LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.07.02 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 02 July 2008 - Volume 05
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From: Ivison dos Passos Martins <ipm7d at OI.COM.BR>
Subject: Saxonian

Hallo!

  Has the language they spoke in Saxonia in the 5th century AD. been
preserved in any way? English comes from that language (dialect?), so is
it very different from English today? How close is it to German?

  Ah, It's all right, Ron. No problem.

   Regards,

       Ívison.

----------


From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

And yet again hi, Ívison!

There's a great difference between Old Saxon and Modern Low Saxon varieties.
These seem to be less in terms of phonology (since Low Saxon is
comparatively conservative in this regard), more in terms of morphology.
Modern Low Saxon morphology is much simplified, though not quite as
simplified as English morphology is in comparison with that of Old English.

Old English, Old Frisian, Old Franconian and Old Saxon are fairly closely
related and were at one point in time mutually comprehensible. Apparently,
English missionaries didn't have any problems when the went to Continental
Saxony to convert the people in their ancestors' home country. (The English
were more widely Christianized earlier because of Irish missionaries.) Old
German is the odd one in the bunch, mostly because of consonant shifts: t >
ts > s, p > pf > f, k > kch > ch, hence *zît* > *Zeit*, *wazzar* > *Wasser*,
*pfeffer* > *Pfeffer*, *k(ch)ohhen* > *kochen*, compared with Saxon *t**îd*>
*Tied* (tide, time), *watar* > *Water* (water), *pêper* > *Peper* (pepper),
*kâkan* > *kaken* (to cook) respectively. German later added
diphthongization of certain long vowels (as in *zît* > *Zeit*, and *h**ûs* >
*Haus* 'house') and Dutch and English diphthongized those too (but Scots did
not diphthongize long [u:], as in ***hoose* 'house'). Low Saxon did not
participate in any of these shifts, so it is indeed very conservative, as is
Frisian.

Ívison, in order to get an idea of the differences between the old, middle
and modern varieties, I suggest you take a look at our translations of the
wren story, several of which come with audio files:

   - *Old English*
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/englisc-roman.php
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/englisc-roman2.php
   - *Middle English*
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/english-m-verse1-roman.php
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/english-m-verse2-roman.php
   - *Early Modern English*
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/english-e-m-roman.php
   - *Old Saxon*
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/oldsaxon-roman.php
   - *Middle Saxon*
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/sassysch-roman.php
   - *Modern Low Saxon*
   many versions - check under
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents.php
   - *Old German*
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/diutisc-roman1.php
   - *Modern German*
   several versions - check under
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents.php

There are also Scandinavian versions, and versions in many other languages.

Lists of contents:

   - Chinese (simplified): http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/
   images/zh-jianti.gif
   - Chinese (traditional):
   http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/images/zh-fanti.gif
   - Dutch: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-nl.php
   - English: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents.php
   - French: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-fr.php
   - German: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-de.php
   - Malay/Indonesian: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-id-my.php
   - Portuguese: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-pt.php
   - Russian: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-ru.php
   - Spanish: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/contents-es.php

Index Page: http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/

Enjoy!

Reinhard/Ron
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