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MODERN HIGH
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See also:MODERN HIGH See also:GERMAN
Although the See also:Middle High German See also:period had thus not succeeded in effecting any permanent advance in the direction of a See also:uniform See also:literary See also:language, the See also:desire for a certain degree of uniformity was never again entirely lost. At the See also:close of the 13th See also:century literature had passed from the hands of the See also:nobility to those of the middle classes of the towns; the number of writers who used the German See also:tongue rapidly increased; later the invention of See also:printing, the in-creased efficiency of the See also:schools, and above all the religious See also:movement of the See also:Reformation, contributed to awakening the desire of being understood by those who stood outside the See also:dialectic community of the individual. A single authoritative See also:form of See also:writing and spelling' was See also:felt on all sides to be particularly necessary. This was found in the language used officially by the various chanceries (Kanzleien), and more especially the imperial See also:chancery. Since the days of See also: We have here very favourable conditions for the creation of a uniform literary language, and, as has already been said, the tendency to follow these authorities is clearly marked. In the midst of this development arose the imposing figure of See also:Luther, who, although by no means the originator of a See also:common High German speech, helped very materially to establish it. He deliberately See also:chose (cf. the often quoted passage in his Tischreden, ch. 69) the language of the Saxon chancery as the vehicle of his See also:Bible See also:translation and subsequently of his own writings. The See also:differences between Luther's usage and that of the chancery, in phonology and inflection, are small; still he shows, in his writings subsequent to 1524, a somewhat more pronounced tendency towards Middle German. But it is noteworthy thaf he, like the chancery, retained the old vowel-See also:change in the singular and plural of the preterite of the strong verbs (i.e. sleig, stigen; starb, sturben), although before Luther's time the uniformity of the modern preterite had already begun to show itself here and there. The See also:adoption of the language 5 Cf. K. See also:Lachmann, Kleinere Schriften, i. p. 161 ff. ; Mfillenhoff and See also:Scherer's Denkmdler (3rd ed.), i. p. See also:xxvii.; H. See also:Paul, Gab es eine mhd. Schriftsprache? (See also:Halle, 1873) ; O. Behaghel, Zur Frage nach einer mhd. Schriftsprache (See also:Basel, 1886) (Cf. Paul and Braune's Beitrage, xiii. p. 464 ff.) ; A. Socin, Schriftsprache and Dialekte (See also:Heilbronn, 1888) ; H. See also:Fischer, Zur Geschichte See also:des Mittelhochdeutschen (See also:Tubingen, 1889) ; O. Behaghel, Schriftsprache and Mundart (See also:Giessen, 1896) ; K. Zwierzina, Beobachtungen zum Reimgebrauch Hartmanns and Wolframs (Haile, 1898) ; S. See also:Singer, See also:Die mhd. Schriftsprache (1900); C. Kraus, Heinrich von Veldeke and die mhd. Dichtersprache (Halle, 1899) ; G. Roethe, Die Reimvorreden des Sachsenspiegels (See also:Berlin, 1899) ; H. Tempel, Niederdeutsche Studien (1898). of the chancery gave rise to the mixed See also:character of sounds and forms which is still a feature of the literary language of Germany. Thus the use of the monophthongs i, u, and u, instead of the old diphthongs ie, uo and fie, comes from Middle Germany; the forms of the words and the gender of the nouns follow Middle rather than Upper German usage, whereas, on the other See also:hand, the consonantal See also:system (p to pf; d to t) betrays in its See also:main features its Upper German (Bavarian-See also:Austrian) origin. The language of Luther no doubt shows greater originality in its See also:style and vocabulary (cf. its influence on See also:Goethe and the writers of the See also:Sturm and Drang), for in this respect the chancery could obviously afford him but scanty help. His vocabulary is See also:drawn to a See also:great extent from his own native Middle German- See also:dialect, and the fact that, since the 14th century, Middle German literature (cf. for in-stance, the writings of the German mystics, at the time of and subsequent to See also:Eckhart) had exercised a strong influence over Upper Germany, stood him in See also:good See also:stead. Luther is, therefore, strictly speaking, not the See also:father of the modern German literary language, but he forms the most important See also:link in a See also:chain of development which began long before him, and did not reach its final See also:stage until long after him. To infer that Luther's language made any rapid See also:conquest of Germany would not be correct. It was, of course, immediately acceptable to the eastern part of the Middle German See also:district (Thuringia and Silesia), and it did not find any great difficulty in penetrating into Low Germany, at least into the towns and districts 1 See also:ing to the See also:east of the See also:Saale and See also:Elbe (See also:Magdeburg, See also:Hamburg). One may say that about the middle of the 16th century Luther's High German was the language of the chanceries, about 1600 the language of the See also:pulpit (the last Bible in Low German was printed at See also:Goslar in 1621) and the printing presses. Thus the aspirations of Low Germany to have a literary language of its own were at an See also:early stage crushed. See also:Protestant See also:Switzerland, on the other hand, resisted the " uncommon new German " until well into the 17th century. It was also natural that the See also:Catholic See also:Lower See also:Rhine (See also:Cologne) and Catholic See also:South Germany held out against it, for to adopt the language of the reformer would have seemed tantamount to offering a helping hand to Protestant ideas. At the same time, See also:geographical and See also:political conditions, as well as the pronounced character of the Upper German dialects, formed an important obstacle to a speedy unification. South German grammarians of the 16th century, such as See also:Laurentius Albertus, raise a warning; See also:voice against those who, although far distant from the proper use of words and the true See also:pronunciation, venture to See also:teach nos puriores Germanos, namely, the Upper Germans. In 1593 J. Helber, a Swiss schoolmaster and See also:notary, spoke of three See also:separate dialects as being in use by the printing presses:' (I) Mitteldeutsch (the language of. the printers in See also:Leipzig, See also:Erfurt, See also:Nuremberg, Wiirzburg, See also:Frankfort, See also:Mainz, See also:Spires, See also:Strassburg and Cologne; at the last mentioned See also:place in the event of their attempting to See also:print Ober-Teulsch) ; (2) Donauisch (the printers' language in South Germany, but limited to See also:Bavaria and See also:Swabia proper—here more particularly the See also:Augsburg See also:idiom, which was considered to be particularly zierlich) ; 2 (3) Hochsl Reinisch, which corresponds to Swiss German. Thus in the 16th century Germany was still far from real unity in its language; but to See also:judge from the number and the geographical position of the towns which printed in Mitteldeutsch it is pretty clear which idiom would ultimately predominate. During the 17th century men like M. Opitz (See also:Buch von der deutschen Poeterey) and J. G. Schottelius (Teutsche Sprachkunst, 1641, and Von der teutschen Sprachkunst, 1663), together with linguistic See also:societies like the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft and the Nuremberg Pegnitzorden, did a great See also:deal to purify the German language from See also:foreign (especially See also:French) elements; they insisted on the claims of the See also:vernacular to a place beside and even above Latin (in 1687 See also:Christian See also:Thomasius held for the first time lectures in the German language at the university of Leipzig), and they established a See also:firm grammatical basis for Luther's common language, which especially in the hymnals had become modernized and more uniform. About the middle of the 17th century the disparity between the vowels of the singular and plural of the preterite of the strong verbs practically ceases; under East Middle German influence the final e is restored to words like Knabe, See also:Jude, Pfaffe, which in South German had been Knab, &c. ; the mixed declension (Ehre, Ehren; Schmerz, Schmerzen) was established, and the plural in -er was extended to some masculine nouns (Wald, Welder);° the use of the mutated See also:sound has now ' For literature bearing on the complicated question of the Druckersprachen, readers are referred to the See also:article " Neuhochdeutsche Schriftsprache," by W. Scheel, in Bethge's Ergebnisse .. . der germanistischen Wissenschaft (1902), pp. 47, 50 f. Cf. also K. von Bander, Grundlagen des nhd. Lautsystems (189o), pp. 15 if. 2 A German Priamel mentions as an essential quality in a beautiful woman: " die red See also:dort her von Swaben." 3 Cf. for a detailed discussion of the noun declension, K. Boiunga, Die Entwickelung der mhd. Substantivflexion (Leipzig, 189o) ; and, more particularly for the masculine and neuter nouns, two articles by H. Molz, " Die Substantivflexion seit mhd. Zeit," in Paul and Braune's Beilrage, xxvii. p. 209 if. and xxxi. 277 ff. For the changes in the gender of nouns, A. Polzin, Geschlechtswandel der Substantive See also:im Deutschen (See also:Hildesheim, 1903).become the See also:rule as a plural sign cVater, Brume). How difficult, even in the first half of the 18th century, it was for a Swiss to write the literary language which Luther had established is to be seen from the often quoted words of See also:Haller (17o8–1777): " I am a Swiss, the German language is See also:strange to me, and its choice of words was almost unknown to me." The Catholic south clung firmly to its own literary language, based on the idiom of the imperial chancery, which was still an influential force in the 17th century or on See also:local dialects. This is apparent in the writings of See also:Abraham a Sancta See also:Clara,' who died in 1709, or in the attacks of the See also:Benedictine See also: Gottsched took as his basis the spoken language ( Umgangssprache) of the educated classes of Upper See also:Saxony (See also:Meissen), which at this time approximated as nearly as possible to the literary language. His See also:Grammar did enormous services to the cause of unification, ultimately winning over the resisting south; but he carried his purism to pedantic lengths, he would tolerate no archaic or dialectical words, no unusual forms or constructions, and consequently made the language unsuited for See also:poetry. Meanwhile an See also:interest in Old German literature was being awakened by See also:Bodmer; See also:Herder set forth better ideas on the nature of language, and insisted on the value of native idioms; and the Sturm and Drang led by Goethe encouraged all individualistic tendencies. All this gave rise to a movement See also:counter to Gottsched's See also:absolutism, which resulted in the revival of many obsolete German words and forms, these being drawn partly from Luther's Bible translation (cf. V. Hehn, " Goethe and die Sprache der Bibel," in the Goethe-Jahrbuch, viii. p. 187 ff.), partly from the older language and partly from the vocabulary See also:peculiar to different social ranks and trades.° The latter is still a source of linguistic innovations. German literary style underwent a similar rejuvenation, for we are on the See also:threshold of the second classical period of German literature. It had strengthened Gottsched's hand as a linguistic reformer that the earlier leaders of German literature, such as See also:Gellert, See also:Klopstock and See also:Lessing, were Middle Germans; now See also:Wieland's influence, which was particularly strong in South Germany, helped materially towards the See also:establishment of one accepted literary language throughout all German-speaking countries; and the movement reaches its See also:culmination with Goethe and See also:Schiller. At the same time this unification did not imply the creation of an unalterable See also:standard; for, just as the language of Opitz and Schottelius differed from that of Luther, so—although naturally in a lesser degree—the literary language of our See also:day differs from that of the classic writers of the 18th .century. Local peculiarities are still to be met with, as is to be seen in the modern German literature that emanates from Switzerland or See also:Austria. But this unity, imperfect as it is, is limited to the literary language. The differences are much more sharply accentuated in the Umgangssprache 6 whereby we understand the language as it is spoken by educated See also:people throughout Germany; this is not only the See also:case with regard to pronunciation, although it is naturally most noticeable here, but also with regard to the choice of words and the construction of sentences. Compared with the times of Goethe and Schiller a certain advance towards unification has undoubtedly been made, but the differences between See also:north and south are still very great. This is particularly noticeable in the pronunciation of r—either the uvular r or the r produced by the tip of the tongue; of the voiced and voiceless (stops, b, p, d, t, g and k; of the s sounds; of the diphthongs; of the long vowels e and oe, &c. (cf. W. Vietor, German Pronunciation, 2nd ed., 1890). The question as to whether a unified pronunciation (Einheitaussprache) is desirable or even possible has occupied the See also:attention of See also:academies, scholars and the educated public during See also:recent years, and in 1898 a See also:commission made up of scholars and See also:theatre See also:directors See also:drew up a See also:scheme of pronunciation for use in the royal theatres of See also:Prussia.' This scheme has since been recommended to all German theatres by the German Bithnenverein. Desirable as such a uniform pronunciation is for the See also:national theatre, it is a much debated question how far it should be edopted in the See also:ordinary speech of everyday See also:life. Some scholars, such as W. Braune, declared themselves strongly in favour of its adoption; 8 Braune's ' Cf. C. Blanckenburg, Studien fiber die Sprache Abrahams a S. Clara (Halle, 1897) ; H. Strigl, " Einiges fiber die Sprache des P. Abraham a Sancta Clara (Zeitschr. f. deutsche Wortforschung, viii. 206 ff.). ° Cf. F. Kluge, Etymologisches Worterbuch (6th ed.), pp. 5o8 ff. One can speak of: Studenten-, Soldaten-, Weidmanns-, Bergmanns-, Drucker-, Juristen-, and Zigeunersprache, and Rotwelsch. Cf. F. Kluge, Die deutsche Studentensprache (Strassburg, 1894) ; Rotwelsch i. (Strassburg, 1901); R. Bethge, Ergebnisse, &c., 55 f. ° Cf. H. Wunderlich, Unsere Umgangssprache (See also:Weimar, 1894). T Cf. Th. Siebs, Deutsche Biihnenaussprache (2nd ed., Berlin, 1901), and the same writer's Grundzuge der Buhnensprache (1900). 8 W. Braune, Ober die Einigung der deutschen Aussprache (Halle, 1905) ; and the See also:review by O. See also:Brenner, in the Zeitschrift des allgemeinen deutschen Sprachvereins, Beihefte iv. 27, pp. 228-232. See also:argument being that the system of modern pronunciation is based on the spelling, not on the sounds produced in speaking. The latter, he holds, is only responsible for the pronunciation of -chs- as -ks- in wachsen, Ochse, &c., or for that of sp- and st- in spielen, stehen, &c. Other scholars, again, such as K. Luick and O. Brenner, warn against any such attempts to create a living language on an artificial basis;' the Buhnendeulsch or " stage-German " they regard as little more than an abstract ideal. Thus the decision must be See also:left to time. AuTHORITIns.—See also:General Literature: J. See also:Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache (Leipzig, 1848; 4th ed., 1880) ; W. Scherer, Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache (Berlin, 1868; 2nd ed., 1878); E. Forstemann, Geschichte des deutschen Sprachstammes (See also:Nordhausen, 1874–1875); O. Behaghel, Die deutsche Sprache (Leipzig, 1886; 2nd ed., 1902) ; the same, " Geschichte der deutschen Sprache," in Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (2nd ed.), i. pp. 65o ff. ; O. Weise, Unseredeutsche Sprache, ihr See also:Werden and ihr Wesen (Leipzig, 1898) ; K. von See also:Raumer, Geschichle der germanischen Philologie (See also:Munich, 187o) ; J. Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik (4 vols., vols. i.-iii. in new edition, 187o--189o); Dieter, See also:Laut- and Formenlehre der allgermanischen Dialekte (2 vols., Leipzig, 1898–1900) ; F. See also:Kauffmann, Deutsche Grammatik (2nd ed., 1895); W. Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik, so far, vols. i., ii. and iii., 1 (Strassburg, 1893–1906, vol. i., 2nd ed., 1897) ; O. Brenner, Grundauge der geschichtlichen Grammatik der deutschen Sprache (Munich, 1896); H. Lichtenberger, Histoire de la langue See also:allemande (See also:Paris, 1895). Old and Middle High German Period: W. Braune, Althochdeutsche Grammatik (2nd ed., Halle, 1891); the same, Abriss der althochdeulschen Grammatik (3rd ed., 1900) ; F. Holthausen, Altsdchsisches Elementarbuch (See also:Heidelberg, 1899); W. See also:Schluter, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altsdchsichen Sprache, i. (See also:Gottingen, 1892) ; O. Schade, Altdeutsches Worterbuch (2nd ed., Halle, 1872–1882) ; G. E. Graff, Althochdeutscher Sprachschatz (6 vols., Berlin, 1834–1842) (See also:Index by Massrnann, 1846) ; E. Steinmeyer and E. Sievers, Althochdeutsche Glossen (4 vols., Berlin, 1879–1898); J. A. Schmeller, Glossarium Saxonicum (Munich, 184o); K. Weinhold, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (3rd ed., See also:Paderborn, 1892) ; H. Paul, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (5th ed., Halle, 1900); V. Michels, Mittelhochdeutsches Elementarbuch (Heidelberg, 1900) ; O. Brenner, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (3rd ed., Munich, 1894); K. Zwierzina, Mittelhochdeutsche Studien," in Zeitschrift See also:fur deutsches Altertum, vols. xliv. and xlv.; A. See also:Lubben, Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik (Leipzig, 1882) ; W. See also: 349) ; the same, ' Luthers Stellung zur kursachsischen Kanzleisprache " (in Germania, See also:xxviii. pp. 191 ff.) ;
P. Pietsch, See also: Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 2nd ed., 1863); K. von Bander, Grundlagen des neuhochdeutschen Lautsystems (Strassburg, 1890) ; R. See also:Meyer, Einphrung in das dltere Neuhochdeutsche (Leipzig, 1894); W. Scheel, Beitrage zur Geschichte der neuhochdeutschen Gemeinsprache in Koln (See also:Marburg, 1892) ; R. Brandstetter, Die Rezeption der neuhochdeutschen Schriftsprache in Stadt and Landschaft Luzern (1892); K. Burdach, " Zur Geschichte der neuhochdeutschen Schriftsprache " (Forschungen zur deutschen Philologie, 1894) ; the same, " Die Sprache des jungen Gaethe " (Verhandlungen der Dessauer Philologenversammlung, 1884, p. 164 ff.); F. Kasch, Die Sprache des jungen Schiller (Dissertation, 1900); F. Kluge, " Uber die Entstehung unserer Schriftsprache " (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift des allgemeinen Sprachvereins, Heft 6, 1894) ; A. Waag, Bedeutungsentwickelung unseres Wortschatzes (See also:Lahr, 1901). Mention must also be made of the See also:work of the German commission of the Royal Prussian See also:Academy, which in 1904 drew up plans for making an See also:inventory of all German literary See also:MSS. dating from before the year 1600 and for the publication of Middle High German and early Modern High German texts. This undertaking, which has made considerable progress, provides See also:rich material for the study of the somewhat neglected period between the 14th and 16th centuries; at the same time it provides a basis on which a monumental See also:history of Modern High German may be built up, as well as for a See also:Thesaurus linguae germanicae. (R.PR.) ' Cf. K. Luick, Deutsche Lautlehre mit besonderer Beracksichtigung der Sprechweise Wiens and der Osterreichischen Alpenlander (1904); O. Brenner, " Zur Aussprache des Hochdeutschen," l.c., pp. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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