Abstract

A critical reconstruction of the development of the Old High German umlauted vowels sheds light on the phonological history of various vocalic phonemes and in particular of /ɛ/ and /e/ as well as of /ɛ:/ and /e:/. The changes that affected the two pairs led to different results in the New High German Schriftsprache, in which today’s /ɛ:/ beside /e:/ in words with “long ä” (e. g. spät) is not an artificial vowel based on the spelling, but a historical variant with a phonological history behind it.

Highlights

  • IntroductionIt is a well-known fact that the stressed vowels of Old High German underwent distance assimilation changes generally known as umlauts which were triggered off by specific factors in the syllable

  • In the line of development that led to Present Standard German, the three vowels were later reduced to one, the antecedent of today’s /ɛ/

  • The changes that modified the Middle High German and New High German vocalic systems obviously affected the umlauted vowels. In what follows these changes will be critically discussed with a view to reconstructing the line of development that led to Present Standard German

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Summary

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that the stressed vowels of Old High German underwent distance assimilation changes generally known as umlauts which were triggered off by specific factors in the syllable. The pre-literary Old High German vowels affected by i-umlaut were [a], [a:], [o], [o:], [u], [u:], [iu], [uo], [ou] before i-sounds ([i], [i:], [j]) in the syllable. As a result of the i-umlaut of /a/, Old High German came to exhibit three types of short e-sounds.. As a result of the i-umlaut of /a/, Old High German came to exhibit three types of short e-sounds.2 This state of affairs is not surprising, especially if one considers that three types of short esounds are reported from Modern Swiss German (cf Russ 1990: 369), where their distribution is, somewhat different. - split of /u/ into /u/ and /y/, as in brunno - split of /uo/ into /uo/ and /yø/, as in suozo (MHG sueze, adv.) and suozi (MHG süeze) ‘süß’

The subsequent development of the umlauted vowels
The subsequent development of the e-vowels
The subsequent development of the other umlauted vowels
Conclusions

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