| Moselle Romance | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Germany |
| Region | Along theMoselle River near France |
| Extinct | 11th century |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Moselle Romance (German:Moselromanisch;French:Roman de la Moselle) is an extinctGallo-Romance (most probablyLangue d'oïl) dialect that developed after theFall of the Western Roman Empire along theMoselle river in modern-dayGermany, near the border withFrance. It was part of a wider group of Romance relic areas within the German-speaking territory.[2] Despite heavy Germanic influence, it persisted in isolated pockets until at least the 11th century.[3]
AfterJulius Caesar conqueredGaul in 50 BC, aGallo-Roman culture gradually developed in what is today France, southern Belgium,Luxembourg, and the region betweenTrier andKoblenz. By contrast, the adjacent province ofGermania Inferior and part ofGermania Superior retained a Germanic character throughout the Imperial period.
According to linguist Alberto Varvaro the linguistic frontier between German and Latin populations around the 13th century was similar to the present language frontier, but only a few years before there still was a "remaining area of neolatin speakers" in the valleys of the Mosella river (near old RomanTreviri).[4]
Probably until the first 1200s some farmers around Trier spoke this Moselle Romance, according to Varvaro.
The local Gallo-Roman placenames suggest that the left bank of the Moselle was Germanized following the 8th century, but the right bank remained a Romance-speaking island into at least the 11th century.
Said names includeMaring-Noviand,Osann-Monzel,Longuich,Riol,Hatzenport,Longkamp,Karden, andKröv orAlf.
This being a wine-growing region, a number of viticultural terms from Moselle Romance have survived in the local German dialect.[3]
Despite the completeGermanization of the Romance language island, distinctive Gallo-Roman place names survived. The place nameWelschbillig indicates the former presence of theWelschen (Romanized Celts) in the entire region.
In addition to the Gallo-Roman place and field names, the vocabulary of the Moselle dialects also shows a wealth of Roman influences, which can be viewed as reflexes of the Moselle Roman language island. A quantifying cartographic representation of Romanesque relic word areas shows a clear massing of Romanisms in the middle Moselle area up to the Trier area and the lower reaches of the Saar and Sauer.[6] Examples of such words are:Bäschoff 'back container' <bascauda,Even 'oats' <avena,Fräge 'strawberry' <fraga,Gimme ' 'Bud' <gemma,glinnen 'Glean grapes' <glennare,More 'Blackberry' <morum,pauern 'Most filter ' <purare, Präter 'Flurschütz' <pratarius,Pülpes 'Crownfoot' (plant) <pulli pes etc.[7]
The followingLate Latin inscription from the sixth century is assumed to show influence from early Moselle Romance:
A Latin text from the 9th century written in the monastery ofPrüm by local monks contains several Vulgar Latin terms which are attested only in modernGallo-Romance languages, especially northeastern French andFranco-Provençal, suchmateriamen 'timber' orporritum 'chives'. Based on evidence fromtoponyms and loanwords intoMoselle Franconian dialects, the latest detectable form of Moselle Romance can be classified as aLangue d'oïl dialect. This can be seen e.g. in the placenamesKasnode <*cassanētu andRoveroth <*roburētu, which display a characteristic change of Vulgar Latin stressed /e/ in open syllables.[9]
Scholars such as D'Ambrosio claim that thelingua ignota of SaintHildegard of Bingen may be related to the Romance language of the Moselle, although Hildegard's language appears to be an invented medievalLatin. For example, such words as "loifolum" (similar to the Italian "la folla", "the crowd") may show aNeo-Latin origin.[10]
Saint Hildegard (on her preaching trips) was in the Moselle River Valley (present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) in the last years of the proven existence of this Romance language. In fact the language disappears in the surroundings of Trier (and perhaps also inStrasbourg) during the years of life and preaching of this saint.