Old Frisian language
- noun
- Specialized
- The Old Frisian language was spoken from the 8th to the 16th centuries in coastal regions of the Netherlands and Germany.
Examples
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Scholars use texts written in Old Frisian language to study the early history of the Frisians.
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Legal codes in the Old Frisian language reveal much about medieval society in Frisia.
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The Old Frisian language has a rich history.
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Did you know that the Old Frisian languages influenced modern Frisian?
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Legal codes in the Old Frisian language reveal much about medieval society in Frisia.
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Scholars use texts written in the Old Frisian language to study the early history of the Frisians.
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The Old Frisian language was spoken from the 8th to the 16th centuries in coastal regions of the Netherlands and Germany.
Synonyms
A language spoken in Friesland until the 1500s that is the ancestor of modern Frisian
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'old' marks an earlier historical stage, 'Frisian' identifies the language, and 'language' labels it as a linguistic system, so a learner who knows the parts can infer it refers to the historical form of Frisian. The 'Old X language' naming pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows regular descriptive morphology, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
Old Frisian language comes from the people called Frisian and the word old, because it was the earlier speech of coastal villagers many centuries ago. So, it refers to the language spoken in Frisia until the 16th century and is the ancestor of today's Frisian.