University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk STUDIES IN THE IIISTOaiCAl PHONOLOGY OF GEEI'iAN Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Charles V.J. Russ University of Southampton 197» PREFACE This thesis is the result of several years of studying and teaching the historical phonology of German, both in Germany and Great Britain. I am particularly endebted to the late Professor W.I.Lucas, (Department of German, University of Southampton), whose help and encouragement were deeply appreciated, and to Professor L.E. Schmitt, (Director of the 'Forschungsinstitut fUr deutsche Sprache', University of Marburg), v;ho kindly allowed me to use the manuscript material there. My sincere thanks are also due to Dr.P.F.Ganz, (Hertford College, Oxford) and to the many others, with whom I had long and fruitful discussions on this subject. I must also record my gratitude to my many friends in German speaking Europe, v/ho, consciously or unconsciously, acted as informants. I should also like to thank Professor R.B.Le Page and my colleagues at the University of York, contact with whom proved to be the final stimulus needed to complete this thesis. Last, but not least, my thanks are due to Mrs.J. Premaratne for her very conscientious help with the typing, and, of course, to my wife, without whose tireless help and sunport this work would not have been possible. C.V.J.R. A B BREV I A f I 0 K 8 A N D S Y K B 0 1 S nom. nominative acc. a.ccusative gen. genitive dat. dative sing, singular pi. plural masc, masculine fern. feminine Bavarian CG Central German EGG Central German Gmc. Germanic HG ni.gh German IE Indo European IG German Lux. Luxemburgisch ME Middle English. MHG Middle Hi{di German l&G Middle Low German liHG New High German OE Old English BP Received Pronunciation UG Upper German ahd. althochdeutsch dt. deutsch mhd. mittelhochdeu bsch nhd. neuhochdeutsch Abbreviations for reference works are to be found after the first occurrence in the work itself, e.g. Wbrterbuch der Deutschen Aussnrache. (WDA). [ ] phonetic transcription / / phonemic transcription, or underlyin;-; representation ( ) linguistic variable * reconstructed or hypothetical form a the letter 'a' The phonetic symbols used in this work are those of the Internat- ional Phonetic Alphabet, except for the following: = IPA [v] * [y] = [f] LjJ [w] = [E] &'.] &%] &:] 0 [o3 Other phonetic symbols are explained in the text. For typographical reasons B is used for NHG^ e.g. daB for d^? C 0 n T E H T S Page Title Preface Abbreviations and symbols 1. Introduction 1 -10 2. Sound change 2.1. Comnetence performance 11-13 2.2. Phonetic and phonemic sound change 16-21 2.3. Restructuring mid phonemic change 22-23 2.4. Grammatical conditioning and sound change 25-28 2.5. Rule reordering 29-31 2.6. Synchronic variation zuid sound change 32-42 2.7. Variation and selection 43-47 ji. Explanation of sound change 3.1. Introductory 48-33 3.2. explanation of specific changes 36-38 3o3. Universals in sound change 39—64 3.4. General historical explanation 63-66 3.3. The predictive power of linguistic explanation 67-68 3.6. Conclusion 69-70 4. Methods of reconstructing the pronunciation of 'dead' languages 4.1. Introduction 71-76 4.2. Statements on pronunciation by contemporary or near contemporary grammarians and other writers * 77-81 4.3. The use of loan words 82-83 4.4. Phonological development in the language itself 86-88 4.5. Spelling conventions and variants 69-92 4.6. The evidence from rhymes and puns 93-96 4.7. Comparative zuid neocomparative evidence 97-100 5. The development from Kiddle High German to Hew High German: The consonants f;.l. The affricates 5.1.1. The development of HHG /pf/./ts/ to the NHG clusters /p/+/f/, /t/+ /s/ 101-107 5.1.2. Changes in the distribution and incidence of HHG /pf/ and /ts/ 107-112 5.1.3. The emergence of the affricate [t^] in MEG 113-115 5.,2. The stops 5.2.1. The change in the articulation of the initial stops 116-118 5.2.2. Changes in Uie incidence of stops 118-133 5.2.3. The development of zm epenthetic [t] 133-139 5.2.4. The merger of initial I4HG /tw/ with /zw/ or /ki-f/ 139-141 5.3. The labial fricatives 5.3.1. The shift of initial HHG /w/ to NHG /v/ 142-146 5.3.2. The merger of HHG /w/ and /b/ after /l,r/ l46-l48 5.3.3. The loss of HHG /w/ 149-151 5.3.4. ^be merger of HHG /v/ and/^/ in medial position 151-157 5.3.5. The development of HHG initial /v/ 158-160 5.4. The sibilanks 5.4.1. The merger of HHG /s/ and /z/ 161-172 5.4.2. The voicing of HHG initia]. /s/ 172-173 5.4.3. The partial merger of /s/ and 173-179 5.4.4. Changes in the incidence of HHG /z/ 179-l8l 5.4.5^ emergence of tlie phoneme 18I-I83 5.^. The palatal and velar fricatives and liHG /h/ 5.5.1. The development of the MHG allophonic variation [xJ - [%] 184-196 5.5.2. The development of the MEG suffix -ec I96-I98 5.5.3. The shift of KHG /xs/ ko IfHG /ks/ 199-203 5.5.4. The loss of KHG medial /h/ 204-211 5.5.5. The development of NHG /]/ 211-214 5.6. The nasals 5.6.1. The development of MHG /mb/ to /m/, KEG /ng/ to /q/ and other assimilations 215-222 5.6.2. The change of HEG -em to-en and other minor changes 223-225 5.7. 2!he liquids 5.7.1. The develo-pment of uvular [R] in initial position 226-252 5.7.2. The vocalization of postvocalic /r/ 232-256 5.7.5. The loss of /r/ 236-259 5.7.4. The development of I4HG /l/ 239-242 6. The development from Middle High German to New High German: The Vowels 6.1. Vowel lengthening and shortenin^^ 6.1.1. Vowel and consonant lenght in KHG 234-247 6.1.2. The lengthening of short vowels in open syllables 248-252 6.1.3. The exceptions to the len^^thening of short vowels in open syllables 252-260 6*1.4. The subsequent development of vowel lengthening in NHG 260-274 6.1.5. The shortening of long vowels 275-278 6.2. She development of short vowels 6.2.1. The merger of MHG /e/, /w/ and /^/ 279-285 b.2.2. The realizations of the reflexes of IIHG /a/ 28^-287 6.2.i$. The lowering of IHIG /u/ and /ll/ 287-291 6.3. The development of the ifHG long vowels and diphthongs 6.3.1. The history of the NHG opposition /e:/: /EV 292-298 b.3.2. Changes in the incidence of MHG /&/ 298-302 6.3.3. The merger of I-'iEG /I, iu, u/ and KIIG /ei, On, 01^302-312 6.3.4. The monophthongization of IIHG /ie/,/Ue/and /uo/ and their merger with IiHG /i,U, u/ before voiced consonants 312-315 6.4. Derounding and rounding 316-323 6.5. The loss of stressed I-IHG _e 6.5.1. Introductory 324-327 6.5.2. Apocope among E^^ectives 327-330 6.5.3. Apocope in verbs 331-332 6.5.4. Apocope a.mong particles 333-334 6.5.5. Apocope in nouns 334-339 6.5.6. The syncope of loosttonic unstressed KHG _e 339-345 7. Conclusion 346-354 Bibliography Abstract 1. INTRODUCTION Sistorical German phonology is a well-researched field of study and any fresh attempt to deal with it must be fully justified. Although the study of language has advanced with great strides since the first descriptions of historical. German phonology were written, the handbooks have not changed at the same rate. As examples of such handbooks we will take Hermann Paul's Deutsche Grammatik , reflecting Paul's long career, and Richard 2 von Kienle's Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Deutschen. The former sets out his historical phonology in the following „ Vokale fashion: Allgemeines uber die Vokale, Die einzelnen^er betoihten Silbe, Vokale der unbetonten Silbe, Vokalwechsel, Allgemeines II II uber die Konsonanten, Die einzelnen Gerauschlaute, Die einzelnen Sonorlaute, Konsonantenwechsel. Von Kienle sets his handbook out as follows: Die Entwicklung starktoniger Vokale bis zur nhd. Zeit: Die Dipthongierung der mhd. Langen i, u, u. Die Monophthongierung der alten Dipthonge ie, uo, ue, Rundung und Entrundung, Xnderungen der Vokalquantitat, Underungen der Vokalqualitat, Der hochdeutsche Konsonantismus nach Einzellauten dargestellt. Die Dentale, Die Labiale, Die Gutturale und der 1) 1916, reprinted 1959.