Abstract A new critical edition of the ‘Konstanzer Weltchronik’ presents the opportunity to ascertain which alliterating word-pairs are recorded in this Early New High German text. The 38 pairs include much repetition (15 of the pairs are ‘Land : Leute’) due to the circumstances of transmission and the formulaic description of the Chronicle content. Some of the pairs are apparently only documented here. The context of each pair is discussed, and known earlier instances are identified.

Abstract This study explores the relationship between manual text classifications linked to corpus metadata and computationally derived text groupings in corpora of Early New High German. We employ vector space models which can arrange texts in a multidimensional space based on semantic similarities and then cluster 463 texts from the ReF and GerManC corpora (1350–1800) into lexically and semantically defined groups. This operationalization of text types allows for the observation that there are more or less prototypical representatives of a text type and that there are overlaps and divergences in the development of such types. We evaluate the result of our quantitative analysis in a LASSO regression model which predicts the relative frequency of wh-relative pronouns, a linguistic variable known for genre-sensitive and historical variation. Our results show that data-driven clustering are at least complementary to traditional classifications in capturing semantic distinctions and diachronic variation in textual traditions. The findings contribute to historical text linguistics by proposing a bottom-up methodology for identifying text types and revealing how genre evolution correlates with linguistic change.

BackgroundIn Germany, about 17% of households speak a non-German language, yet the absence of national guidelines in language-discordant encounters leaves hospitals to address these challenges individually. The impact of language barriers on cancer care in Germany also remains understudied. This study investigates the role of language barriers in the patient experiences of breast cancer patients and the influence of hospital and regional linguistic diversity on these measures.MethodsData were collected in 2022 from 4,822 breast cancer patients treated in 86 hospitals. The Cologne Patient Questionnaire measured unmet information needs and communication experiences. Linguistic diversity of hospitals was categorized by the proportion of non-native speaking patients. Multilevel logistic regression models were estimated, adjusting for sociodemographic (education, age, health insurance) and clinical variables (staging, surgery type, chemotherapy).ResultsDespite generally high average German proficiency, non-native speaking patients reported significantly greater unmet information needs regarding their disease and treatment compared with German native speakers, aligning with research in English-speaking countries. In hospitals with higher linguistic diversity, the negative association of non-native language status appeared reduced, with non-native patients reporting more favorable interactions with staff.ConclusionLanguage barriers remain a critical but under-recognized determinant of cancer care quality in Germany. In the absence of standardized protocols for care of patients with language barriers, hospitals treating more linguistically diverse populations appear better equipped to navigate these challenges. These results point to an urgent need for national standards and targeted hospital-based strategies that systematically address language discordance, support guideline implementation, and promote equitable oncology care.

Abstract The Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (AWB – Dictionary of Old High German) aims at providing a complete and exhaustive record of the German language during that period, beginning with the advent of Christianity around the middle of the 8th century and extending usually to the 11th and 12th centuries reaching beyond this period into the 13th or even the 14th century in a few cases. In every respect, our record of German words is closely linked to the Latin texts current at that time. This means that the bulk of the dictionary entries consists of glosses, either elucidating Latin texts or taken straight from bilingual glossaries, while continuous texts in Old High German are quite often renderings of Latin originals. The glosses just mentioned are German words added on the margins of manuscripts or above the line aiming at providing a better and easier access to the contents or clarifying the syntax of a Latin text. Since these can usually be understood without difficulty, these correspondences between Latin and German words allow us to define to a certain degree the meaning of those German words within a given context. For this reason, in the AWB we always provide the Latin phrases these German words are supposed to clarify and have devised a special system for doing so, in particular for defining the beginning and the end of the text to be quoted as well as the actual reference word (‘Latin lemma’) glossed. Not seldom problems caused by the difficult transmission of some texts and inherent difficulties of interpretation demand in these dictionary entries specific techniques for supplying further data or even providing some sort of a commentary, tasks usually associated rather with philology proper than with lexicography.

Abstract Using the article schwarz (‘black’) as an example, this paper examines the interrelationship between Early New High German citations and the microstructure of the Early New High German Dictionary (FWB). After an outline of the composition of the article schwarz , selected citations illustrating different meanings of schwarz in relation to colour qualities are shown in combination with the microstructure of the FWB and its particular positions of information, such as phrases, synonymous meanings, syntagms and word formations. Subsequently, citations are presented in which the use of the word schwarz in relation to skin colour is “charged” with (often derogatory) aesthetic, social, moral and religious values. The concluding discussion suggests possible research questions concerning the meanings of schwarz , based on the specific synchronic perspective of the FWB, which does not aim at linear developments, but at semantic and communicative workings in Early New High German texts.

The Old High German Lorscher Bienensegen or Lorsch bee incantation is one of the best-known examples of a text that uses the power of words to influence the behaviour of bees. During the tenth century, this text was written upside down in the margins of the ninth-century manuscript Vatican, Cod. Pal. Lat. 220. It has long been assumed that the text is a written version of an oral tradition that was recited by beekeepers in and around the abbey of Lorsch. However, this raises the question of why someone would write such a text upside down in the margins of an older manuscript. Contrary to previous scholarship, I propose that the Lorsch bee incantation was intended to be used as an amulet which was to be placed in an apiary. To make this argument, I will first discuss other Bienensegen, several of which explicitly instruct their readers to write down the text to prevent bees from fleeing. Second, I will demonstrate that inthe manuscript that contains the incantation numerous parts of the margins were cut out. Thereby, I will suggest that the resulting strips of parchment could have been used to produce amulets. In short, I will argue that the Lorscher Bienensegen is an amulet.

Abstract The change of the weekday terminology for Wednesday from ‘Wodan’s day’ to ‘middle of the week’ in Old High German around the year 1000 is commonly explained through a rejection of the Germanic god Wodan by Christian intellectuals. This article takes a closer look at the institutional setting and textual context of this change. Effectively, Notker Labeo was following Augustine’s comments on Psalm 93 in the same way as Irish intellectuals had already done in the early eighth century. This article demonstrates the vibrancy of Irish teaching at St Gall in the two core areas relevant for this shift, psalm studies and especially calendrical science. Notker’s momentous decision can therefore be traced back to strong, and often underrated, Irish intellectual influence at St Gall in the early Middle Ages.

The German verb haben occupies a pivotal position in the diachronic analysis of the Germanic languages, serving as a key example of how lexical items evolve through the interwoven processes of semantic expansion, morphological restructuring, and grammaticalization. Deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root keh₂p- (‘to seize, grasp, or take possession of’), the verb originally conveyed a concrete sense of physical control or acquisition. In Proto-Germanic, this root developed into both stative forms (haben-) and factitive forms (habjan- / hafjan-), reflecting an early diversification of aspectual and valency distinctions within the verbal system. These forms eventually gave rise to the modern German haben, whose semantic and grammatical versatility makes it a cornerstone of the language’s verbal paradigm. Over time, haben underwent a profound semantic shift from expressing tangible acts of possession or holding to denoting more abstract relationships of ownership and obligation. This transition exemplifies a broader typological tendency in the world’s languages, whereby verbs of possession often grammaticalize into auxiliary verbs marking perfect aspect constructions. By the Middle High German period, haben had become fully integrated as an auxiliary in compound tenses, functioning alongside sein (‘to be’) to mark the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbal classes in the formation of the perfect and pluperfect. Comparative evidence from related early Germanic languages Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Dutch, and Old High German illustrates both the shared Proto-Germanic inheritance and subsequent dialect-specific innovations. For instance, Gothic habais and Old English hæbbe retain the original lexical meaning ‘to have,’ while their use as auxiliaries emerges progressively in later stages. This gradual grammaticalization trajectory highlights the dynamic interplay between syntax, semantics, and morphology in historical language development. Furthermore, the productivity of the root keh₂p- extends beyond the verbal domain. Nominal derivatives such as English haven (‘harbor’), German Hafen (‘port’), and even Old Irish cuan (‘bay’) testify to the enduring semantic field of containment and possession across the Indo-European languages. These reflexes underscore the conceptual continuity linking physical possession with spatial enclosure and, by extension, grammatical possession.

The article describes the consonant system of the Low German dialect of the Mennonite Germans of the Simferopol region of Crimea. Mennonites are followers of the Reformation movement that emerged in the 16th century in the Netherlands. The founder of this religious teaching was former Frisian Catholic priest Menno Simons (1496–1561), who united small, disjointed congregations of Anabaptists based on his doctrine. Since 1789, at the invitation of Catherine II, Mennonites began to migrate to Russia. The study is based on an analysis of the oral speech of representatives of an ethnic religious community who retained their native language in a foreign-speaking environment. The authors identify 25 consonant phonemes and describe in detail their classification according to articulatory and acoustic characteristics, as well as the functional load based on frequency of use. Special attention is paid to the specific features of consonantism, including the preservation of archaic features characteristic of the Low German dialect Plattdeutsch, as well as the influence of Russian and High German dialects. Such phenomena as palatalization before the vowels of the front row, spirantization of the consonants, velarization [l], vocalization [r], the presence of voiced consonants at the absolute end of the word. The analysis shows that the dialect under study retains a significant degree of archaism, while simultaneously being influenced by the contact Russian language. Despite the numerical reduction of native speakers, the consonant system demonstrates stability and internal logic, which makes it an important object for linguistic and ethnolinguistic research.

Abstract Switzerland is multilingual – and so is the Swiss political landscape. In German-speaking cantons, two language varieties co-exist: Swiss High German and Swiss German, i. e. the standard language and Swiss dialect. This text looks at the use of dialect as the language of debate in the cantonal parliament of Schwyz. Reporting on a qualitative empirical study based on observations and interview data, the text illustrates the How and Whys of using Swiss German for the complex legislative tasks of a German-speaking cantonal parliament. In doing so, questions of tradition and identity, language attitudes, resistance and empowerment are addressed.

Abstract With regard to a theory of transtextual characters, central questions remain open or have hardly been identified as a problem. The article discusses some of these questions from a medievalist’s perspective, such as what the basic category of a literary character to be understood as transtextual is: ›text‹ (which would lead to the term ›transtextual‹), a piece of work including a specific ›storyworld‹ (which would lead to the term ›transdiegetic‹), or only a fictional storyworld (which would lead to the term ›transfictional‹). As a prerequisite for this discussion, I try to clarify how the identity of a character in different ›storyworlds‹ can be defined (e.g., via a prototype model or universalist theory). Although this has already been discussed at length, the relationship between the concept of ›storyworld‹ and literary theoretical concepts such as text, manuscript, work, and variants is still missing. The same is true for the connection between the theory of transtextuality and philological concepts that describe the relationships and interdependencies between texts, works, versions, redactions, and adaptations. Historising the theory of transtextuality therefore first requires a clarification of the concept of ›work‹, or the criteria for conceptual identity of a piece of work. Another unresolved fundamental question is whether transtextuality presupposes fictionality. This question has hardly been asked so far because transtextuality has almost exclusively been discussed using examples of fictional characters from modern literature (such as Sherlock Holmes or James Bond) or from entertainment media (such as Tarzan or Lara Croft). In this paper, I discuss this question for Middle High German narrative literature. As an example for non-fictional narratives, I have chosen biblical narratives (›Bibelepik‹), i.e., narratives that use either biblical or apocryphal material as their source. Among other questions, the article discusses the issue of the extent to which the specific conditions of authority and validity of sacred texts limit their potential for variation. This is because the licenses for shaping and re-accentuating biblical figures are extremely limited: spiritual storytelling is about retelling the events revealed by the Bible (and apocryphal biblical narratives) over and over again, but without changing the main plot or adding new characters. The main argument against extending the concept of transtextuality to characters such as Adam, John the Baptist or Herod, however, is that factual narratives do not produce their ›storyworld‹ themselves as fictional texts do. Their storyworld is to be understood as the actual world. The transgression necessary for a character to be transtextual, transdiegetic or transfictional can only take place from a distinguishable storyworld, and that is a fictional one.

Abstract For a narratology informed by cognitive sciences, narrative worlds can be understood as mental models of readers based on textual structures and inferences. Taking this as a starting point, this article aims to show how characters change not only their own profiles when they become transtextual, but also the shape of a storyworld they enter. The theoretical premises can be related to Wolf Schmid’s narratological model, which distinguishes between the story told in a narrative text and the deducible happenings underlying the selection of the story. In this sense, characters transport a past with them when entering a new world; through the inferential formations of the readers, the space-time structure of this world, of which the characters have now become a part, is also altered. I examine this hypothesis in two groups of pre-modern texts, namely Middle High German Arthurian poetry and Grimmelshausen’s picaresque novels. In a typological approach, I trace two forms of space-time relations that can be associated with transtextual characters. First, I analyse the typical way in which characters from Arthurian romances reappear or are invoked in other texts. In doing so, their deeds are remembered without being given a precise position in the past. Secondly, I discuss a case in which an Arthurian event, potentially already known to the audience, is taken up and placed as a background plot alongside the main plot of a new romance. The space-time coordination of the two plots does not require much narrative effort. This is due to the specific space-time structure of the Arthurian worlds, as I will show in a third step by contrasting some of Grimmelshausen’s texts. While the storyworlds of the Arthurian romances provide a framework that remains so general that it can include any number of other spaces, the world of Grimmelshausen’s novels is not expanded, but successively filled in with new details and thus condensed.

Abstract The interpretation of lguskaþi as ‘Hirschschädigung’, i.e. a kind of comment on the sketch of a large dog or wolf attacking a stag, is improbable for several reasons. More probable is the interpretation as the name of a person, whether the maker of the footstool or its owner. The emendation of lgu- to lagu- is better than to *algi- ‘elk’, which involves a postulated change of *-i- > -u-. The second element -skaþi does not have to go back to an s-stem: a genuine i-stem and a nomen agentis are both possible. Then the meaning would be ‘sea-warrior’, not an inappropiate name for a man living along the coast and buried in a dugout. Another possibility would be a fourth mistake by the carver, omitting a final -n: with this we would arrive at a dative -in as in Old High German of the attested n-stem meaning ‘destroyer’. The second part of this name would then correspond Old English sæ-scaþa, translating ‘piraticus’.

В статье рассматривается развитие семантических функций у безаффиксных имен существительных в средневерхненемецком и современном немецком языках. Научная новизна состоит в описании смысловой структуры дериватов на основе валентности и семантической характеристики мотивирующего глагола, что позволяет установить связь между производящей и производной основами. В результате на основе формулы толкования мотивирующего глагола устанавливается функция данных девербативов, а количественный анализ позволяет устанавливать наполненность каждой из лексико-семантических групп в диахроническом аспекте. The article examines the lexical and semantic groups of suffixless nouns in Middle High German and Modern German. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the consideration of the semantic structure of derivatives based on the valence and semantic characteristics of the motivating verb. This approach makes it possible to establish a link between the producing and derivative bases. The formulas of interpretation of the motivating verb enable to determine the function of these deverbatives. Quantitative analysis permits to define the completeness of each of the lexico-semantic groups in a diachronic aspect.

ABSTRACT This article examines the place of the St. Trudpert Song of Songs, a twelfth-century German Song of Songs commentary, in the histories of mysticism and women’s literature. Written by a cleric for an audience of nuns, the text includes Latin phrases with minimal context, inviting its female audience to grapple with the concealed mystical sense of these words. The text’s author thus assigns its female audience the opportunity to make meaning out of the Latin intertexts. This is a novel development in early Middle High German literature that anticipates the construction of women’s spiritual authority in later mystical texts such as the Flowing Light of the Godhead.

Aims and objectives: Bilingual speakers are rarely equally proficient in both languages, making the determination of language dominance a major challenge. For a regional language like Low German, an additional challenge is the absence of a standard variety as a reference. To assess language dominance in both standardized and non-standardized languages, examining oral fluency provides a promising, non-invasive source of information. In this paper, we investigate several variables of speed and breakdown fluency to assess how well they reflect variations in language dominance among bilingual speakers of Low and High German, while also examining the role of the speaking task. Design: We recruited 95 bilingual speakers of Low and High German. The participants ranged in age from 15 to 88 years (47 female and 48 male). They completed four different tasks in each language (narrative task, picture-story task, direction-giving task, and reading task). Data and analysis: We analyzed seven fluency variables: articulation rate, speech rate, phonation/time ratio, mean length of runs, mean length of silent pauses, duration of silent pauses per minute, and number of silent pauses per minute. Generalized linear mixed models were fitted for these variables with language, dominance score, and gender as fixed effects and age as a covariate. Findings: Six of the seven fluency variables were found to be sensitive to variations in language dominance. Mean length of runs, duration of silent pauses per minute, and number of silent pauses per minute yielded the most consistent results across speaking tasks. Originality: This study links fluency measures with language dominance in a demographically changing group of speakers of an endangered regional language. Implications: We conclude that variables of speed and breakdown fluency are sensitive to variation in language dominance, even for two closely related languages such as Low and High German.

Abstract This article examines how the Middle High German Arthurian romances Erec and Iwein by Hartmann von Aue and Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg depicted and influenced the evolution and distinction of jousts from tournaments in the Middle Ages. Previous research focuses on the historical evidence regarding the development and role of medieval European tourneying and jousting in games, sports, and warfare, with little attention given to the study of tournaments in medieval literature. One specific problem in the research of tournaments that remains unresolved is the chronology and the evolution of the joust as a distinct tournament form. This article argues that Middle High German Arthurian romances Erec, Iwein, and Tristan anticipate the separation of the joust from the tourney and signal the rise of the joust as a distinct tournament form. By analyzing depictions of tournaments, and more specifically jousts, in Hartmann's and Gottfried's Arthurian romances, this article fills the gap in the research regarding the evolution of jousting as a distinct tournament form in the Middle Ages.

The presented article is devoted to the development of word formation in the Old German language. Various methods of word formation are examined, including compounding, conversion, prefixation, and suffixation. These fundamental processes of word formation continue to be present in contemporary Standard German. In the course of our research, various lexical units with prefixes and suffixes were analyzed: nouns, adjectives, verbs, among others. The dictionaries by K. Duden, V. Lewyzkyj, and R. Schützeichel served as the primary sources for analysis. Descriptive and historical-comparative research methods were applied in the study. Based on the conducted analysis, we have concluded that prefixation and suffixation played a significant role in the word formation of Old High German, as they represent principal means of lexical expansion and renewal. Prefixes originally developed from prepositions and local adverbs, such as aba, ana, etc. Most suffixes evolved from independent words, such as -heit, -schaft, etc. The diachronic development of prefixes and suffixes in Standard German and its dialects represents a compelling aspect of the language’s history, as it reflects both the structural evolution of the language and regional variation. These word forming elements are essential for the flexibility and lexical composition of the German language and have continued to evolve throughout the history of both Standard German and its dialectal varieties.

Abstract The traditional view that Old High German – like all old West Germania – has two paradigmatized synthetic tense forms, present and past, as well as syntactic constructions with pre-auxiliaries ›have‹ and ›be‹ as – not yet paradigmatized – archetypes of analytical tense forms of the perfect and pluperfect, have been partially relativized in recent research. The tense periphrases are said to have a higher degree of grammaticality than previously assumed. The article primarily deals with the question of the criteria of grammaticality of tense periphrases, which are largely redefined, taking into account their functional performance in the narrative and descriptive-evaluative discourse mode in comparison to New High German. It is shown that the Old High German evidence demonstrates an overall high level of systematic use of tense periphrases in both event time and reference time readings and can therefore be classified in the periphrastic part of the tense paradigm. Further evidence of this is the full verb selection, which already in Old High German goes far beyond a genuine possessive relation of the syntactic archetype.

The proposed article deals with revealing the syntactic profile of the Old Germanic languages, name- ly, the particularities of the functioning of the syntax and grammatical framework structure of sentences with concessive semantics in the Germanic languages of the ancient period (Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Norse (Old Icelandic), Gothic, Old Frisian). The study aims to outline the models of syntactic structures of complex sentences with a subordinate / coordinate concessive action in four semantic types of concessive sentences with pure (concessive), conditional, contrastive, and causative semantics of con- cession across six Old Germanic languages. To meet this objective, a seven-stage methodology was devel- oped based on the use of interdisciplinary tools involving such methods as the method of internal recon- struction, comparative-historical, structural-syntactic, semantic, descriptive methods, analytical and syn- thetic analysis, and the method of continuous sampling. Based on the internal grammatical reconstruction of Old Germanic concessive sentences of various semantic types, three basic types of their internal framework structure with the governing position of the main V-finite verb in the principal and concessive (or subordinate / coordinate) clauses have been identi- fied as: 1) VXS- / VSX-model with a V-finite verb in the initial position; 2) SVX- / XVS-model with a V-finite verb in the secondary position; 3) SXV- / XSV-model with a V-finite verb in the final position. It has been de- termined that the syntax of concessive sentences with various semantics of concession in the dynamic syn- chrony demonstrates the functioning of the identified syntactic models in most semantic types of conces- sive clauses depending on the specific Old Germanic language. Common and distinctive syntactic particularities of Old Germanic concessive clauses are observed in six configurations as SXV / XSV / VXS / VSX / SVX / XVS with an emphasis on the initial / secondary / final slot positions of the main V-finite verbs in the principal and subordinate (coordinative) clauses. Common syn- tactic particularities are identified by way of the presence of the same syntactic slot position of the main fi- nite verb – V-initial, V-secondary, V-final as a mutual signal syntactic function or feature in all or certain se- mantic types of the concessive action in the ancient languages under study. Distinctive syntactic particular- ities are established by the absence of a certain syntactic slot position of the main finite verb – V-initial, V- secondary, V-final as a unique signal syntactic feature of the functioning of a certain type of a concessive clause in a certain Old Germanic language. The framework structure of concessive sentences is outlined in terms of the syntactic coherence between pure (concessive), conditional, contrastive, and causative concessive clauses and their corre- sponding main clauses within the concessive sentences as: “contact – distant” arrangement of the inter- nal framework slot positions of the clausal conjunction with “contact – distant” arrangement of the exter- nal framework clause allocation within the whole concessive sentence. The syntactic coherence of conces- sive / non-concessive conjunctions within clauses of concessive sentences is established as: “contact – dis- tant” arrangement of internal framework conjunction concordance slot positions with “contact – distant” arrangement of internal framework conjunction position within the frame. It was found that the contact clausal conjunction slot positions were common across all Old German- ic languages in four semantic types of sentences with pure (concessive), conditional, contrastive, and caus- ative concession. The distant clausal conjunction slot positions prevailed in Old High German sentences of pure (concessive), contrastive concession; in Gothic sentences of conditional, contrastive, and causative concession. The contact conjunction concordance slot positions are witnessed only in Gothic conditional and Old Frisian causative concessive clauses. The distant conjunction concordance slot positions were com- mon in Old High German conditional, causative concessive clauses, Gothic contrastive concessive clauses, Old Frisian contrastive, causative concessive clauses, and Old English causative concessive clauses.