Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the diphthongs in Middle High German

Abstract

The article deals with the transition from the Old High German diphthongs into Middle High German, there are established causes and trends of vowel combinations and the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of diphthongs of this period. There was held a statistic analysis of diphthongs which was based on the material of texts of Middle High period and there was established the frequency of the use of diphthongs as a percentage. Middle High German period is a transitional period in the history of the language.This phase covers the monuments of XII-XIII centuries and represents variety of dialects, which are characterized by diversity in the implementation of phonemes. However, the socio-historical and cultural-historical changes were the spur for the formation of common language. Therefore, on the basis of the functioning of the written fixation of sounds in the literature is presented the rather monotonous sound system, in particular diphthongs.The most important phonetic change in this period is the process of confluence of phonemes, which had led to a reduction in the future. The process of separating of phonemes led to the appearance of new phonemes - umlauts. The process of monoftongization and diphthongization has given the opportunity to analyse the transition of phonemes and diphthongs of Old High German into Middle High German . The study of the functioning of diphthongs which was based on material of texts from Middle High period prompted to determine the number and frequency of implementation of diphthongs in three positions of a word as a percentage.