Whatever happened to the language of the Franks?

The Franks, the people who gave their name to France, were an ancient people from the southern Netherlands and central Germany.

Many people believe the Old Frankish language (The language of the Franks) went completely extinct.

Although the Germanic Franks were much and much smaller in numbers than the Gallo-Romans they as a single people ruled Gaul for nearly 300 years.The language went extinct in most of France and all of Germany in around the 7th century, and was replaced by Old French (With a considerable Frankish influence) and in Germany with mostly Allemanic.

But the language did not die out completely, it evolved.

Around the same time as the Frankish language begins to decline in France and Germany it begins to evolves in the Low Countries.It evolves into what we know call Old Franconian, also known as Old Dutch.

This language, Old Franconian/Old Dutch (500 - 1150), evolved into Middle Dutch (1150 and 1500) and finally: Modern Dutch (1500 - Present).
This herritage is still very much visible;
Some Old Low Franconian words (believed to be extremely close to Old Frankish)

O.L.F/O.D - C.D (English)
vogala - vogel (bird, compare 'fowl')
hebban - hebben (to have)
gevon - geven (to give)
hero - heer (lord)
gesterkon - versterken (to reinforce)
gewisso - gewis (certain)
fardiligon - verdelgen (exterminate)

The Frankish settlement of Gaul was compltely different than that of the Germanic conquest of Britain.

For one, Gaul was thouroughly Romanized. Celtic influenced Latin was the language of the mass majority of people.

Britain was never truly Romanized the way Gaul was. For the most part, it remained a Celtic land, with a thin veneer of Roman culture.

Although Latin was spoken by upper class Britons and the clergy, the common people still spoke their native languages.

A highly advanced and sophisticated Gallo-Roman culture was much more resistant to inferior Frankish influence. It was much easier to supplant Roman civilization, if you can even call it that, in Britain. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came in much greater numbers relative to the local population.

>>Frankish, a dialect of High German, was spoken in parts of France until about the end of the 7th century when it was completely replaced by the Romance vernaculars, primarily French and Provençal. A pocket of Celtic speech also survived in the province of Auvergne (birth place of Vercingetorix) until about the same time.<<

If by Frankish here you mean the actually language of the Franks then it's incorrect to say it was a high german dialect.

Brennus, don't forget about the Huns. Another major reason for the westward expansion of the Germans was the fact that they were a migratory people, and it was part of their nature. In lot of cases, the Germans didn't see themselves as invaders, but as immigrants, seeking a better life in the luxury of the Roman Empire.

>>No, Sir. The Angles, Frisians and Saxons were Low German speaking; Franks, Burgundians, Allemands lived further south and spoke High German dialects. The original Frankish homeland was actually in what is now Poland, in Poznan and Silesia. All of the Germanic tribes were forced futher westward by the advancing Slavs. <<

No, although eventhough the Frankish original homeland was Poland, they occupied the border area with the Roman Empire in what are now the Netherlands and Northern Belgium.

It's quite possible (and source of heated debates) that the Frankish language had 2 forms, high (in the end) and low, like saxon had, but one thing is sure it certainly had a low form, because germanic languages that have experienced the High German consonant shift do not turn low once more.

We must not forget the heart of the Frankish empire was situated in the Low countries and the Low Rhine.All Low Franconian areas from the 6th century onwards , and it would be very odd if they were high before that.

Frankish was originally a dialect of Low German, which was spoken by small, ferrocious tribes living between the lower Rhine and the Wesser in northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Later, the Franks spread west into Gaul and Belgium, while other Franks filled up the opposite bank of the Rhine, and from there spread southward and eastward. Part of the Frankish populations' language largely remained unchanged, becoming present day Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, Flemmish found in Belgium, and Low Franconian spoken on Germanys' lower Rhineland. Those Franks who became the masters of Gaul, and the Walloon areas of Belgium lost their language to that spoken by their Romanized subjects. Those Franks living on the middle and upper Rhine, as well as the Main saw their language transform into middle and upper Franconian, with the rise of High German, which altered the languages of all the Germans in south and central Germany, probably from the 5th to 8th centuries. What linguistic forces caused this dramatic change in language, beyond speculation, remain a mystery.

Krimmer,

Low German is a linguistic marker, it never was a language of its own. Low Franconian is also a linguintic marker and Flemish refers to 2 certain Dutch dialects with about 1 million speakers.

Brennus : "This is one school of thought. However I've heard other historians claim that it [la Grande-Bretagne] was the most Romanized province in the Empire outside of Italy. Unfortunately, at the present time we still don't know for sure."

Non, c'est tout bonnement impossible. Un exemple me vient à l'esprit : la Narbonnaise, un région esssentiellement gauloise (mais aussi grecque et ligure), est l'exemple-type de région non-italique *réellement* romanisée. En matière de romanisation, la Grande-Bretagne ne peut tout simplement pas se mesurer à la Provincia Narbonensis.

Quelle curieuse conception de la romanité... Je pense à l'Empereur Claude, né en Gaule (à Lyon), qui a conquis la Bretagne (pas l'Armorique) méridionale. Claude a comblé les Gaulois, ses compatriotes en quelque sorte, d'immenses faveurs — dont la citoyenneté romaine, octroyée aux notables gaulois. Il est vrai que la Narbonnaise était romaine bien avant l'accession de Claude au pouvoir et la conquête de la Bretagne.