The Development of the German Language

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE The history of the German language falls into three great sec tions: (I) Old High German (Althochdeutsch) and Old Low German (Old Saxon; Altniederdeutsch, Altsfichsisch); (2) Mid dle High German (Mittelhochdeutsch) and Middle Low German (Mittelniederdeutsch) ; and (3) Modern High German and Mod ern Low German (Neuhochdeutsch and Neuniederdeutsch).

Old High German Period.

The first or Old High German period is commonly regarded as extending to about the year 1050. The principal characteristic of the change from Old High Ger man to Middle High German is the weakening of the unac cented vowels in final syllables (cf. O.H.G. toga, gesti, geban, gabum and M.H.G. tage, geste, geben, gaben). This process be gan tentatively as early as the loth century in Low German, whilst long, unaccented vowels are preserved in the Alemannic dialect as late as the 14th century and even later. With regard to the division between the second and third periods, some date Modern High German from the time of Luther, from about 150o. But certain characteristics attributed to the Modern German vowel system, such as lengthening of Middle High German short vowels, the change from Middle High German i, iu to Modern High German ei, au, eu (ou), of Middle High German ie, uo, ue to Modern High German u, u, made their appearance long be fore 15oo. Others, therefore, distinguish a period of classical Middle High German extending to about 125o, and a period of transition (sometimes called Friilineuhochdeutsch, or Early Mod ern High German) from 125o to 165o. The principal charac teristics of .Modern High German are then the greater stability of the grammatical and syntactical structure, due to the efforts of earlier grammarians, such as Schottelius, Gottsched and others, and the levelling out of the vowels of the singular and plural of the preterite of strong verbs (cf. above) which was carried through consistently.

The middle ages did not produce a Schriftsprache or literary language in the modern sense, so that the history of the lan guage in its earlier stages is the history of different dialects. With the scientific study of the German language there arose a keen interest—not only on the part of scholars—in the dialects which were long held in contempt.' A movement during the last three decades has bestowed great care on many of the existing dialects. Phonological questions have received most attention, but problems of syntax have also not been neglected. Monumental works like Wenker's Sprach atlas des deutschen Reiches and dialect dictionaries are either in course of publication or preparation' and many monographs' have appeared.

In the Old High German period the East Middle German, spoken mostly on territory colonized later, is therefore not repre sented in literature. In that period are found Old Low German and Old High German dialects, the latter divided into Upper High German and Franconian dialects.' Low German.—The chief characteristic of Low German is the absence of the High German sound-shift; i.e., the phono logical process starting about A.D. 500 in the South by which the voiced and unvoiced stops b, d, g; p, t, k were affected: b> p, d> t, g>k; according to position p>pf or if, t>z (=affricate tz) or zz (double spirant, now written ss), k> ch (i.e., kh or x) or hh. Low German therefore agrees in this respect with Frisian and English. Independently of this sound-shift another consonantal shift starts from Upper Germany in the 8th century; i.e., the change of the spirant th())) >d: werthan: werdan; theob: deob (Dieb) ; it soon spread to Middle German dialects and finally in the 11th and 12th centuries to Low German, so that th (1)) is only preserved in English. On the other hand the i -Mutation (Umlaut) found in Anglo-Saxon in the 6th century, had a firmer grip on Old Saxon in the 8th century than on Franconian and 'Of writers who have made extensive use of dialects, it must suffice to mention here the names of J. H. Voss, Hebel, Klaus Groth, Fritz Reuter, Usteri, G. D. Arnold, Holtei, Castelli, J. G. Seidl, Anzen gruber, John Brinckmann, in our own days G. Hauptmann, and a Low German group as J. H. Fehrs, A. Wibbelt, F. Stavenhagen, K. Wagenfeld.

'Cf. J. A. Schmeller, Bayrisches Worterbuch (2nd ed., Munich, 1872-77) ; F. Staub and L. Tobler, Schweizerisches Idiotikon (188i et seq.) ; E. Martin and F. Lienhart, Worterbuch der elsdssischen Mundarten (Strassburg, 1899 et seq.) ; H. Fischer, Schwdbisches Wor terbuch (Tubingen, 19O1 et seq.) ; The "Deutsche Kommission" of the Prussian Academy is preparing a Rheinisches, a Hessen-Nassauisches and a Preussisches Worterbuch.

'Cf. F. Mentz, Bibliographie der deutschen Mundart f orschung (Leipzig, 1892). Of periodicals may be mentioned Deutsche Mund arten, by J. W. Nagl (Vienna, 1896 et seq.) ; Zeitschri f t fur hoch deutsche Mundarten, by O. Heilig and Ph. Lenz (Heidelberg, n9oo et seq.), continued as Zeitschrift fir deutsche Mundarten, Verlag des Allgemeinen Deutschen Sprachvereins.

'For a map of the German dialects cf. Bremer and Brockhaus, Con versationslexikon sub Deutsche Mundarten, or O. Behaghel, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache (4th ed. 1914) .

especially on Upper German dialects of the same period. In Low Saxon—not in Low Franconian and East Low German (colonial territory)—the plural present of all three persons ends in -et (originally the ending of the 2nd pers., Old Saxon -ath) : wi, ir, sie stirwet; b, d, g and s (medially) are always voiced, short i and u are rather open sounds tending towards e and o.

Upper German.

The Upper German dialects have carried the sound-shift farthest, especially the Old Bavarian, cf. Kapames (wir gaben) ; in the Tyrol we still find k= > kch (the affricate sound) : kchind and in High Alemannic (Swiss) kh (x spirant) : chilche. In the Bavarian-Austrian dialect—in the second half of the i 2th century—the first traces of that diphthongization of 1, u, iu (ii) to ei, au, eu can be seen which, even at the present day, is foreign to the greater part of the Alemannic, to the Ripuarian, (Low) Hessian, West-Thuringian and Low German dialects: frili (Swiss), is (Eis, Cologne), etc. Bavarian-Austrian forms the diminutives in -el, -erl (Madel, Hunderl), High Fran conian, Alemannic in -la, -le (Mddla) as opposed to -then and -ken in Middle and Low German dialects. Bavaria has preserved the old dual form of the personal pronoun as es and enk. Char acteristic of Alemannic is the pronunciation of -st- and -sp- as scht and schp (Lascht, Haschpel).

West Middle German.

The principal characteristic of the West Middle German dialects is unshifted initial p, not pf as in the Upper German dialect. Middle Franconian shows -f, for -b (wiif=Weib), 5- for g- (jolden=Gulden), has preserved the old t in the pronominal forms dat, wat, dit, it, allet; -rp for rf (dorp), rd for rt, at least in the north, in Ripuarian (centre Cologne), where up=auf has also escaped the sound-shift.

East Middle German.

The East Middle German group shows initial f < p- first in Thuringian, which dialect marks the transition between West and East Middle German. This change then spread eastwards; e.g., Ferd, Fund, Fei f e, Fennig thicken, etc. A feature of the Thuringian dialect is the loss of the final -a in the infinitive; e.g., (ge)lerne, in Southern Thuringia even (ge)lern. This is not shared by the other East Middle German dialects. They pronounce the old hs in wachsen, etc., ks as in the literary language, whilst Thuringia and the West Middle German dialects speak s(s).