Hebban olla vogala, sometimes spelt hebban olla uogala, are the first three words of a 12th century fragment of Old Dutch

Old Dutch

In linguistics, Old Dutch denotes the forms of West Franconian spoken and written in the Netherlands and present-day northern Belgium during the Early Middle Ages. It is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language...

.

The fragment was discovered in 1932 in the margin of a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 that was made in the abbey of Rochester, Kent and that is kept in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

. It has been dated to the 12th century, but may be even older.

Although it is commonly cited as being the oldest Dutch fragment, far older fragments have been found, for example the Wachtendonk Psalms (10th century), fragments of the Salic Law

Salic law

Salic law was a body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...

 (6th century), and an old baptismal vow from Utrecht, ‘Gelobistu in Got alamehtigan fadaer?’ (Do you believe in God, the almighty father?), which dates from the 8th century.

The complete text is:

"Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu. Wat unbidan we nu."

Which is a translation of the Latin (written above 'hebban olla vogala'):

"Habent omnes uolucres nidos inceptos nisi ego et tu. Quid expectamus nunc."

Roughly translated:

"Have all birds begun nests, except me and you. What are we waiting for ?"

Translation in Modern Dutch:

"Hebben alle vogels nesten begonnen, behalve ik en jij. Waarop wachten we nu ?"

This text is an example of a probatio pennae

Probatio pennae

Probatio pennae is the medieval term for breaking in a new pen, and used to refer to text written to test a newly cut pen....

, a "scribble" by a monk to try out his pen.

Various theories

According to professor Luc de Grauwe of the University of Ghent, the text could equally well be Old English, more specifically Old Kentish.

Recently, professor Frits van Oostrom

Frits van Oostrom

Frits van Oostrom , born in Utrecht, Netherlands, is University Professor for the Humanities at the Utrecht University. In 1999 he was a visiting Professor at Harvard for the Erasmus Chair. From September 2004 to June 2005, he was a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study . He was...

 of Utrecht University

Utrecht University

Utrecht University is a university in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Established March 26, 1636, it had an enrollment of 29,082 students in 2008, and employed 8,614 faculty and staff, 570 of which are full professors....

 linked it to the Moorish Kharja

Kharja

The kharja , also known as jarcha in Spanish, is the final refrain of a muwashshah, a lyric genre of Al-Andalus written in Classical Arabic or Hebrew....

s genre, which includes verses sung by women to their absent lovers. He concludes that the fragment was probably written by a woman or from a female perspective.