Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/538

Rh 520 Stine ﬂu ;i.<'_nz'c_v/cl. Dem pabcst ist gt- sctzct in bcschcid«-n- liclnr zit ze riht-en vf cincm blanchcn phcrdc, vnd dcr chciscr s- -l dcm pabt-st den stcgrcif habcn, daz sich dcr satcl nit S: L 17-'1/fs-"I1 r L‘ut¢‘. Do. in lullist lst gc.~¢:t'/.L't Z0 l'lL'lltLll 1/.0 bcscl1ni- dcncr zcit auf cinen blanchcm rosse, vnd dcr chaiser sol im den stcgraif habcn durch daz sich der satcl icht entwcmlc. I)itz ist GE1tM..'Y Sen-In-r;1spz'v_qrI. Dcmc babste ist ouch gcsaczt zu ritcne zn bcschcidcner zcit uf cimc blanken pfcrdc, und der keiser sal im den stcgercif haldcn, dnrch daz der satcl nicht enwinde. Daz cntwindc. Daz be- dcv bcschaidcmmge: istdiebezceehcnungc: zcichent daz. s'az swaz dcm babest swaz demc babste dem 1-ab--st widexste widerste, daz er mit widerste, des_ her dcs er mitgeistlichem geistlcichcm gerichtc nicht mit geisthchem gerihte niht hct'in- nicht betwingcn gcriehte getwingcn mag, daz ez derkciser mit werlthchcm ge- richtc twinge dcmc C muge, daz sol der chaiser vnd andcr wertleich rlchtcr mit gen mac, daz sol der chciser vnd andcr wcltlichc rihtcr be- twingen mit der der zechtc bctwingen bahste gchorsam zu chte. ' vnd das geistlcich sol wcscnc. twingcn mit dcm panne. " To the pope it is set. (ordained) that he shall judge at a certain time,(sitting) on a white horse, and the emperor shall hold the stirrup to the pope, that the saddle may not- slide off. This means that whatsoever resists the pope, so that he cannot overcome it with spiritual censure, the em- peror and other secular judges shall overcome with the pro- scription, (and the spiritual [court] shall exercise discipline with the ban).” In the lith an:l 15th centuries the development of the dialects rapidly advanced. The greatest changes were those occurring in the vowel system. The new diphthongs ei, 02:, cu, for older 2, 27, in, which had originated in the south- eastern parts of the Bavarian district gradually spread to the north and west; even some of the South Midland dialects, as Bohemian and Silesian, began t.o partake of this change, while the north Midland dialects and Alemannian remained unaltered. Short root syllables ending in a single consonant began to be lengthened in almost all dialects, as _r/Eben, némen, for _r/Eben, m2’/nen, to give, to take. Unac- eented e was dropped in the southern dialects, especially in Bavarian, t.o the utmost extent possible. Such forms as psc/zrec/z, _r/torst, lvrrt, for beschrclze, happened (subj.), _r/etorste, I durst, _r/ehceret, heard (part.), began to be quite familiar. Even before a ﬁnal l or nasal sound e was now and then dropped in Bavarian, as in gebm for _r/eben, to give, _r/qr/at for _r/c_r/cmlc country, which are exactly the forms still used in our time. Midland and Low German dialects continued to be much more conservative in all these respects. In the consonantal system we have to mention the loss of the 1 sound in all dialects, where it was a simple spirant (not (.9) ; although the letter 2 was still often preserved in spelling, it was frequently confounded with s in the rhymes, a thing which never occurred in the earlier centuries. Alemannian is chieﬂy distinguished by its constant change of sm, sn, sl, sw, sp, st into schm, scluz, SCIII, sc/aw, Sc/1}), sr/4!, as in sc/unit, smith, sclme, snow, sclclulmz, to slay, sclucimmen, to swim, _I/cschprochen, spoken, gcischtlich, “ghostly," spiritual. Late Bavarian favours such spellings as c/crankch, pal.-rlz, for I-rank, beclce. Spelling in general was much neglected, although it was not quite so bad as often in the 16th cen- tury, when there was a strong tendency towards crowding as many letters into a word as possible. “lnle the 15th century was thus marked by great diver- gencies of the spoken dialects, important steps towards gaming a greater uniformity of literary speech were made ID the same period by the invention of the art of printing, and by the development of certain lfmzzlcisprac/cevz, or lite- rary idioms of the imperial and other chaneeries. There is no need to explain how the habit of reading books printed in dialects not familiar to the reader must have obliged the learned public of the time to acquire a certain amount of knowledge of dialects in general, and must have made them better aware of the pel::1li:1l'iti(:s of their own idioms than 1 1345, [L-.'t:L':.c:E. was either necessary or possible at the time when mainl- scripts written expressly in the local dialects of the readers were the only means of conveying literary information. Besides, writers as well as printers nmst soon ll11'J found it profitable to publish their works in a l-.1n,<_:11agc readily understood by readers in all parts of the country. The principal work, however, was done in Germany by the chaneeries. Among these the imperial ehancery naturally held the most prominent position; and, inasmuch as its public acts were addressed t.o readers of all dialects exist- ing throughout the empire, it obviously had also the greatest interest in calling into existence a general idiom. In the 14th cent1u'y no difference between the language of the imperial ehancery and the local idioms of the particular emperors was yet visible.‘ The public Acts of Louis of llavaria (1314-1347) were written in the Bavarian dialect. The succession of Charles IV. (1347-1378) was accompanied by the introduction of the Bohemian dialect into the imperial charters. This dialect, as was natural from its local position, was neither purely Southern nor purcly Midland. 191', on, en for 7, 22, in were frequently adopted from the Southern dialects, but ck for I; and p for b were generally rejected; unaccented vowels were preserved to about the same extent as in Midland German. In the reign of Wenceslaus of Bohemia (1378-1400) the same state of things was maintained; but in the charters of Rupert, the elector palatinc (1400-1410), we ﬁnd the Midland dialect of the Palatinate. Sigismund (1410-1437) reintroduced the Bohemian dialect, which by this time had, with the excep- tion of a very short period, prevailed for nearly a hundred years in the imperial ehancery. It was therefore b11t nat- ural that Duke Frederick of Austria should exchange the Austrian dialect of his ducal ehancery (which abounded with I-rlz, Ma, /.'_r/ for K‘, and p for b) for the Bohemian ehancery dialect of his predecessors, when he succeeded to the imperial throne (1470-1493). Ilis example was followed by Maximilian (1493-1519), but only so far as public Acts were concerned. In charters destined for local Austrian use as well as in his private correspondence he always kept his vernacular Austrian dialect, showing thus that no change of the spoken idioms had been caused as yet by the introduction of the new artiﬁcial language. In the sa111c manner and at the same time the Midland dialect of the electoral cl1a11cery of Saxony came to be better adapted for general use by the adoption of the Southern ei, 02:, en for 2,12, in, and the abolition of several prominent Midland peculiarities. Jlodern Iligh C:'er)mm..—In the preceding paragraph we have tried t.o give a short sketch of the origin of literary Modern High German; and it is this very idiom of the imperial and Saxon chanceries that Luther made afterwards popular by his translation of the Bible and his numerous other writings. 'e may quote his own words in conﬁr- mation :—- “ lch habc kcinc gewisse, sondcrliche, cignc Spl‘.'l.Cll(‘lll1(l(’11tS('ll('n, sondern brauchc der gemcinen dcntschen spraehe, das mich bcido hcr- und Ni:-derliindcr verstehen mtigcn. lch rcdc nach der seclu- sischen cantzlci, wclchcr nachfolgcn alle ﬁirstcn vud ltiinige in Dcutschland; Allc rcichsstcdtc, ﬁirst.cnl1iife sclircibcn nach dcr scchsischcn vnd vnscrs fiirstcn cantzelcy. Darumb ists auch din gemcinstc dcutschc sprache. Kaiser Maximilian vnd clnirfiirst Fridcricli, hertzog von Sachsen, haben im rolnischcn rcichc dic dcutschen sprachen also in cine gewissc sprach zusammcngezogcn."’ Luther’s language, again, was soon acknowledged by Ger- man grammarians, as Sebastian Franck (1531) and Johannes Claj us (l.3T8),and was accordingly imitated, as the ‘ The particulars which follow are chieﬂy taken from an able sketch by Dr E. Wiilckcr, Iiic Entstclmng der kursdcltsisclzcn Ii'(m:lcispruclzc. See Zr'itschr1_'ft (lcs I'm-eius ﬁzr tIn'irz'n_r/1'.scIzc Gcsc]1z'clztr, ix. p. 349. 2 T ischretlrn, ch. 69. Dr Wiilckcr assigns these words to the year