Middle Low German

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Middle Low German
Sassisch, Dǖdisch, Nedderlendisch, Ôstersch
sassesche sprâke (or unnormalised sassche sprake), nedderlendische sprâke (or unnormalised nederlendesche sprake; since the 16th century)[1]: 5 
RegionNorthern Central Europe, viz. Northern Germany (roughly the Northern lowlands), Northeastern Netherlands, Northwestern/North-central (modern) Poland, modern Kaliningrad Oblast, also sporadically in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Estonia (confined to cities)
Era13th to 16th centuries; evolved into Modern Low German; gradually superseded as an official language by High German and (in the far West) Dutch
Early form
Dialects
Latin (Fraktur)
Language codes
ISO 639-3gml
Glottologmidd1318
Linguasphere52-ACB-ca[2]Category:Language articles with Linguasphere code
Northern Europe in 1400, showing the extent of the Hanseatic League
Category:Language articles with unreferenced extinction date
Extent of Middle Low German in red and as literary language (black lines tilted right)

Middle Low German[a] is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225–34 (SachsenspiegelCategory:Articles containing German-language text). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Middle Low German was the leading written language in the north of Central Europe and served as a lingua franca in the northern half of Europe. It was used parallel to medieval Latin also for purposes of diplomacy and for deeds.[3]

Terminology

While Middle Low German (MLG) is a scholarly term developed in hindsight, speakers in their time referred to the language mainly as sassischCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text (Saxon) or de sassische sprâkeCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text (the Saxon language). In contrast to Latin as the primary written language, speakers also referred to discourse in Saxon as speaking/writing to dǖdeCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text, i.e. 'clearly, intelligibly'.[1]: 5 [4] This contains the same root as dǖdischCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text 'German' (cf., High German: deutsch, Dutch duits (archaically N(i)ederduytsche to mean the contemporary version of the Dutch language) both from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz lit. "of the people"; 'popular, vernacular') which could also be used for Low German if the context was clear. Compare also the modern colloquial term Platt(dütsch)Category:Articles containing German-language text (from plattCategory:Articles containing German-language text 'plain, simple') denoting Low (or West Central) German dialects in contrast to the written standard.

Another medieval term is ôsterschCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text (lit. 'East-ish') which was at first applied to the Hanseatic cities of the Baltic Sea (the 'East Sea'), their territory being called ÔsterlantCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text ('East-land'), their inhabitants ÔsterlingeCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text ('Eastlings'). This appellation was later expanded to other German Hanseatic cities and it was a general name for Hanseatic merchants in the Netherlands, e.g. in Bruges where they had their komptôrCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text (office; see Kontor).[1]: 5 [5]

In the 16th century, the term nedderlendischCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text (lit. 'Lowland-ish, Netherlandish') gained ground, contrasting Saxon with the German dialects in the uplands to the south. It became dominant in the High German dialects (as ENHG niderländischCategory:Articles containing Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)-language text, which could also refer to the modern Netherlands), while sassischCategory:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text remained the most widespread term within MLG. The equivalent of 'Low German' (NHG niederdeutschCategory:Articles containing German-language text) seems to have been introduced later on by High German speakers and at first applied especially to Netherlanders.[1]: 6 

Middle Low German is a modern term used with varying degrees of inclusivity. It is distinguished from Middle High German, spoken to the south, which was later replaced by Early New High German. Though Middle Dutch is today usually excluded from MLG (although very closely related), it is sometimes, especially in older literature, included in MLG, which then encompasses the dialect continuum of all high-medieval Continental Germanic dialects outside MHG, from Flanders in the West to the eastern Baltic.[6][1]: 1 

Extent

Middle Low German covered a wider area than the Old Saxon language of the preceding period, due to expansion to the East and, to a lesser degree, to the North.[b]

In the East, the MLG-speaking area expanded greatly as part of the Ostsiedlung (settlement of the East) in the 12th to 14th century and came to include Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Pomerania and (Old) Prussia, which were hitherto dominated by Slavic and Baltic tribes. Some pockets of these native peoples persisted for quite some time, e.g. the Wends along the lower Elbe until about 1700 or the Kashubians of Eastern Pomerania up to modern times.

In the North, the Frisian-speaking areas along the North Sea diminished in favour of Saxon, esp. in East Frisia which largely switched to MLG since the mid-14th century. North of the Elbe, MLG advanced slowly into Sleswick, against Danish and North Frisian, although the whole region was ruled by Denmark. MLG exerted a huge influence upon Scandinavia (see § History), even if native speakers of Low German were mostly confined to the cities where they formed colonies of merchants and craftsmen. It was an official language of Old Livonia, whose population consisted mostly of Baltic and Finnic tribes.

In the West, at the Zuiderzee, the forests of the Veluwe and close to the Lower Rhine, MLG bordered on closely related Low Franconian dialects whose written language was mainly Middle Dutch. In earlier times, these were sometimes included in the modern definition of MLG (see § Terminology).

In the South, MLG bordered on High German dialects roughly along the northern borders of Hesse and Thuringia. The language border then ran eastwards across the plain of the middle Elbe until it met the (then more extensive) Sorb-speaking area along the upper Spree that separated it from High German. The border was never a sharp one, rather a continuum. The modern convention is to use the pronunciation of northern maken vs. southern machen ('to make') for determining an exact border. Along the middle Elbe and lower Saale rivers, Low German began to retreat in favour of High German dialects already during Late Medieval times (cf. Wittenberg whose name is Low German but whose inhabitants already spoke mostly/exclusively High German when the Reformation set in).[7]

History

Sub-periods of Middle Low German are:[9][10]

Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League, spoken all around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. It used to be thought that the language of Lübeck was dominant enough to become a normative standard (the so-called Lübecker NormCategory:Articles containing German-language text) for an emergent spoken and written standard, but more recent work has established that there is no evidence for this and that Middle Low German was non-standardised.[11]: 118 [12]

Middle Low German provided a large number of loanwords to languages spoken around the Baltic Sea as a result of the activities of Hanseatic traders. Its traces can be seen in the Scandinavian, Finnic, and Baltic languages, as well as Standard High German and English. It is considered the largest single source of loanwords in Danish, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian and Swedish.

Beginning in the 15th century, Middle Low German fell out of favour compared to Early Modern High German, which was first used by elites as a written and, later, a spoken language. Reasons for this loss of prestige include the decline of the Hanseatic League, followed by political heteronomy of northern Germany and the cultural predominance of central and southern Germany during the Protestant Reformation and Luther's translation of the Bible.

Phonology and orthography

The description is based on Lasch (1914)[1] which continues to be the authoritative comprehensive grammar of the language but is not necessarily up-to-date in every detail.

Consonants

  Labial Alveolar Post-alv. Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal mCategory:Pages with plain IPA nCategory:Pages with plain IPA     [ŋ]Category:Pages with plain IPA  
Stop pCategory:Pages with plain IPA  bCategory:Pages with plain IPA tCategory:Pages with plain IPA  dCategory:Pages with plain IPA   [c]Category:Pages with plain IPA kCategory:Pages with plain IPA  [ɡ]Category:Pages with plain IPA  
Affricate   (t͡sCategory:Pages with plain IPA)        
Fricative fCategory:Pages with plain IPA  [vCategory:Pages with plain IPA] sCategory:Pages with plain IPA  [zCategory:Pages with plain IPA] (ʃCategory:Pages with plain IPA) [çCategory:Pages with plain IPA]  [ʝ]Category:Pages with plain IPA [xCategory:Pages with plain IPA]  ɣCategory:Pages with plain IPA hCategory:Pages with plain IPA
Approximant ʋCategory:Pages with plain IPA rCategory:Pages with plain IPA   jCategory:Pages with plain IPA    
Lateral   lCategory:Pages with plain IPA        
  • Square brackets indicate allophones.
  • Round brackets indicate phonemes that do not have phoneme status in the whole language area or are marginal in the phonological system.

It is not rare to find the same word in MLG affected by one of the following phonological processes in one text and unaffected by it in another text because the lack of a written standard, the dialectal variation and ongoing linguistic change during the Middle Low German (MLG) era.

General notes

Specific notes on nasals (Indented notes refer to orthography.)

Specific notes on stops and fricatives

Specific notes on approximants

Vowels

Modern renderings of MLG (like this article) often use circumflex or macron to mark vowel length (e.g. â or ā) to help the modern reader, but original MLG texts marked vowel length not by accents but by doubling vowels, by adding a lengthening e or i, by doubling the following consonants (after short vowels) or by adding h after the following consonants.

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Morphology

Noun

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Verb

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Dialects

Lasch distinguished the following large dialect groups,[1]: 12–20  emphasising that she based it strictly on the orthography, which may often omit strongly dialectal phenomena in favour of more prestigious/"standard" forms. Nevertheless, the dialect groups broadly correspond with modern ones.

Westphalian (HG: Westfälisch, Dutch: Westfaals): Broadly speaking, the area between the middle Weser and lower Rhine. Main cities: Münster, Paderborn, Dortmund, Bielefeld, Osnabrück. Some Saxon dialects in the modern Netherlands (esp. modern Gelderland and Overijssel) belonged to this group. Dutch influence on them strongly increased since the 15th century.

Some features: In the West, strong influence from Low Franconian orthographic patterns (e.g. e or i as a sign of length, like oi = /oː/Category:Pages with plain IPA). The "breaking" of old short vowels in open syllables and before /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA was often marked in writing (e.g. karn instead of korn). Old geminated /jj/Category:Pages with plain IPA and sometimes /ww/Category:Pages with plain IPA was hardened into [ɡ]Category:Pages with plain IPA; /ft/Category:Pages with plain IPA frequently shifted to /xt/Category:Pages with plain IPA (sometimes reversed in writing); /s/Category:Pages with plain IPA instead of /ʃ/Category:Pages with plain IPA (sal vs schal). The native present plural verbs was -et but the written norm often impressed -en. Similarly, the participle prefix ge- was usually written, though probably only spoken in the Southwest. Lexically, strong connections with adjacent dialects further north (East Frisian and Oldenburgish), e.g. godensdachCategory:Articles containing Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)-language text ('Wednesday') instead of middewekeCategory:Articles containing Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)-language text. Westphalian was and is often thought to be altogether the most conservative dialect group.

North Low Saxon (HG: Nordniedersächsisch, Dutch: Noord-Nedersaksisch): Spoken in a long stretch of coastal regions from the Zuiderzee in the West to East Prussia in the East. Its orthographic habits come closest to what was traditionally perceived as a MLG standard (the Lübeck standard, nowadays disputed).

Some features: Short /e/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /i/Category:Pages with plain IPA in open syllables are stretched into a [ɛː]Category:Pages with plain IPA-like vowel. The personal suffixes -er and -ald appear as -ar and -old. The pronouns mî (1.sg.), dî (2.sg.) and jû (2.pl.) are used for both dative and accusative.

Three subgroups can be distinguished:

(1) East Frisian and Oldenburgish, i.e. the areas west of the lower Weser, in the North including dialects on Frisian substrate. As can be expected, there is much Westphalian, Dutch and Frisian influence (hem next to em 'him'; plurals in -s; vrent next to vrünt 'friend').

(2) Nordalbingian, between the lower Weser and the lower Elbe, and also Holstein on the right bank of the lower Elbe. main towns: Hamburg, Bremen, Lunenburg, Kiel.

(3) East Elbian, including Lübeck and the areas further east, like Mecklenburg, Pomerania, northern Brandenburg (Prignitz, Uckermark, Altmark), Old Prussia, Livonia. Very close to Nordalbingian. While the Eastern dialects are today clearly distinguished from the West by their uniform present plural verb ending in -en (against Western uniform -(e)tCategory:Articles containing Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)-language text), in MLG times, both endings competed against each other in West and East. Main towns: Lübeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund. High German influence was strong in the Teutonic Order, due to the diverse regional origins of its chivalric elite, therefore MLG written culture was neglected early on.

Eastphalian (HG: Ostfälisch): Roughly the area east of the middle Weser, north and partly west of the Harz mountains, reaching the middle Elbe, but leaving out the Altmark region. In the north, the sparsely populated Lunenburg Heath forms something of a natural border. Main cities: Hanover, Hildesheim, Brunswick, Goslar, Göttingen, Magdeburg, Halle (early times). The area within the Elbe's drainage was established by colonisation and is in many ways special. The southern part of this Elbe Eastphalian (HG: Elbostfälisch) area switched to High German already in Late Medieval times.[13]

Some features: Umlaut is more productive, occurring before -ich and -isch (e.g. sessischCategory:Articles containing Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)-language text 'Saxon, Low German') and shifting also e to i (e.g. stidde for stêde 'place'). Diphthongised short /o/Category:Pages with plain IPA is rarely marked as such, contrary to other dialects. Before /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA, e and a are frequently interchanged for each other. Unstressed o (as in the suffix -schop) frequently changes into u (-schup). The modal verb for 'shall/should' features /ʃ/Category:Pages with plain IPA, not /s/Category:Pages with plain IPA (i.e. schal). The past participle's prefix was commonly spoken e- but mostly written ge- under prescriptive influence. The local form ek ('I' (pron. 1.sg.)) competed with "standard" ik; in a similar way the oblique form mik ('me') with "standard" mî. Unusually, there is also a dative pronoun (1.sg. mê). Lexically, close connections with Nordalbingian. Unusual plural menne ('men').

(South) Brandenburgish (HG: (Süd-)Brandenburgisch) and East Anhaltish (HG: Ostanhaltisch): Roughly between the middle Elbe and the middle Oder, and along the middle Havel, bordering old Sorbian territory to the Southeast. Main cities: Berlin, Frankfurt/Oder, Zerbst. A colonial dialect strongly influenced by settlers speaking Low Franconian. Also strongly influenced by High German early on.

Some features: Old long ê and ô were diphthongised into [iə]Category:Pages with plain IPA and [uə]Category:Pages with plain IPA, written i and u. Old Germanic coda /n/Category:Pages with plain IPA is restored, contrary to Ingvaeonic sound changes, e.g. gans 'goose'. Present plural of verbs features the suffix -en. Lack of negative determiner nên ('no' (attr.)), instead: keyn, similar to High German. The past participle retains the prefix ge-. Lack of gaderen ('to gather') and tőgen ('to show'); instead of them, forms close to High German, i.e. samenen and teigen. In East Anhaltish, distinction of dative and accusative pronouns (e.g. mi vs mik, cf. HG mir and mich).

Notes

Literature

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Sample texts

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Agathe Lasch (1914). Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik (in German). Halle (Saale): Max Niemeyer. ASIN B00416B8PU. LCCN 15008211. OCLC 3145389. OL 6575768M. Wikidata Q131355367.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  2. ↑ "m" (PDF). The Linguasphere Register. p. 219. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  3. ↑ Cordes, Gerhard; Möhn, Dieter (1983). Handbuch zur niederdeutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (in German). Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag. p. 119. ISBN 3-503-01645-7. OCLC 9961089.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  4. ↑ Köbler, Gerhard (2014). "düde (1)". Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch (in German) (3rd ed.). Gerhard Köbler. Wikidata Q131356101. Retrieved 29 November 2024.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  5. ↑ Köbler, Gerhard (2014). "ōsterisch". Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch (in German) (3rd ed.). Gerhard Köbler. Wikidata Q131356101. Retrieved 29 November 2024.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  6. ↑ Nicholas, David (2009). The Northern Lands: Germanic Europe, c.1270–c.1500. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 180–198. ISBN 978-1-405-10051-9.
  7. ↑ Karl Bischoff (1967). "Der Anschluss an das Mitteldeutsche". Sprache und Geschichte an der mittleren Elbe und unteren Saale (in German). Cologne: Böhlau Verlag. pp. 219–280. LCCN 68124531. OCLC 5835474. OL 5669631M. Wikidata Q131357533.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  8. ↑ 1 Peter 1:24–25
  9. ↑ Lexikologie. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Natur und Struktur von Wörtern und Wortschätzen [Lexicology. An international handbook on the nature and structure of words and vocabularies] (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 2005. p. 1180. OCLC 1025116289.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  10. ↑ Weddige, Hilkert (2015). Mittelhochdeutsch: eine Einführung [Middle High German: An introduction] (in German) (9th ed.). München: C.H. Beck Verlag. p. 7. ISBN 9783406684388. OCLC 933385847.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  11. ↑ Mähl, Stefan (2012). Elmevik, Lennart; Jahr, Ernst Håkon (eds.). "Low German texts from late medieval Sweden". Contact Between Low German and Scandinavian in the Late Middle Ages: 25 Years of Research. Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi. 121. Uppsala: Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur: 113–122. ISBN 9789185352975.
  12. ↑ Stellmacher, Dieter (2017). Die niederdeutsche Sprachgeschichte und das Deutsch von heute (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Edition. pp. 30–31. doi:10.3726/978-3-653-07005-7. ISBN 978-3-631-67548-9. OCLC 993588521.Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  13. ↑ Bischoff, Karl (1967). Sprache und Geschichte an der mittleren Elbe und unteren Saale. Mitteldeutsche Forschungen (in German). Vol. 52. Köln: Böhlau. pp. 236–237. LCCN 68124531. OCLC 5835474. OL 18179705M. Wenn Aken, Dessau, Köthen, Wittenberg, Walkenried, Eisleben, Merseburg, Halle mit ihren Umgebungen heute mitteldeutsche Mundarten haben, so ist das erst das Ergebnis einer großen sprachlichen Umlagerung, sie haben mit ihrer niederdeutschen Vergangenheit gebrochen. Aber ganz können sie sie nicht verleugnen, einige Reste sind auch im Bereich der Lautverschiebung unangetastet geblieben. [Translation: That Aken, Dessau, Köthen, Wittenberg, Walkenried, Eisleben, Merseburg, Halle and their vicinities today have Central German dialects, that is the result of a great linguistic shift; they have broken with their Low German past. But they cannot completely deny it; some remnants have also persisted in the issue of consonant shift.]Category:CS1 German-language sources (de)
  14. ↑ van Ghetelen, Hans (1498). Reynke de Vos . Lübeck – via Wikisource.
  15. ↑ "Recherche". Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  16. ↑ "Sebastian Brant". Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  17. ↑ "Totentanz". Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  18. ↑ "Paris et Vienne". Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. 1 November 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2024.

Further reading

Category:Low German Category:German dialects Category:Hanseatic League Category:History of the German language Category:Medieval languages#Low%20German,%20Middle Category:Languages attested from the 12th century
Category:All articles to be expanded Category:Articles containing Dutch-language text Category:Articles containing German-language text Category:Articles containing Low German-language text Category:Articles containing Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)-language text Category:Articles containing Middle Low German-language text Category:Articles to be expanded from March 2019 Category:Articles with short description Category:CS1 German-language sources (de) Category:German dialects Category:Hanseatic League Category:History of the German language Category:Language articles with Linguasphere code Category:Language articles with unreferenced extinction date Category:Languages attested from the 12th century Category:Low German Category:Medieval languages Category:Pages with plain IPA Category:Short description is different from Wikidata Category:Use British English from November 2024 Category:Use dmy dates from November 2024