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Istvaeonic, also called Rhine-Weser Germanic is a postulated grouping of the northwestern West Germanic languages, consisting of Frankish and its descendants (principally Old Dutch) as well as several closely related historical dialects. It is named after the Istvaeones a West Germanic cultural group or proto-tribe positioned along the banks of the Rhine.

Nomenclature

The term Istvaeonic is derived from the Istævones, a culturo-linguistic grouping of Germanic tribes, mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania. Pliny the Elder further specified its meaning by claiming that the Istævones lived near the Rhine.

In modern Germanic linguistics the term Istvaeonic was popularized by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer and is used to refer to the dialects spoken by the Franks and Chatti around the northwestern banks of the Rhine.

Composition of the Istvaeones

One proposed theory for approximate distribution of the primary Germanic dialect groups in Europe around 1-100 CE:

  North Germanic

  North Sea Germanic (Ingvaeonic)

  Weser-Rhine Germanic, (Istvaeonic)

  Elbe Germanic (Irminonic)

  East Germanic

Tacitus and Pliny are the only known historical sources which mention the Istvaeones, but provide no reliable details concerning their composition other than that they dwelt on or near the banks of the Rhine. Modern historians attempt to extrapolate their tribal constituents based on later sources, archeological findings and linguistical information.

Germanic tribes generally assumed to have been Istvaeonic in terms of dialect and culture, are principally those who would later form the Frankish confederation, itself made up of the two Frankish polities: the Salian and the Ripuarian Franks, which had formed during the 3rd century. The Sallian Franks (L. Salii, meaning 'of the salt', i.e. living near the sea.) are thought to have been an amalgation of the Batavians, Cananefates, Bructeri, Chamavi and Tungrii. Whereas the Ripuarian Franks (L. Ripuarii, meaning 'of the river'.) were principally formed by the Tencteri, Usipetes and Ubii, followed later by the Cherusci and Chatti.

Following the unification of the two Frankish tribes under the Salian king Clovis I, the Franks would conquer large parts of the former Western Roman Empire and Germania. Hereafter the ethnonyms "Frank" and "Frankish" morphed into a term closer in meaning to a proto-state or political identity, rather than a tribal or ethnic designation and can no longer be considered synonymous with the Istvaeones.

Area of settlement

Julius Caesar, in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico written about 50 BCE, placed all Germanic tribes on the eastern bank of the Rhine. However, this is widely considered to have been a rhetorical ploy in order to justify his advance towards the Rhine as part of his war against the Gauls. The subsequent (83 CE) establishment of the Roman Province of Germania Inferior (which encompassed both banks of the Rhine, in what had previously been a part of Gallia Belgica) seems to suggest that there was a Germanic presence following the 1st century, though it remains unclear whether settlement was homogenous or intermixed with Celtic elements.

The Franks are first mentioned during the reign of Emperor Aurelian (215 – 275 CE) following a failed raid into Roman Gaul. The period between 250 - 350 CE saw increasing pressure by surrounding Germanic tribes on the part of both the Salians and Ripuarian Franks, who increasingly sought to cross the Rhine. The Salians were given Laeti-status during the late 2nd century and were allowed to settle the area between the rivers Waal and Lower Rhine, within the Rhine estuary. In the year 358 they were given extensive lands in Toxandria (comprising of modern day Southern Netherlands and Western Belgium) and were considered to be Foederati. The Ripuarians eventually found themselves between the valleys of the Meuse and the Moselle. Though little is known about their legal status within the empire, it is assumed they too were, by and large, allies of Rome up untill the collapse of Roman authority in the West. The furthermost extent of Rhine-Germanic groups on the Roman side of the Rhine during this period, was formed by the Silva Carbonaria, a dense old-growth forest of which the Ardennes are a modern, cultivated, remnant.

Linguistic legacy

The approximate extent of the West Germanic languages in the early 6th century.

Dutch (including its sister-language Afrikaans) is generally seen as the propagation of the Istvaeonic group. Arguments in favor of viewing Old Dutch as the successor to the Istvaeonic dialects includes the continuous habitation of Old Dutch-speakers in the area previously ascribed to the Istvaegones and the distinctive phonological, grammatical and idiomatic cluster it forms with regard to the North-Sea Germanic dialects (Frisian, Anglo-Saxon and Saxon) to its northwest and the Elbe Germanic dialects (Old High German) to its southeast. Old Dutch and its descendants also include the present-day Meuse-Rhenish/Zuid-Gelders dialects, which are also found in Germany's Lower Rhine region. These dialects form the most isolated and divergent dialectal grouping found within German territory today.

The relation of the so-called modern Central and Rhine Franconian dialects with regard to Istvaeonic is more difficult to determine. Historically, the speakers of these dialects were seen as the descendants of the Ripuarian Franks, however there is little tangible evidence for this. The last reported position of the Ripuarians (between the Meuse and Moselle river) and the relatively long survival of the Moselle Romance-language in the area they conquered suggest that a large part of the Ripuarii eventually assimilated into the Northern French cultural sphere, as was the case among the Salian Franks who settled below the Somme and Oise. The remainder, most likely situated between modern Luxemburg and Cologne, was subsequently heavily influenced by Germanic tribes speaking Old High German. The influence of these Old High German speakers is not to be underestimated as the general consensus among linguists is that the presence of the High German consonant shift in the Franconian dialects is not the result of internal change, but external influences. How this came to be, is a matter of discussion. Proponents of the "repression theory / Zurückdrängungstheorie" argue that the area was originally populated by speakers of High German dialects, which were then subjected to a Frankish (i.e. Istvaeonic) superstratum following political submission of the area, corresponding to the 6th century conquests of Clovis. Other linguists argue that Istvaeonic forms the substrate in these dialects, which were subsequently influenced by High German.

References

In historical linguistics the Netherlandic sound shift refers to a phonological development (sound change) that took place in northwestern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum. It probably took place in the 8th century and was almost complete before the earliest written records in Dutch were produced. The resulting language, Old Dutch, can be contrasted with the other continental West Germanic languages, principally Old Frisian, Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German, which remained unaffected by the sound change.

General description

The Netherlandic shift altered a number of consonants in what would then become the Dutch dialects – and thus also in modern Standard Dutch and Afrikaans.

Overview table

Germanic > Dutch	Examples in Dutch	Unshifted cognates	Notes
/ft/ > /cht/ (IPA: [ft] > [ɣ])	sticht lucht oplichten	German: stiften German: Luft , Frisian: loft English: to lift
/ol/ or /al/ + /d/ or /t/ > /ou/ or /au/ (IPA: [ɔlt] / [ɔld] > [ɔut] / [ɔud])	koud houden	German: kalt, Frisian: kâld, English: cold German: halten, Frisian: hâlden, English: to hold	Example
Plural/Singular differentiation with rounded vowels	weg, wegen (IPA: [wɛɣ]	German: Weg, Wege, English: way, ways	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example