Zum Inhalt Und Zur Sprache Der Einträge Aus Den Jahren 1361-1380 Im Ältesten Stadtbuch Der Stadt Görlitz. On The Content And Language Of The Records From The Years 1361-1380 In The Oldest Chancery Book Of The Town Zgorzelec (Görlitz)

Abstract

The article concerns a presentation of the content and of the results of the phonemic-graphemic analysis of the German records from the second half of the 14th century (1361-1380), which come from the town council of Zgorzelec (Görlitz). The purpose of the paper is to answer the question what the spelling rules in the town chancellery of Zgorzelec are and how the script fixes the features of the spoken language from the past. Due to the analysis, it could be explicitly proved, that the German used in the text matches to the level of evolution of the German language within the periodization of history of the language as it contains the standard Early New High German features as well as the dialectal structures and the sound changes, which are emblematic for the Silesian dialect. The text can therefore be classified as one of the linguistic monuments of the East Central German of Silesian tradition. All the conclusions of the study are supported with the suitable examples.