Thread:User talk:CodeCat/frawjōn/reply (12)


 * Old Kentish is a form of Old English, so yes you did imply that even if you weren't aware of it. As for hic/ic, that is the kind of hypercorrection you'd expect from a speaker who no longer pronounces the h- in other words. And it just happens that that is a feature typical of West Flemish, where h- was lost, and g- became h-. That feature is still apparent in West Flemish today. I don't see where Old English comes into that though, as it was ic there all the same.
 * I didn't say the z did look Old Dutch. But scholars have realised that it's just a respelling of t following the Old High German norms. That much of it is OHG in origin, at least. However, as the Wikipedia article also mentions, there are words the text that, despite their High German-influenced spellings, are clearly Dutch words as they are foreign to Middle Central German but found in Middle Dutch texts.
 * I don't understand what you mean by separate language, exactly. Nobody was claiming that Old Dutch is separate, as such. Continental West Germanic has always formed a dialect continuum and still forms one today, if you look past the standard languages. Linguists draw lines between the dialects according to certain defining features, but those definitions are arbitrary, just as the distinction between, say, Middle and Modern English is arbitrary. But that doesn't mean there isn't a definition of what Old Dutch is, or isn't. So I don't understand why you are arguing that no definitions exist, when they clearly do.

But if you really insist on arguing that Old High German, Old Dutch and Old Saxon aren't to be considered languages on Wiktionary, I invite you to nominate Category:Old High German language, Category:Old Dutch language and Category:Old Saxon language for deletion.