What is "old saxon"

German \Ger"man\, n.; pl. Germans[L. Germanus, prob. of Celtis origin.]

1. A native or one of the people of Germany.

2. The German language.

3. 1. A round dance, often with a waltz movement, abounding in capriciosly involved figures.

   2. A social party at which the german is danced.

      High German, the Teutonic dialect of Upper or Southern Germany, -- comprising Old High German, used from the 8th to the 11th century; Middle H. G., from the 12th to the 15th century; and Modern or New H. G., the language of Luther's Bible version and of modern German literature. The dialects of Central Germany, the basis of the modern literary language, are often called Middle German, and the Southern German dialects Upper German; but High German is also used to cover both groups.

      Low German, the language of Northern Germany and the Netherlands, -- including Friesic; Anglo-Saxon or Saxon; Old Saxon; Dutch or Low Dutch, with its dialect, Flemish; and Plattdeutsch (called also Low German), spoken in many dialects.

Saxon \Sax"on\ (s[a^]ks"[u^]n or -'n), n. [L. Saxo, pl. Saxones, from the Saxon national name; cf. AS. pl. Seaxe, Seaxan, fr. seax a knife, a short sword, a dagger (akin to OHG. sahs, and perhaps to L. saxum rock, stone, knives being originally made of stone); and cf. G. Sachse, pl. Sachsen. Cf. Saxifrage.]

1. 1. One of a nation or people who formerly dwelt in the northern part of Germany, and who, with other Teutonic tribes, invaded and conquered England in the fifth and sixth centuries.

   2. Also used in the sense of Anglo-Saxon.

   3. A native or inhabitant of modern Saxony.

2. The language of the Saxons; Anglo-Saxon.

   Old Saxon, the Saxon of the continent of Europe in the old form of the language, as shown particularly in the ``Heliand'', a metrical narration of the gospel history preserved in manuscripts of the 9th century.

Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German. It belongs to the West Germanic branch and is most closely related to the Anglo-Frisian languages. It is documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples. It is close enough to Old Anglo-Frisian ( Old Frisian, Old English) that it partially participates in the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law; it is also closely related to Old Dutch.

The grammar of Old Saxon was fully inflected with five grammatical cases ( nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three grammatical numbers (singular, plural, and dual) and three grammatical genders ( masculine, feminine, and neuter). The dual forms occurred in the first and second persons only and referred to groups of two.

For a long time, Old Saxon and Old Dutch were not distinguished and often thought to be different dialects of the same language. However, while these two languages both shared the same historical origins and some very similar writing styles, Old Saxon shows a slightly reduced morphology compared to Old Dutch, which kept some grammatical distinctions that Old Saxon abandoned. There are also various differences in their phonological evolutions, Old Saxon being considered as an Ingvaeonic language whereas Old Dutch is an Istvaeonic language.