Another great video! I didnt know the Heliand was such a mixed composition of dialects. Looking forward to discussions of the mysterious figure of Saxnoð (sp?), and comparisons of Saxon Heathenry as alluded to in the text with other branches of Geermanic culture. Krep up the great work!
Fascinating. In the eastern part of the Netherlands, where I was born and raised, and in the northern part of Germany, they still speak Saxon. Now referred to as Low Saxon. Low Saxon is seen as an official language, but consist of many dialects with influences from Dutch, High German and a bit Frisian. The more you go to the east in the Netherlands, the less influence from Dutch. This variation in dialects is as old as the Saxon language, it seems. There isn't a universal grammar or spelling of Low Saxon. Nor is our language tought at schools. My grantparents spoke a Low Saxon dialect, my parents were tought that it is a farmers language and that you wouldn't come far if you don't speak properly Dutch. So I wasn't raised in Low Saxon (though it is my peoples language), but I'm doing my best to learn it. Our language is much in decline. Funny to see that some words that you mention in your video we still use today.
Scott, when we consider the migration period and specific to Angles and Saxons when the arrived in Britain, what language did they speak? Was this Old Saxon or some form of North Sea Germanic or something in between?
Hey, Paolo. It was some form of pre-Old Saxon. It would have been closer to like a loose idea of Northwest Germanic. The language would have been very close to the language found on the Horn of Gallehus (dated to about 450 CE) or shortly after when the final -z started to disappear on nouns. This is when we start to run into West Germanic. Also, I should note that language doesn't exist in a vacuum. This is a time period where really Northwest Germanic, West Germanic and specifically Ingvaeonic tendencies were all happening around the same time. Think about how many different American English dialects we have right now, for example. We have a "standard" American English dialect that non-native speakers learn; I believe this is typically the Midwestern dialect found around the Ohio area. However, there are plenty of varieties out there. Sorry I can't give you an exact answer. Still, I hope that all I said above is helpful!
The only one available that's worth reading is Ronald Murphy's translation. Still, he's very paraphrastic in his approach. But, he's the best out there up-to-date.
Thanks, Connell. It's all based on my findings in my dissertation. I dedicated about 20 pages to the discussion of the horns. Since this is clearly a Germanic runic inscription and not a Scandinavian one, I plan on creating a video about the whole ordeal. I'll even follow up with the politics regarding the horn and why Scandinavians claim it's "Scandinavian" while Germanicists claim it is "Germanic." Judging from the linguistic features, it's clearly more Germanic than Scandinavian. I'll probably create this video within the next 3-4 weeks.
