 |
Map: Indo-European languages, IE, c. 1500 BC |
Published, edited, formatted, images
added & annotations/comments (in red) by Kenneth S.
Doig)
Old High
German (OHG,
German: Althochdeutsch,
German abbr. Ahd.)
is the earliest stage of the German language,
conventionally covering the period from around 500 to 1050 AD. Coherent written
texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the
period before 750 as "prehistoric" and date the start of Old High German proper
to 750 for this reason. There are, however, a number of Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the 6th century
(notably the Pforzen buckle),
as well as single words and many names found in Latin texts predating the 8th century.
Characteristics
The
main difference between Old High German and the West Germanic dialects from which it developed is that it underwent
the Second Sound Shift or High German
consonant shift. This is generally dated approximately to the late 5th and early
6th centuries—hence dating its start to around 500 AD.
The
result of this sound change is that the consonantal system of German remains different from all other West
Germanic languages, including English and Low German. Grammatically, however, Old High
German remained very similar to Old
English, Old Dutch, and Old Saxon.
By
the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had all been
reduced to "e". Since these vowels were part of the grammatical endings in
the nouns and verbs, their loss led to radical
simplification of the inflectional grammar of German.
For these reasons, 1050
is seen as the start of the Middle High
German period, though in fact there are
almost no texts in German for the next hundred years.
Examples
of vowel reduction in unstressed syllables:
Old High German |
Middle High German |
English |
machôn |
machen |
to make, to do |
taga |
tage |
days |
demu |
dem(e) |
to the |
(The
Modern German forms of these words are broadly the same as in Middle High
German.)
Dialects
There
was no standard or supra-regional variety of Old High German—every text is
written in a particular dialect, or in some cases a mixture of dialects.
Broadly
speaking, the main dialect divisions of Old High German seem to have been
similar to those of later periods—they are based on established territorial
groupings and the effects of the Second Sound Shift, which have remained
influential until the present day.
But because the direct evidence for Old High
German consists solely of manuscripts produced in a few major ecclesiastical
centers, there is no isogloss information of the sort on which modern
dialect maps are based. For this reason the dialects may be termed monastery dialects.
The
main dialects, with their bishoprics and monasteries:
- Central German
- East Franconian: Fulda, Bamberg, Würzburg
- Middle Franconian: Trier, Echternach, Cologne
- Rhine Franconian: Lorsch, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Frankfurt
- South Rhine Franconian: Weissenburg im Elsaß
- Thuringian: (no texts)
- West Franconian: conjectural dialect of the
Franks in Northern Gaul
- Upper German
- Alemannic: Murbach, Reichenau, Sankt Gallen. Strasbourg
- Bavarian: Freising, Passau, Regensburg, Augsburg, Ebersberg, Wessobrunn, Benediktbeuern, Tegernsee, Salzburg, Mondsee
- Langobardic: (fragmentary, classification as
OHG uncertain)
There
are some important differences between the geographical spread of the Old High
German dialects and that of Modern German:
- no German dialects were spoken east of the
Rivers Elbe and Saale—in the Old High German period this
area was occupied by Slavic
peoples since the Völkerwanderung and was not settled by German speakers until
the late 10th and the early 11th century
- the Langobardic dialect of the Lombards who invaded Northern Italy in the 6th century is assumed to have been
an Upper German dialect, though little evidence of it remains apart from names
and individual words in Latin texts, and a few inscriptions
- the Old Frankish language is a special case among the old West
Germanic languages. The Frankish tribes built their empire at the same time as
the High German consonant shift took place. This meant that the dialects of
Frankish in the north of their empire, the Low Countries, did not shift, while the
dialects in the south did. The dialects in the south are part of Old High
German; the ones in the north are part of Old Dutch (Low Franconian).
Phonology
The
charts show the vowel and consonant systems of the East Franconian dialect in
the 9th century. This is the dialect of the monastery of Fulda, and specifically of the Old High
German Tatian. Dictionaries and
grammars of OHG often use the spellings of the Tatian as a substitute for
genuine standardised spellings, and these have the advantage of being
recognizably close to the Middle High
German forms of words, particularly
with respect to the consonants.
Vowels
Short and long vowels
Old
High German had five phonemic long vowels and six phonemic short vowels. Both
occurred in stressed and unstressed syllables.
|
front |
central |
back |
short |
long |
short |
long |
short |
long |
close |
i |
î |
|
u |
û |
mid |
e, ë |
ê |
|
o |
ô |
open |
|
a |
â |
|
Notes:
- All back vowels likely had front-vowel allophones as a result of Umlaut. The front-vowel allophones likely
became full phonemes in Middle High German. In the Old High German period, there
existed [e] (possibly a
mid-close vowel) from the Umlaut of /a/ and /e/ but it probably
wasn't phonemicized until the end of the period. Manuscripts occasionally
distinguish two /e/ sounds. Generally,
modern grammars and dictionaries use ⟨ë⟩ for the mid
vowel and ⟨e⟩ for the mid-close vowel.
- The short high and mid vowels may have been
articulated lower than their long counterparts as in Modern German. This cannot
be established from written sources.
- Short vowels followed later by long vowels
tended to be reduced to ⟨e⟩ in unstressed syllables. The ⟨e⟩ may have
represented [ɛ] or schwa [ə].
- Vowel length was indicated in the manuscripts
inconsistently (though not in modern handbooks). A macron was generally used to indicate a long
vowel.[dubious – discuss]
Old
High German diphthongs are indicated by the digraphs ⟨ei⟩, ⟨ie⟩, ⟨io⟩, ⟨iu⟩, ⟨ou⟩, ⟨uo⟩.
Consonants
|
Bilabial |
Labiodental |
Dental |
Alveolar |
Postalveolar |
Palatal/Velar |
Glottal |
Plosive |
p b |
|
|
t d |
|
c,k /k/ g /ɡ/ |
|
Affricate |
pf /p͡f/ |
|
|
z /t͡s/ |
|
|
|
Nasal |
m |
|
|
n |
|
ng /ŋ/ |
|
Fricative |
|
f, v /f/ /v/ |
th /θ/ |
s, ȥ /s̠/, /s/ |
|
h, ch /x/ |
h |
Approximant |
w, uu /w/ |
|
|
|
j, i /j/ |
|
|
Liquid |
|
|
|
r, l |
|
|
|
- There is wide variation in the consonant
systems of the Old High German dialects arising mainly from the differing extent
to which they are affected by the High
German Sound Shift. Precise information about the articulation of consonants is
impossible to establish.
- In the plosive and fricative series, where
there are two consonants in a cell, the first is fortis the second lenis. The voicing of lenis consonants
varied between dialects.
- Old High German distinguished long and short
consonants. Double-consonant spellings don't indicate a preceding short vowel as
in Modern German but true consonantgemination. Double consonants found in Old
High German include pp, bb, tt, dd,
ck (for /kk/), gg, ff, ss,
hh, zz, mm, nn, ll, rr.
- /θ/ changes to /d/ in all dialects
during the 9th century. The status in the Old High German Tatian (c. 830), reflected in modern Old High
German dictionaries and glossaries, is that th is found in initial position, d in other positions.
- It is not clear whether Old High German /x/ had already
acquired a palatized allophone /ç/ following front
vowels as in Modern German.
- A curly-tailed z (ȥ) is sometimes used in modern
grammars and dictionaries to indicate the dental fricative which arose from Common Germanic t in the High German consonant shift, to distinguish
it from the dental affricate, represented as z. This distinction has no
counterpart in the original manuscripts, except in the OHG Isidor, which uses tz for the affricate.
- The original Germanic fricative s was in writing usually clearly distinguished
from the younger fricative z that evolved from the High German consonant
shift - the sounds of these two graphs seem not to have merged before the 13th
century. Now seeing that s later came to be pronounced /ʃ/ before other
consonants (as in Stein /ʃtaɪn/, Speer /ʃpeːɐ/, Schmerz /ʃmɛrts/ (original smerz) or the southwestern
pronunciation of words like Ast /aʃt/) it seems safe to assume that the actual pronunciation of
Germanic s was somewhere between [s] and [ʃ], most likely about [s̠], in all Old High German up to late Middle High
German.
A
word like swaz, "whatever",
would thus never have been [swas] but rather [s̠was], later (13th century) [ʃwas], [ʃvas].
Phonological processes
Here
are enumerated the sound changes that transformed Common West Germanic into Old High German, not including the Late
OHG changes which effected Middle High
German
- /ɣ/, /β/ > /ɡ/, /b/ in all positions
(/ð/ > /d/ already took place
in West Germanic). Most but not all High German areas are subject to this
change.
- PG *sibi "sieve" > OHG sib ( cf. Old English sife), PG *gestra "yesterday" > OHG gestaron (cf. OE geostran, "ge" being fricative /ʝ/ )
- Clusters /ht/ and /hs/, from PIE velars + */s/ or */t/, are fortified to /kt/, /ks/ respectively
(/xs/,/xt/ after the shift).
- PG *hlahtraz "laughter" > OHG lahtar > Modern German Gelächter.
- High German consonant shift: Inherited
voiceless plosives are lenited into fricatives and affricates, while voiced
fricatives are hardened into plosives and in some cases devoiced.
- Ungeminated post-vocalic /p/, /t/, /k/ spirantize
intervocalically to /ff/, /ȥȥ/, /xx/ and elsewhere
to /f/, /ȥ/, /x/. Cluster /tr/ is exempt from
this. Compare Old English slǣpan to Old High German slāfan .
- Word-initially, after a resonant and when
geminated, the same consonants affricatized to /pf/, /tȥ/ and /kx/, OE tam : OHG zam.
- Spread of /k/ > /kx/ is geographically
very limited and is not reflected in Modern Standard German.
- /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/ are devoiced.
- In Standard German, this applies to /d/ in all positions,
but to /b/ and /ɡ/ only when
geminated. PG *brugjo > *bruggjo >brucca, but *leugan > leggen.
- /ē²/ and /oː/ are diphthongized
into /ie/ and /uo/ respectively.
- Proto-Germanic /ai/ became /ei/, except before /r/, /h/, /w/ and word finally,
where it monophthongizes into ê ( which is also the reflex of unstressed /ai/) .
- Similarly /au/ > /ô/ before /r/, /h/ and all dentals,
otherwise /au/ > /ou/. PG *dauhθaz "death" > OHG tôd, but *haubudam "head" > houbit.
- It should be noted that /h/ refers here only
to inherited glottal /h/ from PIE *k, and
not to the result of the consonant shift /x/, which is sometimes written as h.
- /eu/ merges with /iu/ under i-umlaut
and u-umlaut, but elsewhere is /io/ ( earlier /eo/ ). In Upper
German dialects it also becomes /iu/ before labials
and velars.
- /θ/ fortifies to /d/ in all German
Dialects.
- Initial wC and hC lose /w/ and /h/.
Morphology
Nouns
Verbs
The
following is a sample paradigm of a strong verb, nëman "to take".
|
Indicative |
Optative |
Imperative |
Present |
1st
sing |
nimu |
nëme |
-- |
2nd
sing |
nimis
(-ist) |
nëmēs
(-ēst) |
nim |
3rd
sing |
nimit |
nëme |
-- |
1st
plur |
nëmemēs
(-ēn) |
nëmemēs
(-ēn) |
nëmamēs,
-emēs (-ēn) |
2nd
plur |
nëmet |
nëmēt |
nëmet |
3rd
plur |
nëmant |
nëmēn |
-- |
Past |
1st
sing |
nam |
nāmi |
-- |
2nd
sing |
nāmi |
nāmīs
(-īst) |
-- |
3rd
sing |
nam |
nāmi |
-- |
1st
plur |
nāmumēs
(-un) |
nāmīmēs
(-īn) |
-- |
2nd
plur |
nāmut |
nāmīt |
-- |
3rd
plur |
nāmun |
nāmīn |
-- |
Infinitive |
nëman |
Gerund: Genitive |
nëmannes |
Gerund: Dative |
nëmanne |
Present Participle |
nëmanti (-enti) |
Past Participle |
ginoman |
History
The Franks conquered Northern Gaul as far south as the Loire; the linguistic boundary later
stabiliZed approximately along the course of the Maas and Moselle, with Frankishspeakers further west being
romanized.
With Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombards in 776, nearly all continental Germanic
speaking peoples had been incorporated into the Frankish Empire, thus also bringing all
continental West Germanic speakers under Frankish rule. However, since the
language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification
did not lead to any development of a supra-regional variety of Frankish nor a
standardized Old High German.
Old
High German literacy is a product of the monasteries, notably at St. Gallen, Reichenau and Fulda. Its origins lie in the establishment
of the German church by Boniface in the mid 8th century, and it was further
encouraged during the Carolingian
Renaissance in the 9th.
The
dedication to the preservation of Old High German epic poetry among the scholars
of the Carolingian Renaissance was significantly greater than could be suspected
from the meagre survivals we have today (less than 200 lines in total between
the Lay of Hildebrand and the Muspilli). Einhard tells how Charlemagne himself ordered that
the epic lays should be collected for posterity.
It
was the neglect or religious zeal of later generations that led to the loss of
these records. Thus, it was Charlemagne's weak successor, Louis the Pious, who destroyed his father's
collection of epic poetry on account of its pagan content.
Hrabanus
Maurus, a student of Alcuin's and abbot
at Fulda from 822, was an important advocate of the cultivation of German
literacy. Among his students were Walafrid Straboand Otfrid of Weissenburg. Notker Labeo (d. 1022) towards the end of the Old High
German period was among the greatest stylists in the language, and developed a
systematic orthography.
Texts
The
early part of the period saw considerable missionary activity, and by 800 the
whole of the Frankish Empire had, in principle, been Christianized. All
the manuscripts which contain Old High German texts were written in
ecclesiastical scriptoria by scribes whose main task was writing in Latin rather
than German. Consequently, the majority of Old High German texts are religious
in nature and show strong influence of ecclesiastical Latin on the vocabulary.
In fact, most surviving
prose texts are translations of Latin originals. Even secular works such as
the Hildebrandslied are often preserved only because they were
written on spare sheets in religious codices.
The
earliest Old High German text is generally taken to be the Abrogans, a Latin-Old High German glossary
variously dated between 750 and 780, probably from Reichenau. The 8th century Merseburg Incantations are the only remnant of pre-Christian German literature.
The earliest texts not
dependent on Latin originals would seem to be the Hildebrandslied and the Wessobrunn Prayer, both recorded in
manuscripts of the early 9th century, though the texts are assumed to derive
from earlier copies.
The
Bavarian Muspilli is the sole survivor of what must have been
a vast oral tradition. Other important works are the Evangelienbuch (Gospel harmony) of Otfrid von Weissenburg, the short but
splendid Ludwigslied and the 9th century Georgslied. The boundary to Early
Middle High German (from ca. 1050) is not clear-cut. The most impressive example
of EMHG literature is the Annolied.
Samples
The Lord's Prayer is given in four Old High German dialects
below. Because these are translations of a liturgical text, they are best not
regarded as examples of idiomatic language, but they do show dialect variation
very clearly.
Lord's Prayer
Alemannic, 8th century The St
Gall Paternoster |
South Rhine Franconian, 9th century Weissenburg Catechism |
East Franconian, c. 830 Old High German Tatian |
Bavarian, early 9th century Freisinger Paternoster |
Fater unseer, thu pist in himile, uuihi namun
dinan, qhueme rihhi diin, uuerde uuillo diin, so in himile sosa in
erdu. prooth unseer emezzihic kip uns hiutu, oblaz uns sculdi
unsero, so uuir oblazem uns skuldikem, enti ni unsih firleiti in
khorunka, uzzer losi unsih fona ubile.
|
Fater unsēr, thu in
himilom bist, giuuīhit sī namo thīn. quaeme rīchi thīn. uuerdhe uuilleo
thīn, sama sō in himile endi in erthu. Brooth unseraz emezzīgaz gib uns
hiutu. endi farlāz uns sculdhi unsero, sama sō uuir farlāzzēm scolōm
unserēm. endi ni gileidi unsih in costunga. auh arlōsi unsih fona
ubile.
|
Fater unser, thū thār
bist in himile, sī geheilagōt thīn namo, queme thīn rīhhi, sī thīn
uuillo, sō her in himile ist, sō sī her in erdu, unsar brōt tagalīhhaz gib
uns hiutu, inti furlāz uns unsara sculdi sō uuir furlāzemēs unsarēn
sculdīgōn, inti ni gileitēst unsih in costunga, ūzouh arlōsi unsih fon
ubile.
|
Fater unser, du pist
in himilum. Kauuihit si namo din. Piqhueme rihhi din, Uuesa din
uuillo, sama so in himile est, sama in erdu. Pilipi unsraz emizzigaz kip
uns eogauuanna. Enti flaz uns unsro sculdi, sama so uuir flazzames unsrem
scolom. Enti ni princ unsih in chorunka. Uzzan kaneri unsih fona allem
sunton.
|