leiden Willeram (1100)
[edit]Thes naghtes an minemo beddo vortheroda ich minen wino. Ich vortheroda hine ande ne vand sin niet.
This example sentence taken from the Leiden Willeram translates as "All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him". The manuscript, now in the library of the Leiden University in the Netherlands, contains an Old Dutch translation of an Old High German (East Franconian) commentary on Song of Solomon, written by the German abbot Williram of Ebersberg. The translation was done by a monk of the Abbey of Egmond, and so the manuscript's other name is Egmond Willeram. The text represents an imperfect attempt to translate the original into the local Old Dutch vernacular. The text contains many Old Dutch words as well as mistranslated words since the scribe must have been unfamiliar with some Old High German words in the original. It could nevertheless be regarded as the first book written in Old Dutch. However, since the book never left the abbey, it cannot be regarded as the start of a Dutch literature and did not influence later works.
Hebban olla vogala (1100)
[edit]Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu, uuat unbidan uue nu.
Arguably the most famous text containing Old Dutch, the fragment is translated as "All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for?" The text is dated from around 1100 and written by a West Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England. For a long time, the sentence was commonly but erroneously considered to be the earliest in Dutch.[27][16] However, it could be considered the oldest Dutch non-religious poetry. The text is usually considered a West Flemish dialect,[28] but certain Ingvaeonic forms might be expected in any of the coastal dialects of Old English, Old Frisian, Old Saxon or Old Dutch. However, the -n of the third-person plural hebban, which is absent in both Old English and Frisian, identifies the language as Old Dutch (Old High German habent uses a different stem). Hagunnan and hi(c) have a prothetic h, which points also to West Flemish in which the h was frequently dropped or, in the written language, added before vowels (compare abent in the Latin version). However, it has been postulated that the text could equally well be Old English, more specifically Old Kentish.[29]
The Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible (12th century)
[edit]nu saget mir einen kuning other greven, the an uren got wille gelouven, that se sagent, that ist gelogen, thes ist thaz arme volc bedrogen.
Translated as "Mention one king or earl who wants to believe in their god, what they say is a lie, that's how the people are being deceived", this fragment comes from an important source for Old Dutch: the Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible (Dutch: Rijnlandse Rijmbijbel; German: Rheinische Reimbibel). The verse translation of biblical histories is attested only in a series of fragments from different writers. It contains Old Dutch (Low Franconian), Low German (Low Saxon) and High German (Rhine-Franconian) elements.[30] It was likely composed in the northwest of Germany in the early 12th century, possibly in Werden Abbey, near Essen.
Phonology
[edit]Early sound developments
[edit]Phonologically, Old Dutch stands in between Old Saxon and Old High German, sharing some innovations with the latter, and others with the former.
- Characteristics shared with Old Saxon
- The Old Germanic diphthongs ai and au become the long vowels ē and ō. Examples: hēm, slōt. There are, however, several examples that show that a diphthong ei remained in some cases.
- Loss of Proto-Germanic z word-finally in single-syllable words, e.g. thi vs Old High German thir/dir < PG *þiz (dative of the second-person singular pronoun).
- Characteristics shared with Old High German
- The West Germanic ō (/oː/) and ē (/eː/, from Proto-Germanic ē2) become diphthongs uo and ie in stressed syllables. Old Dutch fluot versus Old Saxon flōd, Old Dutch hier versus Old Saxon hēr.
- The h-sound in consonant clusters at the beginning of a word disappears around the 9th century while it is retained in the northern languages. Examples include Old Dutch ringis ("ring", genitive), Old High German ring versus Old Saxon and Old English hring, or ros ("steed") versus Old English hros ("horse").
- j is lost when following two consonants, with -jan becoming -en. It is most prominent in ja- and jō-stem nouns and adjectives, and in verbs of the first weak class.
- Characteristics not shared with either Old Saxon or Old High German
- Final obstruent devoicing. This later spread to the other Germanic dialects (as well as several Romance languages such as Old French and Old Occitan).
- h disappears between vowels (shared with the Anglo-Frisian languages). Old Dutch thion, Old English þēon versus Old High German dîhan, or Old Dutch (ge)sian, Old English sēon versus Old High German sehan. (The h in modern German sehen /ˈzeː.ən/ became mute only in later stages of German.)
- The sound combination hs (/xs/) becomes a geminated ss. Example: Old Dutch vusso versus Old Saxon fohs, Old High German fuhs. (A development shared by the Middle Franconian dialects of High German: compare Luxembourgish Fuuss. The Anglo-Frisian languages instead shift hs to ks: compare Old English fox, Old Frisian foks.)
Consonants
[edit]The table below lists the consonantal phonemes of Old Dutch. For descriptions of the sounds and definitions of the terms, follow the links on the headings.
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |||
voiced | b | d | |||||
Fricative | sibilant | voiceless | s | ||||
non-sibilant | f | θ | h | ||||
voiced | v | ɣ | |||||
Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
Rhotic | r |
Notes:
- /m, p, b/ were most likely bilabial whereas /f, v/ were most likely labiodental.
- /n, t, d, s, l/ could have been either dental [n̪, t̪, d̪, s̪, l̪] or alveolar [n͇, t͇, d͇, s͇, l͇].
- /θ/ was likely dental [θ̪], but it could have also been alveolar [θ͇], as it is the case in Modern Icelandic.
- /r/ was most likely alveolar, either a trill [r͇] or a tap [ɾ͇].
- Most consonants could be geminated. Notably, geminated /v/ gave [bb], and geminated /ɣ/ probably gave [ɡɡ]. Geminated /h/ resulted in [xx].
- In the course of the Old Dutch period the voiceless spirants /f, θ, s/ gained voiced allophones [v, ð, z] when positioned at the beginning of a syllable. The change is faithfully reflected for [v], the other two allophones continuing to be written as before. In the Wachtendonck Psalms, it is very rare, but much later, it can be seen in the spelling of Dutch toponyms. Thus, the sound change was taking place during the 10th and 11th century.
- /v/ also occurred word-medially as an independent phoneme, developed from Proto-Germanic [β], the fricative allophone of /b/.
- After /n/, /ɣ/ was realized as a plosive [ɡ].
- Postvocalic /h/ was realized as velar [x].
Final-obstruent devoicing
[edit]Final-obstruent devoicing of Proto-Germanic [β] to [f] occurred across the West Germanic languages, and thus also in Old Dutch. Old Dutch spelling also reveals final devoicing of other consonants, namely:
- [d] > [t]: wort ("word", nominative) versus wordes (genitive)
- [ɣ] > [x]: weh [wex] ("way", accusative) versus wege ("way", dative)
Final devoicing was countered by the syllable-initial voicing of voiceless fricatives, which made [v] and [f] allophones of each other.
Final devoicing appears much earlier in Old Dutch than it does Old Saxon and Old High German. In fact, by judging from the find at Bergakker, it would seem that the language already had inherited this characteristic from Old Frankish[citation needed] whereas Old Saxon and Old High German are known to have maintained word-final voiced obstruents much later (at least 900).
Vowels
[edit]Front | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | rounded | |||
short | long | short | short | long | |
Close | i | iː | y | u | uː |
Mid | e | eː | ø | o | oː |
Open | a | aː |
Notes:
- Phonetic realisation of /uː/ differed by area. In most areas, it was probably realised phonetically as central [ʉː] or front [yː] or a diphthong [ʉ̞w ~ ʏw] before a vowel, but it was probably retained as back [uː] or [ʊw] in others (at least in Limburg). While there is no direct evidence for this in Old Dutch, it can be inferred by later developments in Middle Dutch.
- Long vowels were rare in unstressed syllables and occurred mostly because of suffixation or compounding.
- /y/ and /ø/ were originally umlaut allophones of /u/ and /o/ before /i/ or /j/ in the following syllable. They were, however, partly phonemicised when the conditioning sounds were gradually lost over time. Sometimes, the fronting was reverted later. Regardless of phonemic distinction, they were still written as u and o.
- As in northwestern High German, /u/ was lowered to [o] by the end of the Old Dutch period and is no longer distinguished from /o/ (likely [ɔ]) in writing. In western dialects, the two phonemes eventually merge.
- /i/ and /e/ were also similar in articulation, but they did not merge except in some small and frequently used monosyllables (such as bin > ben, 'I am'). They, however, merged consistently when they were later lengthened in open syllables.
- The backness of /a/ and /aː/ is unknown. They may have been front [a, aː], central [ä, äː], back [ɑ, ɑː] or mixed (for example, /a/ was back [ɑ] whereas /aː/ was front [aː], as in modern Dutch).
- /a/ probably had a rounded allophone [ɒ] before velarised [ɫ]. It eventually merged with /o/ in this position, as in Low Saxon, but in Dutch, the velar [ɫ] vocalised, creating a diphthong.
In unstressed syllables, only three vowels seem to have been reliably distinguished: open, front and back. In the Wachtendonck Psalms, the e and i merged in unstressed syllables, as did o and u. That led to variants like dagi and dage ("day", dative singular) and tungon and tungun ("tongue", genitive, dative, accusative singular and nominative, dative, accusative plural). The forms with e and o are generally found later on, showing the gradual reduction of the articulatory distinction, eventually merging into a schwa (/ə/). A short phrase from the gospel book of Munsterbilzen Abbey, written around 1130, still shows several unstressed vowels distinguished:
- Tesi samanunga was edele unde scona
- This community was noble and pure
That was a late monument, however, as the merging of all unstressed short vowels was already well underway by that time. Most likely, the difference was maintained only in spelling traditions, but it had been mostly lost in speech. With the introduction of new scribal traditions in the 12th and 13th century, the practices were abandoned, and unstressed vowels were consistently written as e from that time onward.
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Opening | ie (ia io) | uo |
Height-harmonic | iu | |
Closing | ei | (ou) |
Notes:
- The closing diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ occurred systematically only in the southeastern dialects, having merged with /eː/ and /oː/ elsewhere. The other dialects retained only /ei/, in words where earlier /ai/ had been affected by umlaut (which prevented it from becoming /eː/ in many Old Dutch dialects, but not in Old Saxon).
- The situation for the front opening diphthongs is somewhat unclear, but it seems similar to the situation for unstressed short vowels. Words written with io in Old High German are often found written with ia or even ie in Old Dutch. They had likely merged with each other already during the Old Dutch period.
- Similarly /iu/ eventually merged with the other opening diphthongs in some dialects. In the others, it merged with /uː/ in most cases (after having passed through an intermediate stage such as [yu]).
- There also existed 'long' diphthongs /aːu/ and /eːu/, but these were treated as two-syllable sequences of a long vowel followed by a short one, not as proper diphthongs.
Orthography
[edit]Old Dutch was spelt using the Latin alphabet.
The length of a vowel was generally not represented in writing probably because the missionaries, who were the ones capable of writing and teaching how to write, tended to base the written language on Latin, which also did not make a distinction in writing: dag "day" (short vowel), thahton "they thought" (long vowel). Later on, the long vowels were sometimes marked with a macron to indicate a long vowel: ā. In some texts long vowels were indicated by simply doubling the vowel in question, as in the placename Heembeke and personal name Oodhelmus (both from charters written in 941 and 797 respectively).
- c is used for [k] when it is followed by u, o or a: cuning [kuniŋk] 'king' (modern koning). In front of i or e, the earlier texts (especially names in Latin deeds and charters) used ch. By the later tenth century, the newer letter k (which was rarely used in Latin) was starting to replace this spelling: kēron [keːron] 'to turn around' (mod. keren).
- It is not exactly clear how c was pronounced before i or e in Old Dutch. In the Latin orthography of the time, c before front vowels stood for an affricate [t͡s]; it is quite likely that early Dutch spelling followed that pronunciation.
- g represented [ɣ] or its allophone [ɡ]: brengan [breŋɡan] 'to bring', segghan [seɡɡan] 'to say', wege [weɣe] 'way' (dative).
- h represents [h] and its allophone [x]: holto [hoɫto] 'wood' (mod. hout), naht 'night' (mod. nacht).
- i is used for both the vowels [i] and [iː] and the consonant [j]: ik [ik] 'I' (mod. ik), iār [jaːr] 'year' (mod. jaar).
- qu always represents [kw]: quāmon [kwaːmon] 'they came' (mod. kwamen).
- s represented the consonant [s] and later also [z].
- th is used to indicate [θ]: thāhton [θaːxton] 'they thought' (mod. dachten). Occasionally, dh is used for [ð].
- u represented the vowels [u] and [uː] or the consonant [v]: uusso [vus:o] 'foxes' (genitive plural).
- uu was normally used to represent [w]. It evolved into the separate letter w during the later Middle Ages. See W#History.
- z rarely appears, and when it does, it is pronounced [ts]: quezzodos [kwetsodos] 'you hurt' (past tense, now kwetste).
Grammar
[edit]Nouns
[edit]Old Dutch may have preserved at least four of the six cases of Proto-Germanic: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. A fifth case, the instrumental, could have also existed.
The a declension
[edit]The -s ending in the masculine plural was preserved in the coastal dialects, as can be seen in the Hebban Olla Vogala text where nestas is used instead of nesta. Later on, the -s ending entered Hollandic dialects and became part of the modern standard language.
Masculine: dag (day) | Neuter: buok (book) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||||
Nominative, Accusative | dag | – | daga(s) | -a(s) | buok | – | buok | – |
Genitive | dages / dagis | -es / -is | dago | -o | buokes / buokis | -es / -is | buoko | -o |
Dative | dage / dagi | -e / -i | dagon | -on | buoke / buoki | -e / -i | buokon | -on |
The o declension & weak feminine declension
[edit]During the Old Dutch period, the distinction between the feminine ō-stems and ōn-stems began to disappear, when endings of one were transferred to the other declension and vice versa, as part of a larger process in which the distinction between the strong and weak inflection was being lost not only in feminine nouns but also in adjectives. The process is shown in a more advanced stage in Middle Dutch.
Feminine: ertha (earth) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Nominative, Accusative | ertha | -a | ertha / erthon | -a / -on |
Genitive | erthon | -on | erthono | -ono |
Dative | ertho | -o | erthon | -on |
The i declension
[edit]Masculine: bruk (breach) | Feminine: gift (gift) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||||
Nominative, Accusative | bruk | – | bruke / bruki | -e / -i | gift | – | gifte / gifti | -e / -i |
Genitive | brukes / brukis | -es / -is | bruko | -o | gifte / gifti | -e / -i | gifto | -o |
Dative | bruke / bruki | -e / -i | brukin | -in | gifte / gifti | -e / -i | giftin | -in |
The weak masculine and neuter declensions
[edit]Masculine: balko (beam) | Neuter: herta (heart) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||||
Nominative | balko | -o | balkon | -on | herta | -a | herton | -on |
Accusative | balkon | -on | balkon | -on | herta | -a | herton | -on |
Genitive | balkin | -in | balkono | -ono | hertin | -in | hertono | -ono |
Dative | balkin | -in | balkon | -on | hertin | -in | herton | -on |
Verbs
[edit]Old Dutch reflects an intermediate form between Old Saxon and Old High German. Like Old High German, it preserved the three different verb endings in the plural (-on, -et and -unt) while the more northern languages have the same verb ending in all three persons. However, like Old Saxon, it had only two classes of weak verb, with only a few relic verbs of the third weak class, but the third class had still largely been preserved in Old High German.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Guy Janssens & Ann Marynissen: Het Nederlands vroeger en nu, 2nd ed., Acco, Leuven (België), 2005 (1st ed. 2003), p. 47-50.
- ^ Ann Marynissen: De lange weg naar een Nederlandse standaardtaal: Een beknopte geschiedenis van de standaardisering van het Nederlands, in: De vele gezichten van het Nederlands in Vlaanderen. Een inleiding tot de variatietaalkunde, edited by Gert De Sutter, Acco, Leuven / Den Haag, 2017, p. 60-79, here p. 61 (online)
- ^ van den Toorn, M. C.; Pijnenburg, W.J.J.; van Leuvensteijn, J.A.; van der Horst, J.M., eds. (1997). Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal (in Dutch). p. 37. (dbnl.org): "De term Oudnederlands (vanuit een ander perspectief ook wel Oudnederfrankisch genoemd) ..."
- ^ Janssens, G.; Marynissen, A. (2005). Het Nederlands vroeger en nu (in Dutch) (2nd ed.). pp. 38, 54.
- ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline (2019). 15 eeuwen Nederlandse taal (in Dutch). Gorredijk: Sterck & De Vreese. Page 55: "Uit de zesde eeuw dateren de oudst bekende geschreven woorden en tekstjes in de Lage Landen, waarmee de periode van het oud-Nederlands begint." [From the 6th century date the oldest known text from the Low Countries, with which the period of Old Dutch begins.]
- ^ a b De Vries, Jan W.; Willemyns, Roland; Burger, Peter (2003). Het verhaal van een taal (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Prometheus. pp. 12, 21–27. Page 27: "Aan het einde van de negende eeuw kan er zeker van Nederlands gesproken worden; hoe long daarvoor dat ook het geval was, kan niet met zekerheid worden uitgemaakt." [It can be said with certainty that Dutch was being spoken at the end of the 9th century; how long that might have been the case before that cannot be determined with certainty.]
- ^ Webster's New World Dictionary:[full citation needed] Old Dutch
- ^ a b c Alfred Klepsch: Fränkische Dialekte, published on 19th of October 2009; in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (accessed November 21st 2020)
- ^ Strong, Herbert Augustus; Meyer, Kuno (1886). Outlines of a History of the German language. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey. p. 68.
- ^ Harbert, Wayne Eugene (2007). The Germanic Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge / New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–17.
- ^ Alderik H. Blom: Glossing the Psalms: The Emergence of the Written Vernaculars in Western Europe from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2017, p. 134-135.
- ^ Hans Frede Nielsen: The Germanic Languages: Origins and Early Dialectal Interrelations, University of Alabama Press, 1989, p. 2: "The earliest extant material in Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch) is from the 9th century ..."
- ^ Michiel de Vaan: The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017, p. 32 (in chapter 5: History of research on the 'Frisian question' in Belgium and the Netherlands).
- ^ Map based on: Meineke, Eckhard & Schwerdt, Judith, Einführung in das Althochdeutsche, Paderborn/Zürich 2001, pp. 209.
- ^ Willemyns, Roland (11 April 2013). Dutch: Biography of a Language. Oxford University Press USA. p. 33. ISBN 9780199858712.
- ^ a b "Geschiedenis van het Nederlands". Taalunieversum.org (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-08-27.
- ^ Mees, Bernard (2002). "The Bergakker Inscription and the Beginnings of Dutch". In Langbroek, Erika; Quak, Arend; Roeleveld, Annelies; Vermeyden, Paula (eds.). Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik. Vol. 56. Amsterdam – New York, NY: Rodopi. pp. 23–26. ISBN 90-420-1579-9.
- ^ Kibler, William W.; Zinn, Grover A., eds. (1995). Medieval France: an encyclopedia (2nd ed.). New York: Garland. p. 703. ISBN 0824044444.
- ^ "Meer dan hebban olla uogala" (in Dutch). (Auteurs: Nicoline van der Sijs en Tanneke Schoonheim | 6 juni 2007)
- ^ Willemyns, Roland (2013). Dutch: Biography of a Language. Oxford University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-19-932366-1.
- ^ Willemyns, Roland (15 March 2013). Dutch: Biography of a Language. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199323661. Retrieved 26 August 2017 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Etymologiebank.nl". Archived from the original on 2017-08-27. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
- ^ Simek, p.276.[full citation needed]
- ^ Van der Sijs, N. (2006). Calendarium van de Nederlandse Taal (in Dutch).
- ^ Marco Mostert. "Utrecht zwischen York und Fulda" (PDF). Ulrike Zellmann, Angelika Lehmann-Benz, Urban Küsters (eds.): "»Wider den Müßiggang ...«: Niederländisches Mittelalter im Spiegel von Kunst, Kult und Politik", 2004, p. 21ff. (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2017-02-01. "Aus dem kodikologischen Kontext und aus der Geschichte des mit der Handschrift verbundenen Bonifatiusklosters Fulda ist zu schließen, daß Utrecht – auch wenn die sprachliche Argumentation an sich ungenügend ist, um die Texte dem kleinen Kloster zuzuschreiben – die beste Kandidatur für die Autorschaft besitzt. Die monastische Schriftkultur ist also in den nördlichen Niederlanden im 8. Jahrhundert seßhaft geworden."
- ^ Van den Toorn, M. C.; et al. (1997). Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal. p. 41. With reference to Gysseling 1980;[full citation needed] Quak 1981;[full citation needed] De Grauwe 1979, 1982.[full citation needed]
- ^ "'Olla Vogala' nog even in woordenboek". Standaard.be (in Dutch). 2 November 2004. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- ^ Schönfeld, M. (1933). "Een Oudnederlandsche zin uit de elfde eeuw (met reproduktie)". Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde. 52: 1–8.
- ^ De Grauwe, Luc (2004). "Zijn olla vogala Vlaams, of zit de Nederlandse filologie met een koekoeksei in (haar) nest(en)?". Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde (in Dutch). 120: 44–56.
- ^ Wells, David A. (2004). The "Central Franconian Rhyming Bible" ("Mittelfränkische Reimbibel"): An early-twelfth-century German verse homiliary. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Bibliography
[edit]- Quak, A.; Van der Horst, J. M. (2002). Inleiding Oudnederlands (in Dutch). Leuven: Leuven University Press.
- Gysseling, Maurits; Pijnenburg, Willy (1980). Corpus van Middelnederlandse teksten (tot en met het jaar 1300): Reeks II (literaire handschriften) (in Dutch). Vol. 1. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
- Gysseling, M. (1970). "Prae-Nederlands, Oudnederlands, Vroegmiddelnederlands". Vierde Colloquium van hoogleraren en lectoren in de neerlandistiek aan buitenlandse universiteiten (in Dutch). Ghent. pp. 78–89.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Van den Toorn, M. C.; Pijnenburg, W. J. J.; Van Leuvensteijn, J. A.; et al. (1997). Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
- Sanders, Willy (1974). Der Leidener Willeram. Untersuchungen zu Handschrift, Text und Sprachform (in German). Munich: Wilhelm Fink.
External links
[edit]- Old Dutch dictionary (in Dutch)