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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TAV-THE |
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THE OLD HIGH GERMAN PERIOD The language spoken during the Old High German period, that is to say, down to about the year 1050, is remarkable for the fulness and richness of its vowel-sounds in word-stems as well as in inflections. Cf. elilenti, Elend; luginari, Liigner; karkari, Kerker; menniskono slahta, Menschengeschlecht; herzono, Herzen (gen. pl.); furisto, vorderste; hartost, (am) hartesten; sibunzug, siebzig; ziohemes,. (wir) ziehen; salbota, (er) saibte; gaworahtos, (du) wirktest, &c. Of the consonantal changes which took place during this period that of the spirant th (preserved only in English) to d (werthan, werdan; theob, deob) deserves mention. It spread from Upper Germany, where it is noticeable as early as the 8th century to Middle and finally, in the Ilth and 12th centuries, to Low Germany. Further, the initial h in hl, hn, hr, hw (cf. hwer, wer; hreini rein; hlahhan, lachen) and w in wr (wrecceo, Recke) disappeared, this change also starting in Upper Germany and spreading slowly north. The most important vowel-change is the so-called mutation (Umlaut) ,6 that is to say, the qualitative change of a vowel (except i) in a stem-syllable, owing to the influence of an i or j in the following syllable. This process commenced in the north where it seems to have" been already fully developed in Low German as early as the 8th century. It is to be found, it may be noted, in Anglo-Saxon, as early as the 6th century. It gradually worked its way southwards to Middle and Upper Germany where, however, certain consonants seem to have protected the stem syllable from the influence of i in a following syllable. Cf., for instance, Modern High German drucken and driicken; glauben, kaufen, Haupt, words which in Middle German dialects show mutation. Orthographically, however, this process is, during the first period, only to be seen in the change of a to e; from the loth century onwards there are, it is true, some traces of other changes, and vowels like u, o, ou must have already been affected, othezwise we could not account for the mutation of these vowels at a period when the cause of it, the i or j, no longer existed. A no less important change, for it helped to differentiate High from Low German, was that of Germanic e2 (a closed e-sound) and o diphthongs in Old High German, while they were retained in Old Low German. Cf. O.H.G. her, hear, hiar, O.L.G. her; O.H.G.fuoz, O.L.G. fot. The final result was that in the loth century ie (older forms, ia, ea) and uo (older ua, oa in Alemannic, ua in South
East
Of the dialects enumerated above, Bavarian and Alemannic, High and Rhenish Franconian as well as Old Saxon are more or less represented in the literature of the first period. But this literature, the chief
South
East
tract
laws
Saxons
medicine
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