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Some Linguistic features of Middle Dutch - Part 1

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| Part 2 (>link) | Middle Dutch (>link) |

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Let us begin with a careful comparison of the opening lines from the medieval Beatrijs (>link) in the original and in a modern Dutch rendition (for a picture of the original manuscript, click the (link) box in the Beatrijs pop-up box above.

Middle Dutch: Van dichten comt mi cleine bate Die liede raden mi dat ict late Ende minen sin niet en vertare.	Modern Dutch Het dichten geeft mij weinig baat [= voordeel] De lieden [= mensen] raden mij aan dat ik het laat En mijn zin [= geest] niet vermoei.
English translation: Writing poetry gives me little gain People advise me that from it I abstain And not wear out my brain.

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Just like the Old Dutch fragments we analyzed, this passage displays various degrees of language change. First, you will notice that some words are exactly the same in the modern version: 'dichten', 'raden', 'dat', and 'niet'. Second, others look very similar, but are spelt differently; compare:

Middle Dutch: comt mi cleine bate liede	Modern Dutch [komt] › geeft mij [klein] › weinig baat lieden	Middle Dutch: ict ende minen sin	Modern Dutch ik het (or: ik 't) en mijn zin

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Finally, some phrases in the original seem to have disappeared in modern Dutch and are substituted by a completely different word. An example is 'vertare' which no longer exists and which is translated as 'vermoei'.

From the few examples given above, we can already deduce some general features of Middle Dutch. In our discussion of Old Dutch, we established how unstressed word endings became weaker over time. Old Dutch 'enda' became modern Dutch 'en'. In Middle Dutch, we find an intermediate stage: 'ende', with the original Old Dutch 'a' having become a schwa (>link)

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Question 9:

What does the spelling 'comt' for 'komt' and 'cleine' for 'klein' illustrate?

Check your answer (>link)

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Overall, the spelling was far from fixed. It is very common to find a word spelt in different ways in the same manuscript. The following are further possible spellings of three words found in the quotation from Beatrijs:

ic cleine	also also	ick, jc, jk cleyne, cleene, clene	(note: Latin c = k; i = j) (pronunciation remains the same; the e/i/y was used to indicate that the preceding vowel was long)

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Differences in spelling can also point to a difference in pronunciation, depending on the specific dialect areas. Some examples from two neighbouring provinces (Flanders and Brabant) will demonstrate this:

Flemish claer us bringhen	Brabant cleer hus brenghen	Modern Dutch klaar huis brengen	English clear house bring

This list also shows that Dutch and English are closely related languages. Modern linguists believe that they developed separately from a common ancestor which they refer to as 'Germanic' (>link)

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Question 10:

How did Middle Dutch spelling indicate a long vowel?

Check your answer (>link)

Click here (>link) to continue with your analysis of the Beatrijs fragment.