Middle High German

Middle High German (German: Mittelhochdeutsch), abbreviated MHG (Mhd.), is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German. In some uses, the term covers a longer period, going up to 1500.^[1]

Varieties

Middle High German is not a unified written language and the term covers two main dialect areas:^[2]

• Upper German (Oberdeutsch)
  • Alemannic (Alemannisch = Westoberdeutsch)
  • Bavarian (Bairisch = Ostoberdeutsch)
  • East Franconian (Ostfränkisch = Nordoberdeutsch)
  • South Franconian (Südfränkisch = Nordoberdeutsch)
• Central German or Middle German (Mitteldeutsch)
  • Franconian (Westmitteldeutsch)
    • Rhine Franconian (Rheinfränkisch)
    • Middle Franconian (Mittelfränkisch)
    • Hessian (Hessisch)
  • East Central German (Ostmitteldeutsch)
    • Thuringian (Thüringisch)
    • Upper Saxon (Obersächsisch)
    • Silesian (Schlesisch)
    • High Prussian (Hochpreußisch)

While there is no standard MHG, the prestige of the Hohenstaufen court gave rise in the late 12th century to a supra-regional literary language (mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache) based on Swabian, an Alemannic dialect. However, the picture is complicated by the fact that modern editions of MHG texts have a tendency to use normalised spellings based on this variety (usually called "Classical MHG"), which make the written language appear more consistent than is actually the case in the manuscripts. It is uncertain whether the literary language reflected a supra-regional spoken language of the courts.

An important development in this period was the eastward expansion of German settlement beyond the Elbe-Saale line which marked the limit of Old High German. This process started in the 11th century, and all the East Central German dialects are a result of this expansion.

"Judeo-German" is the precursor of the Yiddish language which is attested in the 13th-14th centuries as a variety of Middle High German written in Hebrew characters.

Writing system

Middle High German texts are written in the Latin alphabet, in Gothic minuscules that evolved into the Fraktur typefaces of the Early Modern period.

Middle High German had no standardised spelling. Modern editions, however, generally standardise according to a set of conventions established by Karl Lachmann in the 19th century.^[3] There are several important features in this standardised orthography which are not characteristics of the original manuscripts:

• the marking of vowel length is almost entirely absent from MHG manuscripts.
• the marking of umlauted vowels is often absent or inconsistent in the manuscripts.
• a curly-tailed z (<ȥ> or <ʒ>) is used in modern handbooks and grammars to indicate the /s/ or /s/-like sound which arose from Germanic /t/ in the High German consonant shift. This character has no counterpart in the original manuscripts which typically use <s> or <sz> to indicate this sound
• the original texts often use <i> and <u> for the semi-vowels /j/ and /w/.

A particular issue is that many manuscripts are of much later date than the works they contain, with signs of later scribes modifying the spellings, with greater or lesser consistency, in accordance with the conventions of their own time. There is also considerable regional variation in the spellings of the original texts, which modern editions largely conceal.

Vowels

The standardised orthography of MHG editions uses the following vowel spellings:

• Short vowels: <a e i o u> and the umlauted vowels <ä ö ü>
• Long vowels: <â ê î ô û> and the umlauted vowels <æ œ iu>
• Diphthongs: <ei ou ie uo> and the umlauted diphthongs <öu/eu/oi> and <üe>

Grammars (as opposed to textual editions) often distinguish between <ë> and <e>, the former indicating the mid-open /ɛ/ which derived from Germanic /e/, the latter (often with a dot beneath it) indicating the mid-close /e/ which results from primary umlaut. No such orthographic distinction is made in MHG manuscripts.

The etymological distinction made in the standardised spelling between <e> and <ä>, with <ä> representing a lower vowel arising from the secondary umlaut of /a/, may well be valid for the earlier texts, but the distinction between these two front vowels was lost by the end of the period (as in Modern German).

Consonants

The standardised orthography of MHG editions uses the following consonant spellings:

• Stops: <p t k/c b d g q>
• Affricates: <pf/ph tz/z>
• Fricatives: <v f s ȥ sch ch h>
• Nasals: <m n>
• Liquids: <l r>
• Semivowels: <w j>

Grammar

Pronouns

Middle High German pronouns of the first person refer to the speaker; those of the second person refer to an addressed person. The pronouns of the third person may be used to replace nominal phrases. These have the same gender, number and case as the original nominal phrase. This goes for other pronouns, too.

Personal pronouns

• Note: the genitive form is used as an adjective and hence takes on adjective endings following the normal rules. This includes 'unser' and 'iuwer', despite the fact that they already end in -er.

Nouns

Middle High German nouns were declined according to four cases (Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative), two numbers (singular and plural) and three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), much like Modern High German, though there are several important differences.

Strong nouns

Weak nouns

Note that ë is a short, open /ɛ/, so MHG dër /dɛr/ as opposed to modern /deːr/.

Articles

Middle High German articles have a feature called "strength", which influences the declension of the adjectives. There are strong articles, weak articles, and articles that have strong and weak cases. Sometimes this feature is not constant in literature.

The inflected forms depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. Articles have the same plural forms for all three genders.

Definite article (strong)

The instrumental case, only existing in the neuter singular, is used only with prepositions: von diu, ze diu, etc. In all the other genders and in the plural it is substituted with the dative: von dëm, von dër, von dën.

Verbs

Verbs were conjugated according to three moods (indicative, subjunctive and imperative), three persons, two numbers (singular and plural) and two tenses (present tense and preterite) There was a present participle, a past participle and a verbal noun that somewhat resembles the Latin gerund, but that only existed in the genitive and dative cases.

An important distinction was made between strong verbs (that exhibited ablaut) and weak verbs (that didn't).

Furthermore, there were also some irregular verbs.

Strong verbs

The present tense conjugation went as follows:

Imperative: 2.sg: nim, 2.pl: nëmet Present participle: nëmente Infinitive: nëmen Verbal noun: Genitive: nëmennes, dative: ze nëmenne

The bold vowels demonstrate ablaut; the vowels in brackets were dropped in rapid speech.

The preterite conjugation went as follows:

Past participle: genomen

Weak verbs

The present tense conjugation went as follows:

Imperative: 2.sg: suoche, 2.pl: suochet Present participle: suochente Infinitive: suochen Verbal noun: Genitive: suochennes, dative: ze suochenne

The vowels in brackets were dropped in rapid speech.

The preterite conjugation went as follows:

Past participle: gesuochet

Periodisation

There are several criteria which separate MHG from the preceding Old High German period:

• the weakening of unstressed vowels to <e> - OHG taga > MHG tage ("days")
• the full development of Umlaut and its use to mark a number of morphological categories
• the devoicing of final stops - OHG tag > MHG tac ("day")

Culturally, the two periods are distinguished by the transition from a predominantly clerical written culture to one centred on the courts of the great nobles. The imperial court in Vienna and the rise of the Swabian Hohenstaufen and then the Habsburg dynasties make South Germany the dominant region in both political and cultural terms.

Linguistically, the transition to Early New High German is marked by four vowel changes which together produce the phonemic system of modern German:

• Monophthongisation of some of the MHG diphthongs: MHG huot> NHG Hut ("hat")
• Diphthongisation of long vowels MHG hût > NHG Haut ("skin").
• lengthening of stressed short vowels in open syllables MHG sagen /zaɡən/ > NHG sagen /zaːɡən/ ("say")
• The loss of unstressed vowels in many circumstances - MHG vrouwe > NHG Frau ("lady")

The centres of culture in the ENHG period are no longer the courts but the towns.

Phonology

The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of classical MHG. The spellings indicated are the standard spellings used in modern editions - there is much more variation in the manuscripts.

Vowels

Notes:

1. Not all dialects distinguish the three unrounded mid front vowels.
2. It is probable that the short high and mid vowels are lower than their long equivalents, as in Modern German, but this is impossible to establish from the written sources.
3. The <e> found in unstressed syllables may indicate [ɛ] or schwa [ə].

Diphthongs

MHG diphthongs are indicated by the spellings: <ei>, <ie>, <ou>, <öu> and <eu>, <üe>, <uo>, having the approximate values of /ei/, /iə/, /ou/, /øy/, /eu/, /yə/, and /uo/, respectively.

Consonants

1. Precise information about the articulation of consonants is impossible to establish, and will have varied between dialects.
2. 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.
3. MHG has long consonants, and the following double consonant spellings indicate not vowel length as in Modern German orthography, but rather genuine double consonants: pp, bb, tt, dd, ck (for /kk/), gg, ff, ss, zz, mm, nn, ll, rr.
4. It is reasonable to assume that /x/ had an allophone [χ] after back vowels, as in Modern German.

Sample text

From the prologue of Hartmann von Aue's Iwein (circa 1200; c.f. MS B (Giessen), mid 13th c.)

This text shows many typical features of Middle High German poetic language. Most Middle High German words survive into modern German in some form or other: this passage contains only one word (jehen 'say' 14) which has since disappeared from the language. But many words have changed their meaning substantially. Muot (6) means 'state of mind', where modern German Mut means courage. Êre (3) can be translated with 'honour', but is quite a different concept of honour from modern German Ehre; the medieval term focusses on reputation and the respect accorded to status in society.

From the beginning of Das Nibelungenlied:

Literature

• Minnesang
  • Codex Manesse
  • Walther von der Vogelweide
  • Heinrich Frauenlob
  • Oswald von Wolkenstein

• Epics
  • Hartmann von Aue's Erec and Iwein
  • Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival
  • Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan
  • Nibelungenlied
  • Kudrun
  • Ulrich von Türheim's Rennewart and Willehalm
  • Rudolf von Ems's works
  • Konrad von Würzburg's works
  • Eilhart von Oberge' Tristrant

• Chronicles
  • Annolied (Early Middle High German)
  • Jans der Enikel's Weltchronik and Fürstenbuch
  • Kaiserchronik

• Law
  • Sachsenspiegel

See also

• High German consonant shift
• Matthias von Lexer

References

External links

• Wright's Middle High German Primer
• Middle High German conceptual database
• Online versions of the two main MHG dictionaries
• Mediaevum.de's MHG Texts:
  • 11th Century (Early MHG)
  • 12th Century
  • 13th Century
  • 14th Century
• Middle High German audio literature

Sources

• Hermann Paul, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 23rd edn, edited by Peter Wiehl and Sigfried Grosse (Niemeyer, 1989) ISBN 3-484-10233-0
• M.O'C. Walshe, A Middle High German Reader: With Grammar, Notes and Glossary (Oxford University Press, 1974) ISBN 0-19-872082-3
• Joseph Wright, Middle High German Primer, 5th edn revised by M.O'C. Walshe (Oxford University Press, 1955)