Katana VentraIP

Middle Dutch

Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550,[2] there was no overarching standard language, but all dialects were mutually intelligible. During that period, a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed, which had not yet existed during Old Dutch. The various literary works of the time are often very readable for speakers of Modern Dutch since Dutch is a rather conservative language.

Phonology[edit]

Differences with Old Dutch[edit]

Several phonological changes occurred leading up to the Middle Dutch period.

Hollandic

Utrechts

Limburgic

Grammar[edit]

Nouns[edit]

Middle Dutch nouns inflected for number as well as case. The weakening of unstressed syllables merged many different Old Dutch classes of nominal declension. The result was a general distinction between strong and weak nouns. Eventually even these started to become confused, with the strong and weak endings slowly beginning to merge into a single declension class by the beginning of the modern Dutch period.

(TITUS)

Middle Dutch text database

Grammatical information on Middle Dutch (in Dutch)

Spoken examples of Old Dutch, Middle Dutch and Old Frisian (in Dutch)