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.
Read more about this topic: Salic Law
Famous quotes containing the words language and/or question:
“He never doubts his genius; it is only he and his God in all the world. He uses language sometimes as greatly as Shakespeare; and though there is not much straight grain in him, there is plenty of tough, crooked timber.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The question of whether it’s God’s green earth is not at center stage, except in the sense that if so, one is reminded with some regularity that He may be dying.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)