The development of the Old High German umlauted vowels and the reflex of New High German /ɛ:/ in Present Standard German

Fausto Cercignani

doi:10.13092/lo.113.8317

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

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