Historical and Linguistic Significance
The text is significant to both linguists and historians. Linguistically, the text is the oldest document written in a Romance language, and specifically in a form of French. The documents also shed light on a significant period in the history of the Carolingian-Frankish empire. Historians have long used the coexistence of these bilingual documents to illustrate their theory that, by 842, the empire had begun splitting into separate proto-countries and developing with different languages and customs.
However, others of late have come to favour a different hypothesis: that the Frankish Kingdom comprised several regna (loosely translated as kingdoms) that since ancient times had maintained different customs and dialects. Supporting this theory they note that both Charlemagne and Louis the Pious sent their sons to be raised in the respective regna which they were designated to inherit, in order to better enlist the support of the local populus by becoming familiar with them and their customs.
Read more about this topic: Oaths Of Strasbourg
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