Old Dutch language
| Old Dutch / Old Low Franconian | |
|---|---|
| Region | the Low Countries |
| Era | 5th to middle 12th century, when it developed into Middle Dutch |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
odt |
|
| Glottolog | oldd1237 |
In linguistics, Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian is the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. dialects that evolved from Frankish) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 5th 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.
Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language and 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, a language that had much in common with Old Dutch.
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. Elements of these dialects in the northern Netherlands survived through the Old Frisian language, but in the rest of the coastal region they were mostly displaced following the withdrawal to England of the migrating Angles and Saxons, who gave rise to Old English.
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