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● Changes to vowels and diphthongs
(G§§33–56)
(G§§57–71)
● Changes to consonants and semivowels up to MHG (G§§72–91)
● Changes to consonants and semivowels during MHG (G§§92–6)
● Changes to consonants and semivowels between MHG and NHG (G§§97–103)
Details of the MHG noun declensions (G§§106–23)
e development of nouns from MHG to NHG (G§§124–30)
and possessives (G§§141–8)
Articles and demonstratives (G§§149–59)
● Interrogatives (G§160)
● Relatives (G§161)
and in ections (G§172)
● Paradigms of the strong and weak conjugations (G§173)
● General remarks on MHG verb forms (G§§174–82)
● Comparison between OHG and MHG verb forms (G§§183–5)
● Comparison between MHG and NHG verb forms (G§§186–7)
● Strong verb classes and ablaut (G§§188–98)
● Strong verbs—Grammatical Change (G§§199–201)
● Development of strong verbs from MHG to NHG (G§202)
● Weak verbs and ‘Rückumlaut’ (G§§203–8)
● Development of weak verbs from MHG to NHG (G§209)
● Irregular verbs—the mixed verbs bringen and beginnen (G§§210–12)
● Nominal grammatical categories—Use of cases (G§§257–65) 158
● Use of articles, adjectives, and compound adverbs (G§§266–8) 162
● Incongruence (G§§269–71)
● Negation (G§§272–4)
order
● Terminology: sentence constituents, phrases, and elements (G§275)
● Order of elements in the noun phrase (G§§276–9)
● Position and order of verbal elements (G§§280–95)
of clauses
● Terminology and de nitions (G§§296–302)
● Relative (or ‘adjective’) clauses (G§§303–8)
● Adverb clauses (G§309–25)
● Noun clauses (G§326–30)
●
●
(G§331)
(G§334)
(G§§335–7)
● Main word formation processes in MHG (G§§338–40)
● Lexicalization, productivity, and transparency (G§§341–3)
● Word formation pa erns in MHG (G§§344–60)
● Relationship between compounds and syntactic phrases in MHG and NHG (G§361)
● General remarks (G§362)
● Main types of borrowing in MHG (G§§363–7)
vocabulary (G§§368–411)
(V§1)
● Basic principles (V§2–4)
● Scansion (V§5–13)
● Tips for scanning MHG verse
(V§15)
(V§16)
Metrical and syntactical structures (V§18)
couplets and syntactical structures (V§19)
(V§20)
poetry: the ‘Nibelungenstrophe’ (V§22)
Lyric poetry: the love lyric and the didactic lyric (V§§23–4)
4. Historical, Cultural, and Literary Background
e formation of the kingdom of Germany (H§§1–2)
and the Holy Roman Empire (H§§3–4)
and the secular nobility (H§§29–50)
Peasants and the rural economy (H§§51–8)
(H§§59–72)
(H§86–95)
5. Selection of Annotated Texts
Berthold von Regensburg, ‘Von den siben planêten’ (extract)
T2 Konrad von Würzburg, Der Welt Lohn
T3 Das Nibelungenlied (strophes 814–55)
T4 Hartmann von Aue, Erec (ll. 624–1019)
T5 Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival (ll. 446,1–452,30)
(V§17)
T6 Go fried von Straßburg, Tristan (ll. 681–956) 389
T7 Der Stricker, Der Rabe mit den Pfauenfedern; Der Ho und; Der nackte Ri er 403
T8 Wernher der Gartenære, Helmbrecht (ll. 279–388, 697–804) 414
Lyric poetry
T9 ‘Minnesang’: Der von Kürenberg, Dietmar von Aist, Friedrich von Hausen, Albrecht von Johansdorf, Heinrich von Morungen, Reinmar, Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Neidhart 426
T10 ‘Spruchdichtung’: Walther von der Vogelweide 473
Religious literature
T11 Das Arnsteiner Mariengebet (ll. 78–205)
T12 Mechthild von Magdeburg, Das ießende Licht der Go heit (I, 2 and 4) 498
T13 Meister Eckhart, ‘Intravit Iesus in quoddam castellum’ (extract) 507
T14 Christine Ebner, Das Büchlein von der genaden uberlast (extract) 515
Natural history
T15 Der ältere Physiologus, e Elephant 525
T16 Der jüngere Physiologus, e Elephant 534
T17 Konrad von Megenberg, Das Buch der Natur, e Elephant 542
Chronicles
T18 Die Sächsische Weltchronik (extract) 553
T19 Die Livländische Reimchronik (ll. 127–200) 563
Legal documents
T20 e ‘Mainzer Landfrieden’ (extracts)
T21 Der Schwabenspiegel (extracts)
T22 Le ers exchanged by the bishop of Brixen and the royal court about the status of peasants (1282)
T23 Wage agreement between the clothmakers’ guild and journeymen weavers in Speyer (1351)
Appendix 1: IPA equivalents of symbols used in this book
Appendix 2: From manuscripts to modern editions
Preface and acknowledgements
is Guide has a companion website (www.oup.co.uk/companion/middlehighgerman) which provides access to various online resources. ese include:
● Links to facsimiles of the manuscripts from which we have made transcriptions of some of the texts in Chapter 5 (for details, see ‘References 3. Editions and manuscripts of Texts T1–23’);
● Links to facsimiles of many of the other texts in Chapter 5 as they are transmi ed in one or more manuscripts;
● Links to useful digital resources that are referred to in the Guide;
● A diplomatic transcription of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s song Sîne klâwen (T9.xi).
In preparing this Guide we bene ted greatly from the advice and constructive criticism of a large number of colleagues and both former and present students. John Flood, Kurt Gärtner, Shami Ghosh, and Carol Regulski deserve our special thanks for their detailed scrutiny of the whole or very extensive parts of the text. Carol Regulski also proofread the entire work and identi ed the links to facsimiles of manuscripts that are made available on the companion website. For assistance with speci c aspects and questions we gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Elizabeth Andersen, Frances Avery, Sarah Bowden, Martin Durrell, John Gillingham, Nelson Goering, Nigel Harris, Kerstin Hoge, Henrike Lähnemann, Alastair Ma hews, Brian Murdoch, Nigel Palmer, Karen Pra , Friedel Roolfs, Gunhild Roth, Charles Russ, Joseph Salmons, Jennifer Shaw, Anne Simon, Katerina Somers, Patrick Stiles, Markus Stock, Almut Suerbaum, Victoria omas, Anne e Vol ng, Sheila Wa s, Christopher Wells, David Wells, omas Williams, Jürgen Wolf, David Yeandle, and omas Zotz. Sadly, Volker Honemann and Bill (W. J.) Jones, who commented helpfully on parts of the text, did not live to see the work in its nal form. We apologize to anyone whose name we have inadvertently omi ed from this list. Any errors that remain in the work in spite of the guidance of so many are our responsibility.
e sta of Oxford University Press dealt expertly with our text. We are grateful for the encouragement of the late John Davey, who accepted our proposal in the rst place, and subsequently for the guidance of Julia Steer and in particular of Vicki Sunter, our commissioning editor, who handled our sometimes complicated requirements with great sensitivity and patience. e later stages of production were adeptly managed by Clare Jones, our production editor. We are greatly indebted to Malcolm Todd for his knowledgeable copy-editing and to Jillian Bowie, who brought incomparable expertise to the proofreading of our text.
Furthermore, we are grateful to Keble College, Oxford, for generous grants to facilitate the progress of the work.
We wish to thank the following publishers for permission to reproduce copyright material (details of the publications concerned are given in the relevant sections of Chapter 5, as indicated by the T references below):
S. Hirzel Verlag: T9, Song XI; Oxford University Press: T9, Songs i, ii, iv, v, vi, vii, ix, x, xii, xiii; T10, Songs i–iv and viii; Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag: T2; T3; T4; T6; T7; T8; T9, Song viii; T10, Songs v–vii; T13; WBG (Wissenscha liche Buchgesellscha ): T9, Song iii
All reasonable e ort has been made to contact the holders of copyright in materials reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future printings if notice is given to the publisher.
We dedicate this book to Helen and Mary Lynn for all their love and support.
List of maps, tables, and gures
37 Pa erns of root vowels/diphthongs in MHG and NHG strong verbs
38
43
44
45
46
53
55 Main divergences between in ectional morphology of T11 and that of Cl-MHG 490
56 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T12 and those of Cl-MHG 500
57 Main divergences between consonants of T12 and those of Cl-MHG 501
58 Main divergences between in ectional morphology of T12 and that of Cl-MHG 503
59 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T14 and those of Cl-MHG 517
60 Main divergences between consonants of T14 and those of Cl-MHG 519
61 Main divergences between consonants of T15 and those of Cl-MHG 528
62 Main divergences between in ectional morphology of T15 and that of Cl-MHG 529
63 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T16 and those of Cl-MHG 536
64 Main divergences between consonants of T16 and those of Cl-MHG 537
65 Main divergences between in ectional morphology of T16 and that of Cl-MHG 538
66 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T17 and those of Cl-MHG 546
67 Main divergences between consonants of T17 and those of Cl-MHG 548
68 Examples of unshi ed consonants in T18 557
69 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T19 and those of Cl-MHG 564
70 Main divergences between consonants of T19 and those of Cl-MHG 565
71 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T22 and those of Cl-MHG 587
72 Main divergences between vowels/diphthongs of T23 and those of Cl-MHG 595
73 Main divergences between consonants of T23 and those of Cl-MHG 597
74 Main divergences between in ectional morphology of T23 and that of Cl-MHG 598
75 Syntactic analysis of the rst sentence of T23 599 Figures
1 Middle High German and the Germanic language family (I§2)
2 E ects of umlaut on short and long vowels (G§47)
3 e four main changes to stressed vowels and diphthongs from Cl-MHG to NHG (G§64)
4 Development of sibilants since MHG (G§99)
5 Analysis of MHG compounds into immediate constituents (G§338) 204
6 Loan processes in MHG (G§363) 212
Abbreviations
Grammatical and general terms
abl ablaut
acc accusative adj adjective adv adverb(ial) art article
c. circa
cf. compare Cl Class cl clause comp comparative conj conjunction dat dative decl declension def de nite dem demonstrative det determiner dimin diminutive et al. and others f/fem feminine fn footnote fut future gen genitive imper imperative impers impersonal incl. including indec indeclinable indef inde nite indic indicative in n in nitive instr instrumental interj interjection interr interrogative intrans intransitive irreg irregular l./ll. line/lines lit. literal(ly)
m/masc masculine
MS manuscript n/neut neuter neg part negative particle nom nominative
NT New Testament num numeral obj object
OT Old Testament p./pp. page/pages perf perfect pers person, personal pl plural pluperf pluperfect poss possessive pple participle prep preposition pres present pret preterite pret-pres preterite-present pron pronoun ref reference re re exive rel relative resp. respectively sb somebody sg singular sth something str strong sub subordinate subj subjunctive superl superlative trans transitive vb verb vs versus wk weak
Languages and dialects
Alem Alemannic
Bav Bavarian
CFr Central Franconian
CG Central German
Cl-MHG Classical Middle High German
ECG East Central German
EFr East Franconian
EMHG Early Middle High German
Engl English
ENHG Early New High German
Gmc Germanic
HG High German
IE Indo-European
Ital Italian
Lat Latin
LG Low German
LMHG Late Middle High German
Linguistic symbols and abbreviations
[ ] phonetic symbol, e.g. [a]; see G§1
MDu Middle Dutch
Med Lat Medieval Latin
MHG Middle High German
MLG Middle Low German
NHG New High German
OF Old French
OHG Old High German
OS Old Saxon
PGmc Proto-Germanic
PIE Proto-Indo-European
RhFr Rhenish Franconian
SRhFr South Rhenish Franconian
Swab Swabian
ur uringian
UG Upper German
WCG West Central German
WGmc West Germanic
/ / phonemic symbol, e.g. /a/; see G§1
‹ › spelling symbol, e.g. ‹a›; see G§2
* una ested form/sound, e.g. *b; see G§3
> ‘becomes’, e.g. p > f; see G§3
< ‘is derived from’, e.g. f < p; see G§3
Ø indicates the absence of a sound
→ indicates a cross reference within G§§368–411 (‘Special vocabulary’)
SCS Second Consonant Shi ; see G§§73–83
WGCG West Germanic consonant gemination; see G§72
Bible abbreviations
Where the Latin Vulgate (V), the Authorized Version (AV), and the King James Version (KJV) all agree in their numbering of chapters and verses, only one reference is given. Where V di ers from AV/KJV, we give both references, with the AV/KJV reference in parentheses, e.g. Psalm 103: 24 (AV/KJV 104: 24).
Map 1 e Holy Roman Empire c.1150
KINGDOM OF DENMARK
Schleswig
North Sea
Bruges
Utrecht
Frisia
R. Rhine
County of Holstein
Lübeck
Hamburg
R Elbe
Mecklenburg
Baltic Sea
Duchy of Pomerania
Bremen
Braunschweig
Duchy of Saxony
Magdeburg
Liège
Cambrai
Reims
Paris
KINGDOM OF FRANCE
Cologne
Aachen
Duchy of Lower Lorraine
Frankfurt
Landgr. of Thuringia Brand enb ur g
Franconia
Metz
Toul
Trier
Mainz
Duchy of Upper Lorraine
Strasbourg
County of Burgundy
Besançon
Lyons
Vienne
Savoy
Embrun
Montpellier
Arles
KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY
Provence
Aix Tarentaise
Worms
Speyer
Hohenstaufen
March of
March of Lausitz
March of Meissen
Prague
Nuremberg
KINGDOM OF BOHEMI A Regensburg
KINGDOM OF GERMAN Y
Augsburg
Constance
Duchy of Swabia
Milan
Lombardy
Genoa
Marseilles
Corsica
The Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire c .1150
Borders of the kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire
Borders of the duchies, landgraviates, and marches of the Holy Roman Empire
is book o ers a guide to the language and literature of Middle High German (MHG). We are aware that readers may come to the study of this period (c.1050 to c.1350) with di erent objectives: to be able to read the literary masterpieces of the time, to gain insight into medieval life through original documents, or to acquire an understanding of the language, its diversity, and its development during this period. We have wri en the book with such a varied readership in mind, seeking to provide a core of knowledge of MHG from which readers can follow di erent pathways in pursuit of particular interests. e book is designed for taught courses, for self-study, and for reference. e only prior knowledge that we take for granted is an understanding of present-day German.
e scope of this book is wider than that of previous English-language accounts of MHG in two main ways. First, we provide more help for the reader in the form of grammatical explanation, background material, notes, and an extensive glossary. With regard to grammar, we adopt a twolevel approach, catering for those whose priority is a reading knowledge of MHG and those whose interests require more detailed analysis of the language. Secondly, in the selection of texts for study, we focus not only on the great poetic works wri en around the year 1200, but also on prose and verse texts from throughout the MHG period. ese span a range of writers and genres and include extracts from religious, historical, natural-historical, and legal texts. ey also represent most of the main MHG dialect areas and, in contrast to the normalized MHG in which the works of the great poets are usually read, they demonstrate the linguistic variety, irregularity, and even messiness of the writing of the period. To give our readers an insight into the way in which MHG texts are transmi ed, we present some texts as nearly as possible in their manuscript form, provide links to on-line reproductions of manuscripts, and explain the procedures followed by the editors of MHG texts. We provide extensive additional supporting material to help with the understanding of the non-normalized texts.
We give more details of our approach later in I§6 below.
How to use this book
Please refer to the detailed Table of Contents to see how this book is organized. e Glossaries and Index are for reference. We suggest below how di erent types of reader might use the rest of the book—while recognizing that many readers may belong to more than one category.
Readers new to MHG
● Chapter 2 ‘Grammar and Lexis’ (read ‘Main points’);
● Chapter 5 ‘Texts’ (read the two introductory passages).
Readers familiar with MHG
● Chapter 5 ‘Texts’ (read non-introductory texts, including dialect texts);
● Chapter 3 ‘Versi cation’ and Chapter 4 ‘Background’ (consult as needed);
● Chapter 2 ‘Grammar and Lexis’ (read detailed explanations for reference).
Readers interested in the language and linguistics of MHG
● Chapter 2 ‘Grammar and Lexis’ (read detailed explanations on areas of interest);
● Chapter 5 ‘Texts’ (read dialect texts and accompanying linguistic headnotes; see list of texts at the beginning of Chapter 5 for details).
Paragraph numbering and references to texts in Chapter 5
● We use separate series of paragraph numbers for the Introduction (e.g. I§3), Grammar and Lexis (e.g. G§4), Versi cation chapter (e.g. V§7), and Background chapter (e.g. H§3). Note that the numbering in many cases refers to more than one paragraph of text (see, for example, I§1, which covers four paragraphs).
● For the selection of texts in Chapter 5, the references consist of ‘T’ followed by the number of the text in the order in which it appears and, where appropriate, the line number(s) referred to; for example, T5, l. 120 refers to Text no. 5, line 120 and T9.viii, l. 14 refers to Text no. 9, Song viii, line 14.
● e headnotes to the texts in Chapter 5 have their own paragraph numbering; for example, T19§2.1.1 refers to Text no. 19, paragraph §2.1.1. See list of texts at the beginning of Chapter 5.
De nition of Middle High German
Two senses of ‘Middle High German’
e term ‘Middle High German’ (MHG) can be understood in two senses. First, it serves as a label for the period in the history of the language traditionally dated between 1050 and 1350. MHG so de ned is evidenced by any writings whose original composition can be traced to this period. MHG in this sense exhibits a high degree of diversity in the manuscripts through which it is known to us. is diversity re ects both changes in the language over the three hundred years of the period and di erences at any given point in time between spoken dialects (to which we do not have direct access), wri en forms of the language, and types of text. Secondly, MHG refers to the normalized form of the language used in editions of many MHG texts and in grammars and dictionaries of MHG. is form of the language was devised in the early nineteenth century. It is derived from the works of major poets writing between c.1170 and c.1230, the period known in literary history as the MHG Classical period. In order that the speci c source of this normalized variety of the language should be kept in mind, we refer to it in this book as ‘Classical Middle High German’ (Cl-MHG).
Although Cl-MHG is an arti cial variety of the language, it forms an important part of this book for two reasons. First, the great works of MHG literature are for the most part studied in editions which adhere, at least to some extent, to the norms of Cl-MHG, and this book is, among other things, intended as a guide to such works. Secondly, Cl-MHG provides a reference point in our description of the language of the period in the wider sense.
While our account of the language is centred around Cl-MHG, we also describe the linguistic features which vary by dialect areas, by text type, and by the date of composition within the period. And while we illustrate the language of the period with texts in Cl-MHG, we balance
I§2
these with a wide range of material in prose and verse, representing di erent dialects, genres, and dates during the period.
In the following we expand on the two senses in which the term MHG is used.
High German within the Germanic language family
e term ‘Middle High German’ denotes a group of dialects within the Germanic language family. e ‘Middle’ part of its name refers to a period in the history of these dialects and is discussed in I§5; we focus here on ‘High German’.
e Germanic language family
e Germanic (Gmc) language family is itself a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. e other surviving subdivisions of IE are as follows, with some present-day languages noted in parentheses: Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic (Russian), Italic (the Romance languages via Latin), Celtic (Irish and Welsh), Greek, and Indo-Iranian (Hindi and Farsi).
Modern languages in the Gmc language family include German, English, Frisian, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages including Icelandic. Language families are considered to have a parent and, where the parent is not a ested, a proto-language may be reconstructed to represent it. is is done by taking forms a ested in the daughter languages and using well-established patterns of linguistic change to recreate forms which could plausibly have existed in the parent language. e reconstructed parent of the Gmc language family is called Proto-Germanic (PGmc) and the reconstructed parent of the whole IE language family is called Proto-Indo-European (PIE); see Figure 1. Reconstructed forms are traditionally marked with an asterisk; for example, the genitive singular of the Gmc word for ‘day’, the ancestor of modern German Tages, is reconstructed as *dagas.
e period during which IE was spoken has been dated to several millennia bc. Gmc can be identi ed as a separate branch of IE from the rst millennium bc. Gmc is distinguished from other IE languages principally by the First Consonant Shi (or ‘Grimm’s Law’), a change which a ected certain consonants; this shi is behind the following consonant alternations between Latin and English (as examples of the non-Gmc and Gmc languages, respectively): pater/father, tres/three, cornu/horn. is relationship between PIE and PGmc is shown at the top of Figure 1.1
e Gmc language family is itself traditionally divided into the following three groups; the separation is considered to have taken place between the rst and h centuries ad
● North Germanic, represented by the Scandinavian languages including Icelandic and Faroese;
● East Germanic, represented by Gothic, which has died out but is a ested;
● West Germanic, represented by German, English, Frisian, Dutch (and Afrikaans).
West Germanic (WGmc) is distinguished from the rest of Gmc by a number of linguistic features (for example, West Germanic consonant gemination; see Index for details).
We use the term ‘Germanic’ (‘Gmc’) in this book to refer to the period between the First Consonant Shi and the rst wri en documents in Old High German in the eighth century (see I§5); in Figure 1, ‘Germanic’ therefore includes the nodes labelled ‘Proto-Germanic’, ‘ProtoNorth-West Germanic’, ‘Proto-West Germanic’, and ‘Proto-German’.
1 For more details of the First Consonant Shi , see G§200.
Figure 1 Middle High German and the Germanic language family
First Consonant Shift:
ch/h etc.
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Germanic
Proto-North-West Germanic
Proto-West Germanic
Proto-German
Second Consonant Shift:
k p t ch etc.
Old High German
Old Saxon/ Old Dutch
North Germanic
Balto-Slavic, Italic, Greek, Celtic, Indo-Iranian, etc.
East Germanic
Middle High German
Middle Low German Middle Dutch
(present-day) High German
(present-day) Low German (present-da y) Dutch
(present-day) English, (present-day) Frisian
Key. : direct line of descent;: simplified line of descent.
Old High German and Middle High German
e High German dialects are those WGmc dialects which have, at least to some extent, undergone the Second (or ‘High German’) Consonant Shi (SCS). is is a series of changes a ecting the Gmc consonants *p, *t, *k (and to a lesser extent *b, *d, *g), which occurred between the h and eighth centuries, and which is already re ected in the earliest Old High German texts (note that we use an asterisk here, as we are citing reconstructed sounds). e e ects of the SCS were maintained in Middle High German and are re ected in present-day standard German (see I§5 for the periodization of Middle High German). We can see the e ects of these changes if we compare certain present-day German and English words, e.g. Pfund/pound, Herz/heart, machen/make. In each pair the German word shows the shi ed consonant, while the English word preserves the Gmc consonant in its unshi ed form. e SCS did not a ect all German dialect areas equally: it started in the south and lost force as it progressed northwards. Beyond a line which runs roughly from west to east, the SCS did not take e ect. e dialect areas to the north of this line are, in the
