View source for Low Franconian

{{Short description|Language family}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = Low Franconian
| altname       = Lower Franconian, Low Frankish; Netherlandic, Netherlandish<br /> {{langx|nl|Nederfrankisch|links=no}}; German: {{lang|de|Niederfränkisch}}
| region        = Netherlands, northern Belgium, northern France, western Germany, [[Suriname]], [[Netherlands Antilles]], [[Aruba]], [[Namibia]] and [[South Africa]]
| familycolor   = Indo-European
| fam2          = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3          = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4          = [[Weser–Rhine Germanic]]
| ancestor      = [[Frankish language|Frankish]]
| child1        = West ''or'' North Low Franconian (including [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Afrikaans]])
| child2        = [[South Low Franconian|East ''or'' South Low Franconian]] (including [[Limburgish]] and [[Bergish dialects|Bergish]])
| glotto        = wese1235
| glottorefname = Low Franconian
| glotto2       = macr1270
| glottoname    = Macro-Dutch
| map           = Afrikaans,_Dutch_and_multilingual_areas.svg
| mapcaption    = Low Franconian-speaking areas in three continents
}}

In [[historical linguistics|historical]] and [[comparative linguistics]], '''Low Franconian''' is a linguistic category used to classify a number of historical and contemporary [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] [[Variety (linguistics)|varieties]] closely related to, and including, the [[Dutch language]]. Most dialects and languages included within this category are spoken in the [[Netherlands]], northern [[Belgium]] ([[Flanders]]), in the [[Nord (French department)|Nord]] department of France, in western Germany ([[Lower Rhine]]), as well as in [[Suriname]], [[South Africa]] and [[Namibia]].

== Terminology ==
''Low Franconian'' is a purely linguistic category and not 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 [[History of the Dutch language|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 at its earlier historical stages, thereby signifying the category's close relation to Dutch, without using it as a synonym.<ref name="LCCaGL">Sarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman: ''Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics'', University of California Press, 1991, p. 321. (Calling it "Low Frankish (or Netherlandish)".)</ref><ref name="THoE">Scott Shay: ''The History of English: A Linguistic Introduction'', Wardja Press, 2008, p. 73. (Having "Old Low Franconian" and mentioning "Old Low Frankish" and "Old Netherlandic".)</ref>

Low Franconian is sometimes, and especially was historically, grouped together with [[Low German|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]].<ref>Glück, H. (ed.): ''Metzler Lexikon Sprache'', Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 2000, pages 472, 473 (entries ''Niederdeutsch'' and ''Niederfränkisch'')</ref><ref>Gabriele Graefen & Martina Liedke-Göbel: ''Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft: Deutsch als Erst-, Zweit- oder Fremdsprache'', 3. ed., 2020, p. 31.</ref> In fact, in nineteenth century literature this grouping could also include [[English language|English]], another West Germanic language that did not undergo the consonant shift.<ref>Chambers W. and R., ltd, ''Outline of the History of the English Language and Literature'' (Oxford, 1882) p. 9</ref><ref>Alexander J. Ellis, ''On Early English Pronouncation, Part IV'' (New York, 1874) p. 1369</ref>

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, [[Central Franconian languages|Middle]] and [[High Franconian German|High Franconian]], with the use of ''Low'' signifying that this category did not participate in the sound shift.<ref>{{cite book |first=Herbert Augustus |last=Strong |first2=Kuno |last2=Meyer |title=Outlines of a History of the German language |location=London |publisher=Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey |date=1886 |page=68}}</ref><ref name="Historisches Lexikon Bayerns">Alfred Klepsch: ''Fränkische Dialekte,'' published on 19 October 2009; in: [http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Fränkische_Dialekte Historisches Lexikon Bayerns] (accessed 21 November 2020)</ref>

== Origins ==
{{Main|Frankish language}}
[[Image:Les Francs entre 400 et 440.svg|thumb|300px|Frankish settlement areas by the 5th century:
{{legend|#fff600|[[Salian Franks]]}}
{{legend|#ffa700|[[Ripuarian Franks]]}}
]]
Despite the name, the [[Historical Linguistics|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 consonant shift|High German]] features in the Middle and High Franconian varieties following the [[Migration Period]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Germanic Languages |first=Wayne Eugene |last=Harbert |location=Cambridge / New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2007 |series=Cambridge Language Surveys |pages=15–17}}</ref><ref name="Historisches Lexikon Bayerns"/> 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 [[loanword]]s in [[Old French]], are the principal languages used to reconstruct Old Frankish using the [[Comparative method (linguistics)|comparative method]].<ref>M. De Vaan: The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017</ref><ref>R. Noske: Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory: Selected papers from Going Romance, Amsterdam 2007, John Benjamins Publishing, 2017</ref>

Within historical linguistics, Old Low Franconian is synonymous with Old Dutch.<ref>Alderik H. Blom: Glossing the Psalms: The Emergence of the Written Vernaculars in Western Europe from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2017, p. 134-135.</ref><ref>Hans Frede Nielsen: The Germanic Languages: Origins and Early Dialectal Interrelations, University of Alabama Press, 1989, p.2</ref> 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.<ref>M. De Vaan: The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017, p. 32.</ref>

Old Low Franconian is, on its turn, divided into two subgroups: Old West Low Franconian (spoken in Flanders, Brabant and Holland) and Old East Low Franconian (spoken in Limburg and the Rhineland).<ref>Oliver M. Traxel, ''Languages'', in: Albrecht Classen (ed.), ''Handbook of Medieval Culture: Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages: Volume 2'', 2015, here p. 810</ref> Old West Low Franconian "is the ancestor ultimately of Dutch".<ref>Benjamin W. Fortson IV, ''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', series: Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics, 2nd ed., 2010 (originally 2004), p. 371</ref>

== Modern classification ==
[[File:Niederfränkisch.png|thumb|Distribution of Low Franconian in Europe, including the Low Franconian–Ripuarian transition area in Limburg and West Germany (in German).]]
Low Franconian includes:<ref>Jan-Wouter Zwart, ''The Syntax of Dutch'', Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 4: "The Low Franconian dialects include Brabantish, East Flemish, West Flemish, Zeeuws, Hollands-Utrechts, and the dialect of North-Noordholland and the North Sea Coast ([..]; the North-Noordholland dialect is confusingly called ''Westfries'' 'West Frisian')."</ref><ref>Anne Pauwels, ''Immigrant Dialects and Language Maintenance in Australia: The Case of the Limburg and Swabian Dialects'', 1986, p. 23: "The Franconian dialects include Hollands, Zeeuws, Flemish (East and West), Brabants and Limburgs. [...] Limburgs is the only East Franconian dialect spoken in the Netherlands. All other Franconian dialects in the Netherlands are West Franconian."</ref><ref>Magda Devos, ''Genese en structuur van het Vlaamse dialectlandschap'', in: Johan De Caluwe, Magda Devos (eds.), ''Structuren in talige variatie in Vlaanderen'', 2006, p. 35ff., here p. 36 [about the Low Franconian dialects in Belgium, shortly also mentioning situations beyond the border (like West-Vlaams in northern France)]</ref><ref>[[Jürgen Erich Schmidt]], Robert Möller, ''Historisches Westdeutsch/Rheinisch (Moselfränkisch, Ripuarisch, Südniederfränkisch)''; in: ''Sprache und Raum: Ein internationales Handbuch der Sprachvariation. Band 4: Deutsch. Herausgegeben von Joachim Herrgen, Jürgen Erich Schmidt. Unter Mitarbeit von Hanna Fischer und Birgitte Ganswindt.'' Volume 30.4 of ''Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft <small>(Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science / Manuels de linguistique et des sciences de communication)</small>'' (HSK). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2019, p. 515ff., here p. 528.</ref><ref>Johannes Venema, ''Zum Stand der zweiten Lautverschiebung im Rheinland: Diatopische, diachrone und diastratische Untersuchungen am Beispiel der dentalen Tenuis (voralthochdeutsch /t/)'' (= ''Mainzer Studien zu Sprach- und Volksforschung 22''), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1997, p. 12</ref><ref>Jan Goossens, ''Die Gliederung des Südniederfränkischen'', in: ''Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter. Jahrgang 30 &nbsp;1965'', Ludwig Röhrscheid Verlag, Bonn, 1965, p. 79-94, esp. p. 79</ref><ref>Jan Goossens, edited by Heinz Eickmans, Loek Geeraedts, Robert Peters, ''Ausgewählte Schriften zur niederländischen und deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft'' (series: ''Niederlande-Studien Band [22]''), Waxmann, Münster / New York / München / Berlin, 2000, p. 202 [a map showing ''Friesisch'' and ''Niedersächsisch'' in the Netherlands as well as ''Nordniederfränkisch'' and ''Südniederfränkisch'' in the Netherlands and Germany]</ref><ref>[[Jan Goossens (linguist)|Jan Goossens]], ''Die gerundeten Palatalvokale im niederländischen Sprachraum'', in: Ludwig Erich Schmitt (ed.), ''Zeitschrift für Mundartforschung'', XXIX. Jahrgang 1962, Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1962, p. 312–328, here p. 313 [equating West Low Franconian and North Low Franconian as well as East Low Franconian and South Low Franconian, calling the West/East terminology Netherlandic technical language]</ref>
* West Low Franconian ({{lang|nl|Westnederfrankisch}}; in Germany also referred to as North Low Franconian ({{lang|de|Nordniederfränkisch}})): north of the [[Uerdingen line]]
** [[Brabantian dialect|Brabantish]] ({{lang|nl|Brabants}})
** [[West Flemish]] ({{lang|nl|West-Vlaams}}; also spoken in northern France)
** [[East Flemish]] ({{lang|nl|Oost-Vlaams}})
** [[Zeelandic]] ({{lang|nl|Zeeuws}})
** Hollands-Utrechts
*** [[Hollandic]] ({{lang|nl|Hollands}})
** the dialect of North-Noordholland and the North Sea Coast
** [[Kleverlandish]]
* [[South Low Franconian]] ({{lang|nl|Zuidnederfrankisch}}, {{lang|de|Südniederfränkisch}}; also: East Low Franconian ({{lang|nl|Oostnederfrankisch}})). In Belgium and the Netherlands commonly referred to as {{lang|nl|Limburgs}} ([[Limburgish]]), although this term is rarely applied to varieties of this group spoken in Germany.

South Low Franconian occupies a special position among the Low Franconian subgroups, since it shares several linguistic features with [[Ripuarian language|Ripuarian]] dialects spoken to the southeast, such as the conditioned split of the [[West Germanic]] diphthongs *ai and *au (e.g. in Roermonds *ai splits to /eː/ and /ɛi/, *au to /oː/ and /ɔu/), which apart from Ripuarian is also found in all other [[High German]] dialects, and the characteristic [[Pitch-accent_language#Franconian_dialects|pitch accent]], which is exclusively shared with Ripuarian and [[Moselle Franconian]].<ref name=Hermans>{{cite book |last=Hermans |first=Ben |year=2013 |chapter=Phonological features of Limburgian dialects |editor1=Frans Hinskens |editor2=Johan Taeldeman |title=Dutch |series=Language and Space: An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Volume 3 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |doi=10.1515/9783110261332.336 |pages=336–355}}</ref>{{efn|Traditionally, the [[Uerdingen line]] (separating ''ik'' and ''ich'' 'I') and the [[Benrath line]] (separating ''maken'' and ''machen'' 'to make') have been considered respectively the northern and southern borders of South Low Franconian. However, both Dutch and German scholars have questioned the classificatory value of the Uerdingen line: in the (north-)west, it is too inclusive, while in the north in Dutch Limburg and in the northeast in the [[Rhineland]], the scope of South Low Franconian extends beyond the Uerdingen line when considering structural features such as the occurrence of pitch accent and the reflexes of West Germanic vowels.<ref name=Hermans/><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Frens |last1=Bakker |first2=Roeland |last2=van Hout |title=De indeling van de dialecten in Noord-Limburg en het aangrenzende Duitse gebied: Hoe relevant is de Uerdingerlijn als scheidslijn? |journal=Nederlands Taalkunde |volume=22 |issue=3 |year=2017 |pages=303–332 |doi=10.5117/NEDTAA2017.3.BAKK|hdl=2066/183252 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wiesinger |first=Peter |year=1983 |chapter=Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte |editor=Besch, Werner |title=Dialektologie: Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung |pages=807-900 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton}}.</ref>}}

== Area loss ==
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 [[Francization|Francisation]] under the auspices of the French government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/francophonie/HIST_FR_s9_Fr-contemporain.htm#1_Le_r%C3%B4le_de_lInstruction_publique_dans_lapprentissage_du_fran%C3%A7ais_|title=Histoire du français: Le français contemporain|website=www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca|access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref> Similarly, in the Lower Rhine region, local literary Low Franonian varieties were employed in official use until the 17th century, but were subsequently replaced by standard German in most parts, except for [[Upper Guelders]] and [[Duchy of Cleves|Cleves]] (both since 1701 part of [[Prussia]]), where standard Dutch prevailed as literary language. Following the incoporation of Upper Guelders and Cleves into the [[Rhine Province|Prussian Rhine Province]], there was extensive [[Germanisation]], and Dutch was replaced by German for official use, and its use discouraged in favor of German in the public sphere, leading to a rapid decline in the use of standard Dutch. Vernacular Low Franconian varieties continue to be spoken in the Lower Rhine region to this day, but many speakers have switched to local colloquial forms of German (''Umgangssprache'') since the second half of the 20th century due to increased mobility and wider access to mass media.<ref>Heinz Eickmans, ''Aspekte einer niederrheinischen Sprachgeschichte'', in: Werner Besch, Anne Betten, Oskar Reichmann, Stefan Sonderegger (eds.), ''Sprachgeschichte: Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung'', 2nd ed., 3. Teilband (series: HSK 2.3), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York, 2003, p. 2629ff., here p. 2634–2638.</ref><ref>Georg Cornelissen: Das Niederländische im preußischen Gelderland und seine Ablösung durch das Deutsche, Rohrscheid, 1986, S. 93.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-06-21 |title=Historische Sprachverhältnisse - Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte |url=https://rheinische-landeskunde.lvr.de/de/sprache/wissensportal_neu/dialekt_1/historische_sprachverhaeltnisse_kopie/historische_sprachverhaeltnisse.html |access-date=2022-09-29 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621135055/https://rheinische-landeskunde.lvr.de/de/sprache/wissensportal_neu/dialekt_1/historische_sprachverhaeltnisse_kopie/historische_sprachverhaeltnisse.html |archive-date=21 June 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In addition, the historically Dutch-speaking [[Brussels Capital Region]] is officially bilingual, but now largely francophone.

== See also ==
* [[Dutch dialects]]
* [[Istvaeones]]
* [[History of Dutch]]
* [[Middle Dutch]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Wolfram Euler|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}}.
* [[Friedrich Maurer (linguist)|Maurer, Friedrich]] (1942), ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde'', Straßburg: Hünenburg-Verlag.

{{Germanic languages}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Low Franconian languages| ]]
[[Category:Frankish people]]