Frankish language
Frankish (reconstructed endonym: *Frenkisk), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
| Frankish | |
|---|---|
| Old Franconian, Old Frankish | |
| *Frenkisk | |
| Native to | Frankish Empire |
| Region | Western Europe |
| Ethnicity | Franks |
| Era | Gradually evolved into Old Low Franconian (Old Dutch) and Old High Franconian by the 9th century, which dissolved with other West Germanic varieties into Old High German, and influenced Old French as a superstrate. |
| Elder Futhark (not widely used) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | frk |
| Glottolog | fran1264 |
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy and Île-de-France were outnumbered by the local populace who spoke Proto-Romance dialects. However, many modern French words and place names, including the eventual country's name of "France", have a Frankish (i.e. Germanic) origin. France itself is still known by terms literally meaning the "Frankish Realm".
Between the 5th and 9th centuries, Frankish spoken in Northeastern France, present-day Belgium, and the Netherlands is subsequently referred to as Old Dutch, whereas the Frankish varieties spoken in the Rhineland were heavily influenced by Elbe Germanic dialects and the Second Germanic consonant shift and would form part of the modern Central Franconian and Rhine Franconian dialects of German and Luxembourgish.
The Old Frankish language is poorly attested and mostly reconstructed from Frankish loanwords in Old French, and inherited words in Old Dutch, as recorded in the 6th to 12th centuries. A notable exception is the Bergakker inscription, which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish, though it is debated whether the inscription is written in Frankish, or Old Dutch.