Low Franconian

Low Frankish is a purely linguistic category and isn't used as a term of self-designation among any of the speakers of the Germanic dialects traditionally grouped within it.

Within the field of historical philology the terminology for the historical phases of Low Franconian is not analogous to the traditional Old High German / Middle High German and Old Low German / Middle Low German dichotomies, with the terms Old Dutch and Middle Dutch commonly being preferred to Old Low Franconian and Middle Low Franconian in most contexts. Due to the category's strong interconnection with the Dutch language and its historical forms, Low Franconian is occasionally used interchangeably with Dutch, though the latter term can have a broader as well as narrower meaning depending on the specific context. English publications alternatively use Netherlandic as a synonym of Low Franconian, thereby signifying the category's close relation to Dutch, without using it as a synonym.[1][2]

Low Franconian is sometimes, and especially was historically, grouped together with Low Saxon, referred to as Low German. However, this grouping is not based on common linguistic innovations, but rather on the absence of the High German consonant shift.[3][4] The term Frankish or Franconian as a modern linguistic category was coined by the German linguist Wilhelm Braune (1850–1926). He divided Franconian which contained both Germanic dialects which had and had not experienced the Second Germanic consonant shift into Low, Middle and High Franconian, with the use of Low signifying that this category did not participate in the sound shift.[5][6]

Frankish settlement areas by the 5th century:

  Salian Franks

  Ripuarian Franks

Despite the name, the diachronical connection to Old Frankish, the unattested language spoken by the Franks, is unclear for most of the varieties grouped under the broad "Franconian" category, mainly due to the heavy influence of Elbe Germanic/High German features in the Middle and High Franconian varieties following the Migration Period.[7][6] The dialects of the Low Franconian grouping form an exception to this, with the dialects generally being accepted to be the most direct descendants of Old Frankish. As such, Old Dutch and Middle Dutch, together with loanwords in Old French, are the principal languages used to reconstruct Old Frankish using the comparative method.[8][9]

Within historical linguistics Old Low Franconian is synonymous with Old Dutch.[10][11] 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 in the late 9th century, or a combination of both.[12]

Old Low Franconian is divided into Old West Low Franconian (spoken in Flanders, Brabant and Holland) and Old East Low Franconian (spoken in Limburg and the Rhineland).[13] Old West Low Franconian "is the ancestor ultimately of Dutch".[14]

Low Franconian includes:[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]

• North Low Franconian (Nordniederfränkisch), West Low Franconian or West Franconian: north of the Uerdingen line
  • Brabantish (Brabants)
  • Flemish
    • West Flemish (West-Vlaams; also spoken in northern France)
    • East Flemish (Oost-Vlaams)
  • Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
  • Hollands-Utrechts
    • Hollandic (Hollands)
  • the dialect of North-Noordholland and the North Sea Coast
  • Kleverländisch or Klevisch
  • East Bergish (Ostbergisch; including Mölmsch)
• South Low Franconian (Südniederfränkisch), East Low Franconian or East Franconian (not to be confused with the High German dialect East Franconian): between the Uerdingen line and the Benrath line; spoken in Germany in and around Düsseldorf and Krefeld as well as Remscheid and Heinsberg, in Belgium in the Land of Eupen and Limburg and in the Netherlands in Limburg.
  • Limburgish (Limburgs, Limburgisch; the Netherlandic-Flemish part of South Low Franconian)

The Dutch standard language, being based primarily on Flemish, Brabantian and Hollandic dialects, has had a considerable influence on West Frisian dialects and Low Saxon dialects spoken in the Netherlands, as well as on the East Frisian dialects of Germany; with the effect of creating significant substrate interference in these varieties.[26]

Until the Early Modern Period all speakers of varieties of Low Franconian used Middle Dutch or Early Modern Dutch as their literary language and Dachsprache. There was a marked change in the 19th century, when the historically Dutch-speaking region of French Flanders underwent a period of Francisation under the auspices of the French government.[27] Similarly, in the Lower Rhine region (then part of Prussia), there was extensive Germanisation, and public and official use of the Dutch language was forbidden, leading to a decline in the use of Dutch and Limburgish.[28][29][30] In addition, the historically Dutch-speaking Brussels Capital Region is officially bilingual, but now largely francophone.

• Dutch dialects
• Istvaeones
• History of Dutch
• Middle Dutch

• Euler, Wolfram (2013). Das Westgermanische – von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert – Analyse und Rekonstruktion (West Germanic: from its Emergence in the 3rd up until its Dissolution in the 7th century CE: Analyses and Reconstruction). 244 p., in German with English summary, Verlag Inspiration Un Limited, London/Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.
• Maurer, Friedrich (1942), Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Straßburg: Hünenburg-Verlag.