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Old Saxon

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Germanic language spoken from the 8th to 12th centuries
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This article is about the ancient language of the continental Saxons. For the Anglo-Saxon language, seeOld English. For the ancient Saxon people who spoke the language, seeSaxons. For all other uses, seeSaxon (disambiguation).
Old Saxon
Old Low German
Sahsisk
RegionNorthwestGermany, NortheastNetherlands, SouthernDenmark (North Schleswig)
EthnicitySaxons
Era8th–12th centuries; mostly developed intoMiddle Low German at the end of the 12th century
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3osx
osx
Glottologolds1250
Area in which Old Saxon was spoken in yellow
This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

Old Saxon (German:altsächsische Sprache), also known asOld Low German (German:altniederdeutsche Sprache), was aGermanic language and the earliest recorded form ofLow German (spoken nowadays inNorthern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, theAmericas and parts ofEastern Europe). It is aWest Germanic language, closely related to theAnglo-Frisian languages.[1] It is documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it gradually evolved intoMiddle Low German. It was spoken throughout modern northwestern Germany, primarily in the coastal regions and in the easternNetherlands bySaxons, a Germanic tribe that inhabited the region ofSaxony. It partially sharesAnglo-Frisian's (Old Frisian,Old English)Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law which sets it apart fromLow Franconian andIrminonic languages, such asDutch,Luxembourgish andGerman.

The grammar of Old Saxon was fullyinflected with fivegrammatical cases (nominative,accusative,genitive,dative, andinstrumental), threegrammatical numbers (singular,plural, anddual), and threegrammatical genders (masculine,feminine, andneuter). Thedual forms occurred in the first and second persons only.

Characteristics

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Relation with other West Germanic languages

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In the earlyMiddle Ages, adialect continuum existed betweenOld Dutch and Old Saxon, a continuum which has since been interrupted by the simultaneous dissemination of standard languages within each nation and the dissolution of folk dialects. Although they share some features, a number of differences separate Old Saxon,Old English, and Old Dutch. One such difference is the Old Dutch utilization of-a as its plural a-stem noun ending, while Old Saxon and Old English employ-as or-os. However, it seems thatMiddle Dutch took the Old Saxon a-stem ending from someMiddle Low German dialects, as modern Dutch includes the plural ending-s added to certain words. Another difference is the so-called "unified plural": Old Saxon, like Old Frisian and Old English, has one verb form for all three persons in the plural, whereas Old Dutch retained three distinct forms (reduced to two in Middle Dutch).

Old Saxon (or Old Low German) probably evolved primarily fromIngvaeonic dialects in theWest Germanic branch ofProto-Germanic in the 5th century. However, Old Saxon, even considered as an Ingvaeonic language, is not a pure Ingvaeonic dialect likeOld Frisian and Old English, the latter two sharing some other Ingvaeonic characteristics, which Old Saxon lacked.

Relation to Middle Low German

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Old Saxon naturally evolved into Middle Low German over the course of the 11th and 12th centuries, with a great shift fromLatin to Low German writing happening around 1150, so that the development of the language can be traced from that period.

The most striking difference between Middle Low German and Old Saxon is in a feature of speech known asvowel reduction, which took place in most otherWest Germanic languages and some Scandinavian dialects such asDanish, reducing all unstressed vowels toschwa. Thus, such Old Saxon words likegisprekan ('spoken') ordagō ('days'' – gen. pl.) becamegesprēken anddāge.

Phonology

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Main article:Old Saxon phonology

Early developments

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Old Saxon did not participate in theHigh German consonant shift, and thus preserves stop consonantsp,t,k that have been shifted inOld High German to variousfricatives andaffricates. The Germanic diphthongsai,au consistently develop into long vowelsē,ō, whereas in Old High German they appear either asei,ou orē,ō depending on the following consonant.

Old Saxon, alone of the West Germanic languages except for Frisian, consistently preserves Germanic/j/ after a consonant, e.g.hēliand'savior' (Old High German:heilant,Old English:hǣlend, butGothic:háiljands).Germanic umlaut, when it occurs with shorta, is inconsistent, e.g.hebbean orhabbian "to have" (Old English:habban). This feature was carried over into the descendant-language of Old Saxon, Middle Low German, where e.g. the adjectivekrank ('sick, ill') had the comparative formskrenker andkranker. Apart from thee, however, the umlaut is not marked in writing.

Consonants

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The table below lists the consonants of Old Saxon. Phonemes written in parentheses representallophones and are not independent phonemes.

Old Saxon consonant phonemes
LabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasalmn
Plosivevoicelessptk
voicedbdɣ (x)
Fricativef (v)θ (ð)s̺ (z̺)h
Approximantljw
Trillr

Notes:

  • The voiceless spirants/f/,/θ/, and/s/ gain voiced allophones ([v],[ð], and[z]) when between vowels. This change is only faithfully reflected in writing for[v] (represented with letters such as⟨ƀ⟩ and⟨u⟩). The other two allophones continued to be written as before.
  • Fricatives were devoiced again word-finally. Beginning in the later Old Saxon period,stops became devoiced word-finally as well.
  • Most consonants could begeminated. Notably, geminated/v/ gave/bː/, and geminated/ɣ/ probably gave/ɡː/; Geminated/h/ resulted in/xː/.
  • Germanic*h is retained as[x] in these positions and thus merges with devoiced/ɣ/.

Vowels

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Old Saxon monophthongs
FrontBack
shortlongshortlongshortlong
Closeɪiː(ʏ)(yː)ʊuː
Close-mid(e)eː(øː)oː
Open-midɛɛː(œ)(œː)ɔɔː
Open(æ)(æː)ɑɑː

Notes:

  • Long vowels were rare in unstressed syllables and mostly occurred due to suffixation or compounding.

Diphthongs

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Old Saxon diphthongs
FrontBack
Openingio  (ia  ie)(uo)
Height-harmoniciu
Closingaːi  ɛi  ɛuɑu  ɔːi  oːi

Notes:

  • The closing diphthongs/ei/ and/ou/ sometimes occur in texts (especially inGenesis), probably under the influence ofFranconian orHigh German dialects, where they replace Old Saxon developments/ɛː/ and/ɔː/ (which evolved fromProto-Germanic/ai/ and/au/).
  • The situation for the front opening diphthongs is somewhat unclear in some texts. Words written with ⟨io⟩ in theHeliand, the most extensive record of Old Saxon writing, are often found written variably with ⟨ia⟩ or even ⟨ie⟩ in most other texts, notably the later ones. The diphthong eventually merges into/eː/ in almost every Middle Low German dialect except southeasternEastphalian.
  • There also existed 'long' diphthongs/oːu/,/aːu/ and/eːu/. These were, however, treated as two-syllable sequences of a long vowel followed by a short one, not proper diphthongs.

Grammar

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Main article:Old Saxon grammar

Morphology

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Unlike modern English, Old Saxon was aninflected language rich inmorphological diversity. It kept five out of the six distinct cases ofProto-Germanic: thenominative,accusative,genitive,dative and (Vestigially in the oldest texts)instrumental.

Old Saxon also had threegrammatical numbers (singular, anddual, andplural) and threegrammatical genders (masculine,feminine, andneuter). The dual forms occurred in the first and second persons only and referred to groups of exactly two.

Nouns

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Old Saxon nouns were inflected in very different ways following their classes. Here are the endings fordag,'day' an a-stem masculine noun:

dag 'day'm.
CaseSingularPlural
Nominative, Accusativedagdagos
Genitivedages, -asdago
Dativedage, -adagum, -un

At the end of the Old Saxon period, distinctions between noun classes began to disappear, and endings from one were often transferred to the other declension, and vice versa. This happened to be a large process, and the most common noun classes started to cause the least represented to disappear. As a result, in Middle Low German, only the former weak n-stem and strong a-stem classes remained. These two noun inflection classes started being added to words not only following the historical belonging of this word, but also following the root of the word.

Verbs

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The Old Saxon verb inflection system reflects an intermediate stage between Old English and Old Dutch, and further Old High German. Unlike Old High German and Old Dutch, but similarly to Old English, it did not preserve the three different verb endings in the plural, all featured as-ad (also-iad or-iod following the different verb inflection classes). Like Old Dutch, it had only two classes of weak verb, with only a few relic verbs of the third weak class (namely four verbs:libbian,seggian,huggian andhebbian).

This table sums up all seven Old Saxon strong verb classes and the three weak verb classes:

Strong verbsWeak verbs
ConjugationPronoun'to ride''to fly''to help''to break''to speak''to travel''to wield''to deem''to declare''to say'
Infinitiverīdanflioganhelpanbrekansprekanfaranwaldandōmianmahlonseggian
Present indicative
ikrīdufliuguhilpubrikusprikufaruwaldudōmiumahlo(n)seggiu
thūrīdisfliugishilpisbrikissprikisferisweldisdōmismahlossages
hē/it/siurīdidfliugidhilpidbrikidsprikidferidweldiddōmidmahlodsaged
wī/gī/siarīdadfliogadhelpadbrekadsprekadfaradwaldaddōmiadmahliodseggiad
Past indicative
ikrēdflōghalpbraksprakfōrwēlddōmdamahlodasagda
thūridiflugihulpibrākisprākifōriwēldidōmdesmahlodessagdes
hē/it/siurēdflōghalpbraksprakfōrwēlddōmdamahlodasagda
wī/gī/siaridunflugunhulpunbrākunsprākunfōrunwēldundōmdunmahlodunsagdun
Present subjunctive
ikrīdefliogehelpebrekesprekefarewaldedōmiemahloseggie
thūrīdesfliogeshelpesbrekessprekesfareswaldesdōmiesmahlosseggies
hē/it/siurīdefliogehelpebrekesprekefarewaldedōmiemahloseggie
wī/gī/siarīdenfliogenhelpenbrekensprekenfarenwaldendōmienmahlionseggien
Past subjunctive
ikridiflugihulpibrākisprākifōriwēldidōmdimahlodisagdi
thūridisflugishulpisbrākissprākisfōriswēldisdōmdismahlodissagdis
hē/it/siuridiflugihulpibrākisprākifōriwēldidōmdimahlodisagdi
wī/gī/siaridinfluginhulpinbrākinsprākinfōrinwēldindōmdinmahlodinsagdin
ImperativeSingularrīdflioghelpbreksprekfarwalddōmimahlosage
Pluralrīdadfliogadhelpadbrekadsprekadfaradwaldaddōmiadmahliodseggiad
Present participlerīdandifliogandihelpandibrekandisprekandifarandiwaldandidōmiandimahlondiseggiandi
Past participle(gi)ridan(gi)flogan(gi)holpan(gi)brokan(gi)sprekan(gi)faran(gi)waldan(gi)dōmid(gi)mahlod(gi)sagd

It should be noticed that the third weak verb class includes only four verbs (namelylibbian,seggian,huggian andhebbian); it is a remnant of an older and larger class that was kept in Old High German.

Syntax

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Old Saxon syntax is mostly different from that ofmodern English. Some were simply consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection – e.g., word order was generally freer. In addition:

Orthography

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Old Saxon comes down in a number of different manuscripts whose spelling systems sometimes differ markedly. In this section, only the letters used in normalized versions of theHeliand will be kept, and the sounds modern scholars have traditionally assigned to these letters. Where spelling deviations in other texts may point to significant pronunciation variants, this will be indicated.

In general, the spelling of Old Saxon corresponds quite well to that of the other ancientGermanic languages, such as Old High German orGothic.

  • ⟨c⟩ and ⟨k⟩ were both used for[k]. However, it seems that, as in otherWest-Germanic dialects, when[k] was followed by ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩, it had the pronunciation/ts/ or/kʲsʲ/.[2] The letters ⟨c⟩ and ⟨x⟩ were preferred for thepalatalisations, ⟨k⟩ and even sometimes ⟨ch⟩ being rather used before ⟨u⟩, ⟨o⟩ or ⟨a⟩ for/k/ (kuning for[kʏnɪŋk] 'king', modernköning;crûci for[kryːtsi] ;forsachistu for[forsakistuː]).
  • ⟨g⟩ represented[ɣ] or its allophone[ɡ]:brengian[brɛŋɡjan] 'to bring',seggian[sɛɡɡjan] 'to say',wege[wɛɣe] 'way' (dative).
  • ⟨g⟩ seems, at least in a few dialects, to have had the pronunciation[j] or[ʝ] at the beginning of a word, only when followed by ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩. Thus we findgiār[jaːr] 'year' and evengēr[jeːr] 'year', the latter betraying a strong Old Frisian influence.
  • ⟨h⟩ represents[h] and its allophone[x]:holt[hɔlt] 'wood',naht[naxt] 'night' (mod.nacht).
  • ⟨i⟩ is used for both the vowels[ɪ] and[iː] and the consonant[j]:ik[ɪk] 'I' (mod.ich,ik),iār[jaːr] 'year'.
  • ⟨qu⟩ and ⟨kw⟩ always represent[kw]:quāmun[kwaːmʊn] 'they came'.
  • ⟨s⟩ represented[s], and between two vowels also[z].
  • ⟨th⟩ is used to indicate[θ]:thōhtun[θoːxtun] 'they thought'. ⟨ð⟩ is used for[ð], occasionally also written ⟨dh⟩.
  • ⟨u⟩ represented the vowels[ʊ] and[uː], or the consonant[β] ~[v], which was denoted sporadically across manuscripts by either ⟨ƀ⟩, ⟨b⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨v⟩, or ⟨f⟩'.[3]
  • ⟨uu⟩ was normally used to represent[w], predating the letter ⟨w⟩.
  • ⟨z⟩ only appeared in a few texts due toOld High German influence.

Literature

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Heliand excerpt from theGerman Historical Museum in Berlin

Only a few texts survive, predominantly baptismal vows the Saxons were required to perform at the behest ofCharlemagne. The only literary texts preserved areHeliand and fragments of theOld Saxon Genesis. There is also:

  • Beda homily (Homilie Bedas)
  • Credo (Abrenunciatio diaboli et credo) → Old Saxon baptismal vow.
  • Essener Heberegister
  • Old Saxon Baptismal Vow (German:Sächsisches Taufgelöbnis)
  • Penitentiary (altsächsische Beichte, altwestfälische Beichte)
  • Trierer Blutsegen (de.)
  • Spurihalz (Wiener Pferdsegen) (de.)
  • Wurmsegen (Wiener Wurmsegen) (de).
  • Psalms commentary (Gernroder Psalmenkommentar)

Text sample

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A poetic version of theLord's Prayer in the form of the traditional Germanicalliterative verse is given in Old Saxon below as it appears in theHeliand.

LineOriginalModern Low GermanTranslation
[1600]Fadar usa // firiho barno,Vadder van us, de Söhn/ Kinner van de Minschen,Father our [our Father/Father of us], men's sons [the sons of men],
[1601]thu bist an them hohon // himila rikea,Du bist an den hogen himmlischen Riek,Thou art [You are] in the high heavenly domain [kingdom of the heavens],
[1602]geuuihid si thin namo // uuordo gehuuilico,Hiligt wees/sie dien naam in elk Woord,Hallowed be Thy [Your] name (with) every word,
[1603]Cuma thin // craftag riki.Kaam dien mächtig Riek.May Thy [Your] mighty domain [kingdom] come.
[1604]UUerða thin uuilleo // oƀar thesa werold alla,Warr dien Wille över düsse Werld allerwegens,Worth [May] Thy [Your] will (be done) over all this world,
[1605]so sama an erðo, // so thar uppa istso up de Eerd, as dat it is dor bavenJust the same on earth, as (it) is up there
[1606]an them hohon // himilo rikea.in den hogen himmlischen riekin the high heavenly domain [kingdom of the heavens].
[1607]Gef us dag gehuuilikes rad, // drohtin the godo,Giff us elk Dag Raad, Herr de Gode,Give us every day rede [advice/counsel], (oh) Drighten [Lord] the Good,
[1608]thina helaga helpa, // endi alat us, heƀenes uuard,Dine hilige Hölp, un laat us free, Beschermer van de Heven,(and) Thy [Your] holy help, and deliver [set free/absolve] us, (oh) Heaven's Ward [Lord/Ruler of Heaven],
[1609]managoro mensculdio, // al so uue oðrum mannum doan.(van) is männje Schullen(of our) many crimes, just as we (shall) do (to) other men [people].
[1610]Ne lat us farledean // leða uuihtiLaat lege/böse Wichten nich us verschünnenDo not let loath(some) wights forlead [mislead, seduce] us
[1611]so forð an iro uuilleon, // so uui uuirðige sind,jümehr Willen to doon, as wi würdig sind,so forth in [to go on with] their will, so [given that] we are worthy,
[1612]ac help us uuiðar allun // uƀilon dadiun.man hölp us(fechten/twingen?) tegen alle öveln/bösen Daden/Begeevnissen.but (rather) help us wither [against] all evil deeds.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Britannica 2024, Old Saxon language.
  2. ^Lasch 1914, p. 339.
  3. ^Gallée 1910, pp. 126–128, 161.

Bibliography

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Sources

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General

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  • 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, London/Berlin 2013,ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.
  • Rauch, Irmengard (1992).The Old Saxon Language. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.ISBN 0820418935.LCCN 92020320.OCLC 26052698.OL 1717740M.
  • Ringe, Donald R. and Taylor, Ann (2014).The Development of Old English – A Linguistic History of English, vol. II, 632p.ISBN 978-0199207848. Oxford.
  • Holthausen, Ferdinand (1923).Altsächsisches Elementarbuch. Ulan Press.

Lexicons

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External history

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External links

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Look upOld Saxon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
For a list of words relating to Old Saxon, see theOld Saxon language category of words inWiktionary, the free dictionary.
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