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At the first English lesson in highschool our teacher started with this sentence, which is considered the oldest found fragment of Dutch text, though people disagree. ( also by some considered Old English) I always kept comparing the various languages after that, though I never really studied the subject. "The complete text, a probatio pennae or " scribble" by a monk to try out his pen, is usually transcribed as Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu wat unbidan we nu. This is a word-for-word translation of the Latin sentence written directly above it: Abent[3] omnes uolucres nidos inceptos nisi ego et tu quid expectamus nu(nc). It is roughly translated as: "Have all birds begun nests, except me and you - what are we waiting for?" (Modern Dutch: Zijn (hebben)alle vogels nesten begonnen, behalve ik en jij? Waarop wachten we nu?)" Hebban_olla_vogala
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[H]abent omnes uolucres nidos inceptos nisi ego et tu quid expectamus nu[nc].
Interesting. I had not seen these texts before. The Latin has volucer 'flying' where Old West Dutch has vogala 'bird'. Possibly from the similarity between the words.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Some ten years ago i've seen the old text fragment for real in an exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. I forgot the context in which this was one of the shown items. But is was a sort of marvel to look at.
Last edited by BranShea; 03/24/12 02:14 PM.
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Why might that be considered Old English?
Last edited by gooofy; 03/24/12 03:32 PM.
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If you read the article you see that there are various theories.
But f.i. the word unbidan (waiting), wich reminds of abiding comes close to Old English. It was my English teacher who came up with this likeness, not my teacher Dutch.
abide
O.E. abidan, gebidan "remain, wait, delay, remain behind," from ge- completive prefix (denoting onward motion; see a- (1)) + bidan "bide, remain, wait, dwell" (see bide). Originally intransitive (with genitive of the object: we abidon his "we waited for him"); transitive sense emerged in M.E. Meaning "to put up with" (now usually negative) first recorded 1520s. The historical conjugation is abide, abode, abidden, but the modern formation is now generally weak.
Also the likeness of hagunnan (begin) to beginnan and onginnan is strong.
begin (v.)
O.E. beginnan "to begin, attempt, undertake," a rare word beside the more usual form onginnan (class III strong verb; past tense ongann, pp. ongunnen); from bi- (see be-) + W.Gmc. *ginnan, of obscure meaning and found only in compounds, perhaps "to open, open up" (cf. O.H.G. in-ginnan "to cut open, open up," also "begin, undertake"), with sense evolution from "open" to "begin." Cognates elsewhere in Germanic include O.Fris. biginna "to begin," M.Du. beghinnen, O.H.G. beginnan, Ger. beginnen, O.Fris. bijenna "to begin," Goth. duginnan.
The fragment was discovered in 1932 on the flyleaf of a manuscript that was probably made in the abbey of Rochester, Kent and is kept in Oxford. Some think it is a coastal dialect or Old Kentish (article)
Hebban related to O.E. habban "to hold, posess." ???
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But the seasons haven't changed. March. Two weeks and more of clear sunshine and bone dry weather. Like last year and many years before. Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droht of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed everye veyne in swich licour
Of which engend'red is the flour,
And Zephyrus eke with his sweete brethe
inspired hath in ev'ry holt and hethe
The tendre croppes. And the sonne hath in the Ram
his half-course y-runne...
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