Frankish Language
The Frankish language, also Old Frankish was the language of the Franks. Classified as a West Germanic language, it was spoken in areas covering modern France, Germany, and the Low Countries in Merovingian times, preceding the 6th/7th century. The Franks first established themselves in the Netherlands and Flanders before they started to fight their way down south and east. The language had a significant impact on Old French. It evolved into Old Low Franconian in the north and it was replaced by French in the south, Old Frankish is reconstructed from loanwords in Old French, and from Old Dutch.
The singular direct attestation from Old Frankish is the Bergakker inscription, that was found in 1996 near the Dutch town of Bergakker, near Tiel. It is a 5th-century Elder Futhark inscription on a metal mount for a sword scabbard.
The inscription can be read as
ha?VþV??s : ann : kVsjam : : logVns :where V is a non-standard rune, apparently a vowel (variously read as e or u, or as "any vowel").
Several readings have been presented in literature. Quak (2000) for example, reads "Haþuþewas ann kusjam loguns", interpreting it as "Property of Haþuþewaz. I bestow upon the choosers of the swords". It could arguably considered as the first Dutch sentence.
Read more about this topic: History Of Dutch
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