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Frankish / Old Franconian
Native to formerly the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Northern France, Western
Germany
Era 5th to the 9th century
Language
family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Frankish / Old Franconian
Language codes
ISO 639-
3
frk
Frankish language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Old Frankish)
Frankish or Old Franconian (or, less correctly, Old
Frankish) was the language spoken by the Germanic Franks
in the Low Countries and adjacent parts of contemporary
France and Germany between the 4th and 8th century. It
belongs to the West Germanic language group and is thought
to have given rise to the modern Franconian languages. The
Franks descended from Germanic tribes that settled parts of
the Netherlands and western Germany during the early Iron
Age. From the 4th century, they are attested as extending
into what is now the southern Netherlands and northern
Belgium. In the 5th and 6th centuries, they expanded their
realm and conquered Roman Gaul completely as well as
client states such as Bavaria and Thuringia.
Knowledge of Frankish is almost entirely reconstructed from
Old Dutch and from etyma and loanwords from Old French.
A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription found in
1996, which may be a direct attestation of Old Franconian.
During this period, Frankish had a major influence on the lexicon, pronunciation and grammar of the Romance
languages spoken in former Roman Gaul. As a result, many modern French words and placenames (including the
country name "France") have a Germanic origin. Between the 5th and 9th centuries, the languages spoken by the
Salian Franks in Belgium and the Netherlands evolved into Old Dutch (Old Low Franconian), while in Picardy and
le-de-France it was eventually eclipsed by Old French as the dominant language.
Contents
1 Difficulties arising from lack of attestation
2 Nomenclature difficulties
3 Origins in the Istvaeonic group of the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic (before 210 AD)
4 Language of the early Salian and Ripuarian Franks (210-500 AD)
5 Language of the Franks during the Frankish Empire (500-900 AD)
5.1 Core Frankish territory in the Low Countries and in the Cologne area
5.2 France
5.3 Germany
6 Modern descendants of Old Franconian
7 Historical Views of the Linguistic Concept and Meaning of "Franconian" and "Frankish"
7.1 Old Franconian