Within the field of historical philology, the terminology for the historical phases of Low Franconian is not analogous the traditional Old High German / Middle High German and Old Low German / Middle Low German dichotomies, with the terms Old Dutch and Middle Dutch commonly being preferred to "Old Low Franconian" and "Middle Low Franconian" in most contexts. Due to the category's strong interconnection with the Dutch language and its historical forms, "Low Franconian" is occasionally used interchangeably with "Dutch", though the latter term can have a broader as well as narrower meaning depending on the specific context. English publications alternatively use "Netherlandic" as a synonym of Low Franconian, thereby signifying the category's close relation to Dutch, without using it as a synonym.