Middle High German

“ In investigating a German word, we cannot and must not stop at Middle High German, the only earlier stage of our mother-tongue with which every educated man has some acquaintance; and even Old High German, the oldest literary period of German, is not, except in a very few cases, sufficient for the needs of the etymologist who knows how to appreciate the importance of philology in acquiring a knowledge of the history of the German language. ”

“ Middle High German ze bërge is ‘aloft, upwards’; compare Modern High German die, Haare stehen einem zu Berge, ‘one's hair stands on end.’ The düne group (English down) seems to have spread from English into Dutch and Low German (compare besides Bake, Boot, Prahm) . ”

“ National epic, Court epic and Minnesang—these three types of medieval German literature, to which may be added as a subordinate group didactic poetry, comprise virtually all that has come down to us in the Middle High German tongue. A Middle High German prose hardly existed, and the drama, such as it was, was still essentially Latin. ”

“ Their courts, and the castles of their vassals, offered a new and more genial home to the poets of Germany than the monasteries of Fulda and St. Gall. Poetry changed hands. The poets took their inspirations from real life, though they borrowed their models from the romantic cycles of Brittany and Provence. Middle High-German, the language of the Swabian court, became the language of poetry. The [pg 009] earliest compositions in that language continue for a while to bear the stamp of the clerical poetry of a former age. The first Middle High-German poems are written by a nun ”

“ There is practically no Middle High German literature in prose; such prose as has come down to us—the tracts of David of Augsburg, the powerful sermons of Berthold von Regensburg (d. 1272) , Germany’s greatest medieval preacher, and several legal codes, as the Sachsenspiegel and Schwabenspiegel—only prove that the Germans of the 13th century had not yet realized the possibilities of prose as a medium of literary expression. ”

“ Pre-historic cognates of the Teutonic root strîd (for strî’, srî?) are wanting; yet compare Sanscrit sridh, ‘enemy.’
streng, adjective, ‘strict, severe, stern,’ from Middle High German stręnge, adjective, Old High German stręngi, ‘strong, brave, hard, unfriendly’ (to which the adverb Middle High German strange, Old High German strango, is allied) ; compare Old Saxon strang, Dutch streng, Anglo-Saxon and English strong, and the equivalent Old Icelandic strangr. ”

“ The Modern High German meaning ‘thread’ is a recent development; its literal sense is ‘as much yarn as can be measured with the arms stretched out.’ The primary sense, ‘encompassing,’ results from Gothic faþa, feminine, Middle High German vade, feminine, ‘hedge, enclosure.’ The base of the cognates is a Teutonic root, feþ, faþ, pre-Teutonic pet, pot, which accords with the Greek πετ in πετάννυμι, ‘to spread out,’ πέταλος, ‘outspread, broad, flat’; Latin patere, ‘to stand open,’ is even more remote. ”

“ The Low German form of the Middle High German word is explained by the fact that Flanders, the medium by which French terms relating to the court and chivalry were introduced into Germany, also furnished some words (compare Wappen) to High German. ”

“ The primitive kinship of the Latin with the Middle High German and Old High German word is inconceivable, because the correspondence of Latin v with Old High German v (f) is found only in Old High German loan-words (see Vogt and Käfig) . ”

“ Biest, masculine, in Biestmilch, from the equivalent Middle High German biest, Old High German biost, masculine; compare Anglo-Saxon beóst, and its derivative Anglo-Saxon bŷsting, English beastings, biestings. Modern High German dialects have also remarkable parallel forms with br, like Old Icelandic á-brystur, ‘beastings,’ e.g. ”

“ Middle High German schâch was obtained through a Romance medium from Persian schâh, ‘king’; it is strange, therefore, that the High German word ends in ch in contrast to the Romance cc; compare Italian scacco, French échec. ”

“ The greater part of Middle High German literature is so excellent and interesting that most students, who have mastered the grammatical introduction and read the texts in the Primer, will doubtless desire to continue the subject. Such students should procure a copy of either the Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik by Hermann Paul, eighth edition, Halle, 1911, or the Mittelhochdeutsches Elementarbuch by Victor Michels, second edition, Heidelberg, 1912, where the vi Grammar, especially the phonology and syntax, can be studied in greater detail. ”

“ In the grammar much aid has been derived from Paul’s Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, second edition, Halle, 1884, and Weinhold’s Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, second edition, Paderborn, 1883. The former work, besides containing by far the most complete syntax, is also the only Middle High German Grammar which is based on the present state of German Philology.... I believe that the day is not far distant when English students will take a much more lively interest in the study of their own and the other Germanic languages (especially German and Old Norse) than has hitherto been the case. ”

“ The principal characteristics of Modern High German would then consist in a greater stability of the grammatical and syntactical rules, due to the efforts of earlier grammarians, such as Schottelius, Gottsched and others, and the substitution of a single vowel sound for the varying vowels of the singular and plural of the preterite of strong verbs (cf. Middle High German schreib, schriben, and Modern High German schrieb, schrieben, &c.) ”

“ We have traces of a certain amount of literature in Saxon or Low-German from that time onward through the Middle Ages up to the seventeenth century. But little only of that literature has been preserved; and, after the translation of the Bible by Luther into High-German, the fate of Low-German literature was sealed.
The literary language of Germany is, and has been ever since the days of Charlemagne, the High-German. It is spoken in various dialects all over Germany.168 [pg 179] Its history may be traced through three periods. The present, or New High-German period dates from Luther ”

“ With Greek ἔργον, ‘work,’ are connected ῥέζω (for *ϝρεγιω) , ‘to do, perform,’ ὄργανον, ‘instrument,’ ὄργιον, ‘sacred rite’; so too the Zend root vṛz, verez, ‘to work, toil.’ The meanings, ‘to prepare by sewing, embroidering, weaving,’ incipient in Middle High German, have been preserved in Modern High German. There is also in German a compound derivative Old High German scuoh-wurhto, Middle High German schuochwürte, ‘shoemaker,’ whence Modern High German proper names such as Schubert, Schuchardt. ”