Old Saxon Spoken in northwest Germany, northeast Netherlands Language extinction developed into Middle Low German in the 12th century Language family Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Old Saxon Writing system Latin alphabet Language codes ISO 639-1 None ISO 639-2 gem ISO 639-3 osx Linguasphere – Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German,1 documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples. It is close enough to Old Anglo-Frisian (Old Frisian, Old English) that it partially participates in the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law; it is also closely related to Old Low Franconian ("Old Dutch"). It is separated from Old High German by the High German consonant shift. It was mutually intelligible with Old English.citation needed Contents 1 Phonology 2 Literature 3 Notes 4 References // Phonology

Old Saxon does not participate in the High German consonant shift, and thus preserves stop consonants p, t, k that have been shifted in Old High German to various fricatives and affricates. The Germanic diphthongs ai, au consistently develop into long vowels ē, ō, whereas in Old High German they appear either as ei, ou or ē, ō depending on the following consonant. Old Saxon, alone of the West Germanic languages, consistently preserves Germanic -j- after a consonant, e.g. hēliand "savior" (Old High German: heilant, Old English: hǣlend, Gothic: háiljands). Germanic umlaut occurs only with short a, and is inconsistent, e.g. hebbean or habbian "to have" (Old English: hebban). Literature

Only a few texts survive, predominantly in baptismal vows the Saxons were required to perform at the behest of Charlemagne. The only literary text preserved is Heliand. Heliand Genesis fragment2 Trierer Blutsegen Wurmsegen Spurihalz Old Saxon baptismal vow Psalms commentary Penitentiary Beda homily Credo Essener Heberegister Notes ^ Old Saxon language at Encyclopædia Britannica ^ On the basis of the edition by Burkhard Taeger, Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1996 (10. Auflage) prepared by Jost Gippert, Frankfurt, 11.11.2003; TITUS version by Jost Gippert, Frankfurt a/M, 11.11.2003 References Galleé, Johan Hendrik (1910). Altsächsische Grammatik. Halle: Max Niemeyer.  v · d · eGermanic languages · Germanic philology Language subgroups North · East · West North · East · Elbe · Weser-Rhine · North Sea Reconstructed Proto-Germanic Historical languages North Proto-Norse · Old Norse · Old Swedish · Old Gutnish · Norn · Greenlandic Norse · Old Norwegian East Gothic · Crimean Gothic · Vandalic · Burgundian West Old Saxon · Middle Low German · Old High German · Middle High German · Old Frankish · Old Dutch · Middle Dutch · Old Frisian · Middle Frisian · Old English · Middle English · Early Scots · Middle Scots · Lombardic · Yola Modern languages Afrikaans · Alemannic · Danish · Dutch · English · Faroese · German · Gutnish · Icelandic · Limburgish · Low German · Luxembourgish · North Frisian · Norwegian · Saterland Frisian · Scots · Swedish · West Frisian · Yiddish Diachronic features Grimm's law · Verner's law · Holtzmann's law · Sievers' law · Germanic substrate hypothesis · West Germanic gemination · High German consonant shift · Germanic a-mutation · Germanic umlaut · Germanic spirant law · Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law · Great vowel shift Synchronic features Germanic verb · Germanic strong verb · Germanic weak verb · Preterite-present verb · Grammatischer Wechsel · Indo-European ablaut Language histories English (phonology) · Scots (phonology) · German · Dutch · Danish · Icelandic · Swedish This Indo-European languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · d · e