> A 11:39 2002-03-27 +0000, Michael Everson a �crit :
>
>> On Wednesday, March 27, 2002, at 05:55 , Kenneth Whistler wrote:
>>
>>>> Nope. In some historical sense all natural languages are equally old
>>>> (except those originating in creoles).
>>>
>
> [Michael]
>
>> Um, we actually can date some languages, like French, for which we
>> have the first documents written in it. But if linguistic change can
>> be thought to be tidal....
>
>
> [Alain] French (with a totally different spelling [and many more
> differences] compared to now: you have to pronounce letters like when
> you read Latin to *begin* to understand even if you're
> French-speaking) and "modern" German (well a form of it, perhaps with
> a remark very similar for reading the text as for French) were
> *officially* born the same day, on the 14th of February, 842 A.D. (is
> it one of the origins of Valentine Day?), in a bilingual peace
> treaty(*) between two grandsons of Charlemagne...
The Oath of Strabourg (Strassburg) is indeed an important political and
linguistic document.
But the birthday is an arbitrary one given long after the fact. People obviously
didn't stop speaking Latin on the 13th of February and woke up speaking
Old French. This date is only the oldest record of a document written in something
like French (since it was decided to transcribe what was actually said).
Earlier documents may have been lost. But we know Old
French (Romance) had an earlier official status, albeit perhaps only
oral. At the 813 Council of Tours, it was decided that priests should
transfer ("transferre") their sermons from Latin to the local common
language: � lingua romana rustica � (Romance) and � lingua thiostica �
(German). We do not know what "transferre" precisely meant : transcribe
or translate? Some documents in the 8th century obviously already
betray French (Romance) characteristics : articles (lo/la), � plus �
used instead of � -ior � in comparatives, adverbs in -mente, latin
demonstratives (hic, iste, ille) replaced by modern day forms, some
modern French words are already recognizable (berbices � brebis� instead
of oves �sheep�) etc. See the Reichenau Gloses written some thirty years
before the Oath of Strasbourg. The Reichenau Gloses also explains the
Latin word "Gallia" by the modern word "Francia"...
As far as the birth of Modern German, I do not really know what is
meant. Are we speaking of Old High German (after consonant shift)? I
believe there are several OHG texts that predate the Oath of Strassburg
(Strasbourg) : Gospel translations as the Tatian, Otfrid and Isidor
versions, for instance.
Patrick
