Low Franconian, or
Low Frankish, is a group of several
West Germanic languages spoken in the
Netherlands, northern
Belgium (
Flanders), in the northern department of
France, in western Germany (
Lower Rhine), as well as in
Suriname,
South Africa and
Namibia that originally descended from
Old Frankish.
The Frankish language, also Old Frankish, was the language of the Franks. Classified as a West Germanic language, it was spoken in Merovingian times, preceding the 6th/7th century. Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The Franks first established themselves in the Netherlands and Flanders before they started to fight their way down south and east. The language had a significant impact on Old French. It evolved into Old Low Franconian in the north and it was replaced by French in the south. Old Frankish is not directly attested and is reconstructed from loanwords in Old French, and from Old Dutch.
Old Low Franconian (also Old Low Frankish) was a group of dialects spoken in the Low countries. They were the descendants of the Old Frankish language. Old Low Franconian was divided in two groups, Old Dutch (also Old West Low Franconian) and Old East Low Franconian. East Low Franconian was eventually absorbed by Dutch as it became the dominant form of Low Franconian, although it remains a noticeable substrate within the southern Limburgish dialects of Dutch.[1] Because the two groups were so similar it is often very hard to determine whether a text is Old Dutch or Old East Low Franconian, hence most linguists will generally use Old Dutch synonymously with Old Low Franconian and most of the time do not differentiate.
Dutch, like other Germanic languages, is conventionally divided into three phases. In the development of Dutch these phases were
