The Language Question
The Salic law code contains the earliest surviving attestations of Old Dutch. They consist mainly of stray words or glosses (Malbergse glossen), but include a full sentence:
| Old Dutch | - | maltho | thi | - | afrio | lito |
| Dutch | ik | meld | jou | ik | bevrijd (je) | laat* |
| English | I | tell | you | I | free (you) | freedman |
- A laat was a form of serfdom in the feudal system. He was a half freed farmer; connected to the land of his lord he worked for, but not owned by his lord. While a "horige" was in full ownership of the lord.
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Famous quotes containing the words language and/or question:
““What may this mean? Language of Man pronounced
By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed!
The first at least of these I thought denied
To beasts, whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate sound;
The latter I demur, for in their looks
Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be. The question is not what we can do now for the hypothetical Mexican, the hypothetical Negro. The question is what we really want out of life, for ourselves, what we think is real.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)