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COMPARISON OF PHONOLOGY

BETWEEN OLD HIGH GERMAN


AND OLD ENGLISH
VERGLEICH VON PHONOLOGIE
ZWISCHEN ALTHOCHDEUTSCH
UND ALTENGLISCH
Course: History of the English language I
Instructor: Guzmn Mancho
January 2010
Jorge Solans Santana
Table of contents
1. Introduction...........................................................................................3
2. The Lords Prayer in its several versions............................................4
3. Environment of the Frank-dialect and the West-Saxon dialect........5
3.1 Frank-Rhin Dialect.....................................................................................5
3.2 West-Saxon Dialect.....................................................................................6
4. Isolated analysis of each line.................................................................8
4.1 Our Father, who art in heaven, ................................................................8
4.2 Hallowed be thy Name...............................................................................8
4.3 Thy kingdom come.....................................................................................9
4.4 Thy will be done.........................................................................................10
4.5 On earth as it is in heaven.........................................................................11
4.6 Give us this day our daily bread...............................................................12
4.7 And forgive us our trespasses....................................................................12
4.8 As we forgive those who trespass against us............................................13
4.9 And lead us not into temptation................................................................14
4.10 But deliver us from evil............................................................................14
5. Summary of all the phonological changes...........................................16
6. Conclusion..............................................................................................17
7. Sources....................................................................................................18
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1. Introduction
The comparison of languages has been the major issue for research in the last two
centuries. Therefore, there is at our disposition a great amount of knowledge regarding
the comparison of languages and the language typology. As our important matters here
are the origins and evolution of English, and German is the closest language to English
nowadays, it would be interesting to go back in order to reconstruct the process by
which English and German followed their separate paths, yet they retained a great
amount of roots which have lasted until now.
The object of study I want to focus in is the phonology, since it is a field whose changes
are very well documented with numerous sources.. The two phases that I want to
compare are almost simultaneous in time. Besides, I have selected the Old High German
due to its precedence to the current German accepted as the modern standard, called
Hochdeutsch in German. In addition, the aforementioned correspondence in time will
adjust very well to my will of focusing in the diversion that these two languages, which
were even closer in the past, had sufffered.
The text of study that I have selected is the Lords Prayer. This selection was easy. On
the one hand, since in that time the religious texts were almost the only ones which were
written and translated, it is very easy to find this prayer in several languages. In
addition, its literary language and universal recognition will make things easier in order
to grasp the message which is already quite clear.
Thus, the aim of this essay is to survey specifically the phenomena that caused these
two languages to evolve and change its etymological roots due to the phonological
changes, so we can see now words such as hand or finger, which are the same both in
German and English (only in their written demonstration) and hund (dog or hound) or
welt (world), which bear an evident resemblance but they have evolved differently.
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2. The Lords Prayer in its several versions
Fater unser, thu in himilom bist,
giuuihit si namo thin
quaeme richi thin
uuerdhe uuillo thin
samam so in himile end in erthu
Brooth unseraz emezzigaz gib uns hiutu
end farlaz uns sculdhi unsero
same so uuir farlazzem scolom unserem
endi ni geleidi unsih in costunga
auh arlosi unsih forn ubile
Old High German, Rhin Frank dialect,, Catechism of Weissesburg, beginning of the 9th
Century.
Fder re, e eart on heofonum,
S n nama gehlgod.
T becume n rice.
Gewurde n willa
On eoran sw sw on heofonum.
Urne dgwhamlcan hlaf syle s tdg.
And forgyf s re gyltas,
Sw sw w forgyfa rum gyltendum.
And ne geld u s on costnunge,
Ac ls s of yfele. Slice.
Old English, West-Saxon dialect, 11th Century
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Present-day English, Book of Common Prayer, 1928
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3. Environment of the Frank-dialect and the West-Saxon dialect
1
It is necessary to make a concrete tracking of both languages in their evolution from the
Germanic branch. This diagram highlights the line throughout which English evolved
from the Angeln node. The dialect we are surveying now is the West-Saxon, located in
the Old-English period (Ag. which stands for Alt Englisch) As regards German, the
current standard German is called Modern Hochdeutsch. Its precedence is located in the
Althochdeutsch which is composed by its many dialects. Our dialect here is the
Rheinfrnkisch (Rhin Frank dialect) which, along with the others, compound the so-
called High German in its old stage.
3.1 South Rhin Frank Dialect
More specifically, the version of the Lords Prayer that we have here corresponds to the
South Rhin Frank Dialect. Notice that in the following picture, number 4 corresponds to
this delimitation (in the current frontier that separates France and Germany), since there
one can found the city of Weissenburg.
1
Fernndez Lpez, Justo, Indogermanisch (Indogermnico), http://culturitalia.uibk.ac.at/hispanoteca

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2
In this city lived an important monk called Otfrid (800-870), who wrote about Christs
life using this dialect in order to make closer the knowledge of religion to the low-level
people, who were not acquainted with latin. Yet, it is not sure whether he translated the
version of the prayer we are analyzing, since he was born in 800 and it is unlikely that
he was old enough to have translated the text.
3
Thus, all the dialects were intelligible each other and the important fact here is that not
only the scribans and educated people could read religious book, but all the villagers
and townsfolk as well. Hence the prominence status of the religious texts, which are
quite easy to find.
3.2 West-Saxon Dialect
It corresponds to the South West of England. Under the reign of Alfred the Great (871-
899) Wessex enjoyed an epoch of high culture and politics. Besides, research about
Old-English manuscripts has shown that a great part of the documentation belonged to
2
Fernndez lvarez, Maria Pilar, Manual de antiguo alto alemn, Salamanca: Ediciones Univ.
Salamanca, 1988, p.27
3
Id., 24
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this dialect, which confirms the idea that this region was the leading one regardind
culture fostering
4
. Since Alfred the King had a court where a lot of translators did work,
this region had thus a better basis for the translation of the Lords Prayer which has
arrived to our days, which is the one I have chosen.
We have then, the two different versions of the Lords Prayer to compare. Their
geographical separation (though some contact could have happened, since the distance
was not so much) and the proximity of time can be two good factors to take at account,
as they allow a view of two different and independent processes. Bear in mind that Old
High German is considered as such from 500 to 1050. Old English lasted from 450-
1150. (These are approximate dates)
To sum up with this part, it is important to bear in mind that explanations about some
changes that began in Germanic and ended in Old High German are essential in order to
compare the differences between O.H German and Old English. Much references will
be done to the so-called High German consonant shift throughout the analysis of the
words and lines.
4
Fisia, Jacek, An outline history of English, Volume One: External History, 1995
7
4. Isolated analysis of each line
The procedure now will be the following: for each line, a subcategory will be created
where the phonology and morphology will be taken into account in order to compare
both lines. A chart will show the current equivalent in the respective languages for
every word. This equivalence is a correspondance but not necessarily a translation. In
addition, it is important as well to bear in mind that the common reference for the words
will be present-day English.
4.1 Our Father, who art in heaven
Fater unser, thu in himilom bist,
Fder re, e eart on heofonum,
O.H.
German
fater unser thu In himilom bist
Old English
fder re on heofonum eart
German
Vater unser du in Himmel bist
English
father our thou in heaven art
The main laws of the High German consonant shift are the following:
1. The three Germanic voiceless stops became fricatives in certain phonetic environments
(English ship maps to German Schiff);
2. The same sounds became affricates in other positions (apple : Apfel); and
3. The three voiced stops became voiceless (door : Tr).
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4. // (and its allophone []) became /d/ (this : dies).
According to this, some evidence can be extracted from this line:
Father OHG Fater |Iate1 OE Fder |Iet1 due to the 3rd law
Thou OHG thu |du1 OE |u1 due to the 4th law
Other characteristics that deserve attention:
Heaven O.H. German |hm1om1 Old English |heovonum1
As the grapheme <f> in O.E., when had an intervocalic position, was pronouced as
|v1 it bears a bit resemblance with the current word in English.
5
Taken from dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache (p. 63).
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4. 2 Hallowed be thy Name
giuuihit si namo thin
S n nama gehlgod
O.H.
German
giuuihit si namo thin
Old English
gehlgod s nama n
German
sein Name dein
English
hallowed be name thy
The phenomenon about the transformation of the interdental voiceless fricative into the
alveolar stop is seen as well in this case:
Thy OHG thin |dn1 OE n |n1 due to the 4th law
4. 3 Thy kingdom come
quaeme richi thin
T becume n rice
O.H.
German
quaeme richi thin
Old English
t
becume
rice n
German
kommt Reich dein
English
come kingdom
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thy
Let us explore more this Great consonant shift:
The first phase, which affected the whole of the High German area, has been dated as early
as the fourth century, [...]In this phase, voiceless stops became geminated intervocalic
fricatives, or single postvocalic fricatives in final position.
pff or final f
tzz (later German ss) or final z (s)
khh (later German ch)
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Thus, this phase affected OHG much before the appearence of this version which dates
five centuries later. We can see this change in the following case:
6
Notice that, in this text, present day English uses the word Kingdom whereas German, having suffered a
minor semantic change, uses Reich which means specifically empire, but not Kingdom as such. The
proper word in German would be Knigreich. Besides, etymologically speaking the proper word in
English would be reign, which has ended in literary and formal use.
7
Waterman, John C. (1991). A History of the German Language (Revised edition 1976 ed.). Long Grove
IL: Waveland Press Inc. p. 284.
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Kingdom OHG richi |tcc1 OE rice |tte1
The interesting thing about this is the fact that, in OE, the grapheme <h> represented the
sound |c1 when it was in contact with front vowels. One example would be OE niht
|nct1 . Nevertheless, as OE evolved the grapheme <c> to the point that had two
different sounds { |k1 with back vowels |t1 with front vowels) the sound
correspondence of this word, rice with its OHG equivalent was lost, since OHG
suffered this change, where the voiceless velar stop represented by <k> transformed into
the voiceless palatal fricative represented by the geminated <h>. In our case, the
appearence of <ch> instead of <hh> is explained by both diacronic and dialectal
reasons. This stage of the word richi in OHG bears great resemblance with its current
equivalent in German.
4. 4 Thy will be done
uuerdhe uuillo thin
Gewurde n willa
O.H.
German
uuerdhe uuillo thin
Old English
gewurde willa n
German
geschehe Wille dein
English
be done will thy
Here, we can survey one aspect concerning the semi-consonant |w1 if we focus on the
word
Will OHG uuillo |w1o1 OE willa |w1a1
In this case, we see that OE grapheme <w> was representing the aforementioned semi-
consonant, whereas OHG preferred the geminated grapheme <u>. This distinction
would develop eventually into a dramatic difference between English and German
regarding the pronunciation of the same <w>. At this moment, different graphemes
were used but just one single phoneme was uttered. Currently, it is the other way
around, the same grapheme is represented by two different sounds: e.g. English wolf
|w01I1 and German Wolf |vo1I1
And as regards the OHG german uuerdhe we can see the same effect of the process
explained above, but if we see the grapheme <dh> we have then a trace of what was
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once the phoneme |1 This grapheme had its previous form as a thorn <>, the same
as OE, but with the shift of this graphemes sound, the result was <dh> which later
would lose the <h>. This grapheme was used indistinctly along with <th> in early OHG.
It eventually would disappear.
4. 5 On earth as it is in heaven
samam so in himile end in erthu
On eoran sw sw on heofonum
O.H.
German
samam so in himile in erthu
Old English
sw sw on heofonum on eoran
German
wie so auf im Himmel Erden
English
as it is in heaven on earth
The same phenomenon that has been explained before about the 4th law is seen here:
Earth OHG erthu |etdu1 OE eoran |eotan1
Overall, the thorn<>, which existed in Germanic, had two different deviations. The
first one, on the one hand, in early OHG, changed into either <th> or <dh>. In this case
the allophonic content of the thorn was lost, therefore having one single sound |d1. On
the other hand, in OE this thorn was retained and its allophonic manifestation as well.
Finally, as late OHG would have the grapheme <d>, Modern English would have
substituted both graphemes <> and <> by <th>, retaining obviously both possible
allophones.
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4. 6 Give us this day our daily bread
Brooth unseraz emezzigaz gib uns hiutu
Urne dgwhamlcan hlaf syle s tdg
O.H.
German
brooth unseraz emezzigaz gib uns hiutu
Old
English
hlaf urne dgwhamlcan syle s tdg
German
Brot unser tgliches gib uns heute
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Nevertheless, here is some perduration of the thorn using another form. Up until the XVIth Century, the
thorn survived in a form that resembled a <y>, retaining the same phonological attribute according to D.
Freeborn in his From Old English to Standard English
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English
bread our daily give us this day
We have an interesting etymological issue here. For the same concept, bread, we have
two different words: brooth and hlaf. Whilst OHG used brooth as a general
nourishment, OE English used bread to refer specifically to a single crumb of this food.
About the year 1200 the word bread was used instead of hlaf in ME. The clear
difference that nowadays exists between English bread and German Brot can be
explained as follows: According to Watkins theory, the Proto Germanic word
braudsmon which means to crumble (hence the meaning of a crumb of bread)
developed into OHG brosma and OE breotan.
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Taking at account that ME suffered
several vowel developments, in this case, the digraph <eo> was pronounced as
|e1: it would likely change into <e> in order to mantain certain correspondence,
having finally changed breot into bread.
As regards OHG, both spelling and pronunciation havent changed much up to the
current German. Compare:
OHG brooth |bto:t1 German Brot |bLot1
Definitively, OHG developed this word without many modifications whereas OE
suffered both semantic and phonologic changes.
4.7 And forgive us our trespasses
end farlaz uns sculdhi unsero
And forgyf s re gyltas
O.H.
German
end farlaz uns sculdhi unsero
Old
English
and forgyf s gyltas re
German
und vergib uns schuld unsere
English
and forgive us trespasses our
Here, the word trespass does not show the actual development of its OE equivalent.
Tresspass was borrowed by Frech trespasser so we will discard this word and focus on
9
Bread entry in the Online Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com
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the word guilt which means nowadays blame or the responsibility of a criminal.
Nevertheless, in OE the word gylt (singular of gyltas) meant also offence or sin.
It is probable to think that, as the sound |v1 shifted into |1 throughout the 12th
Century
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, it remained as such until present day English guilt |g1t1 In fact, this
sound lost its roundness, which was the only change; it was not lowered nor velarised.
4.8 As we forgive those who trespass against us
same so uuir farlazzem scolom unserem
Sw sw w forgyfa rum gyltendum
O.H.
German
same so uuir farlazzem scolom unserem
Old
English
sw sw w forgyfa gyltendum rum
German
wie auch wir vergeben Schuldigern unsern
English
as we forgive trespassing
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our
As we have seen before, the relative pronoun sw is used as its current equivalent the
same way of present day English. It is important to compare a word with so
importance and to determine why this form ended as it ended in German so, although
German has not exactly the same usage of this word. This point of convergence can be
explained following the vowel changes in the Middle English period.
If |a1 was velarized and resulted into Io:| it is probably factible that this affected OE
sw Iswa| and thus became ME Iso:| yet we cannot state the moment in which the
digraph <wa> was lost.
4.9 And lead us not into temptation
endi ni geleidi unsih in costunga
And ne geld u s on costnunge
O.H.
German
endi ni geleidi unsih in costunga
Old
English
and ne geld u s on costnunge
German
und nicht fhre uns in Versuchung
English
and not lead us into temptation
10
D. Freeborn, From Old English to Standard English, p. 124
11
This is an invented form in order to retain the one-to-one correspondence.
13
It is surprising to see that, a concept that was shared by the same word both in OHG and
OE, diversed with their respective evolutions. What we can say about temptation is that
it was a loan-woard borrowed from Old French in the 13th Century which substituted
OE costnunge.
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4.10 But deliver us from evil
auh arlosi unsih forn ubile
Ac ls s of yfele. Slice.
O.H.
German
auh arlosi unsih forn ubile
Old
English
ac ls s of yfele
German
sondern erlse uns Von dem Bsen
English
but deliver us from evil
And finally, we have here a word, universal one, that illustres two different phenomena
at the same time. According to this change, in the previously mentioned High German
consonant shift, we have:
West Germanic * (presumably pronounced [v]), which was an allophone of /f/ used in
medial position, shifted to Old High German /b/ between two vowels, and also after /l/.
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Let us compare the following forms
Evil OHG ubile I'ubile| OE yfele I'vvele|
Since the OE grapheme <f>, when it was in an intervocalic position, represented the
voiced labiodental, it changed into <v> in the future. OHG, in this sense, retained the
<b> up to its current equivalent, which should be bel instead of Bsen to understand
this etymological inheritance.
14
On the other hand, we can focus now in the vocalic change at the same word: It is
reasonable to speculate that, as Iy| had three different deviations in the arrival of ME; in
12
Temptation entry at the Online Etymology Dictionary
13
Waterman, John C, A History of the German Language, p.284
14
In this case, as we can see in German, Bsen means actually the whole evil: evil deeds, evil intent, and
not the religious figure of the Evil. German bel does reflect this meaning and the etymological result as
well.
14
this case the proper deviation would be Iy| changing into Ie|
15
as the following forms
of evil reflect in early Modern English. However, the Great Vowel Shift would probably
change Ie| into the current Ii:| having therefore English evil Ii:vol|.
Regarding German, it is curious to see that, contrary to English, it recovered the
roundness of the vowel, which was not present yet in OHG. To summarize, the current
situation would be as follows:
OHG ubile I'ubile| German bel I'y:bol| OE yfele I'vvele| English evil Ii:vol|
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This change affected the South Dialects, but as London was in a strategic position sociolinguistically
speaking, it would proably adopt this change to keep it for the future.
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5. Summary of all the phonological changes
Once the isolated, in-depth analysis has been done, it would be better to summarize all
the main points that have been mentioned. Besides, I have added a few more examples
that do not belong to the Lords Prayer, in order to support with a higher number of
evidence the phonological changes.
OHG-> Voiced stops become voiceless / [0| turns into [d| while in OE not
f ather OHG fater I'laIo| OE fder I'lor| German Vater I'laIo| English
I'la:or|
t hou OHG thu Idu| OE Iu| German du Idu| English Iao|
t hy OHG thin Idin| OE n Iin| German dein Ida]n| English Iai|
day OHG tag IIak| OE dg Id]| German Tag IIak| English Idei|
e arth OHG erthu I'erdu| OE eoran I'eorOan| German Erde I'e:udo| English
Ic:rO|
OHG=> Voiceless stops became geminated intervocalic fricatives while OE retains
the same stops
r eign OHG richi or rihhi I'ricci| OE rice I'riI]e| German Reich Iuaic| English Irein|
eat OHG essin I'essin| OE etan I'eIan| German essen I'esen| English eat Ii:I|
OHG and OE=> In both, graphemes <u> and <w> represents sound [w| . OHG
will develop into [v| while OE not.
w ill OHG uuillo I'wilo| OE willa I'wila| German Wille I'vilo| English Iwil|
we OHG uuir Iwir| OE w Iwe| German wir Ivi:r| English Iwi:|
OHG=> [v| changes into [b| between two vowels, and also after [I|. In OE the
sound does not change and lasts up to Modern English.
evil OHG ubile I'ubile| OE yfele I'vvele| German bel I'y:bol| English Ii:vol|
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have OHG haben I'haben| OE hfen I'hven| German haben I'haben| English
Ihv|
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6. Conclusion
The survey of the Lords Prayer in its several versions has brought light to many
phonological changes that affected Old High German. While OHG was being analyzed,
OE was also taken at account and the ultimate result is that OE didnt suffer much
changes from Germanic to its early phase. Nevertheless, OHG, having suffered almost
all the consonant shifts, didnt change much in this sense up to Modern German,
whereas ME did change a lot to its Modern stage.
We could see that German has retained many roots of its earlier OHG phase, and the
same happens for the pronunciation. English, however, suffered dramatic
transformations in the Modern phase, which has not been studied here. Overall, we have
seen that from 100 AD to 1000 AD, Germanic was divided first due to the strong
dialectalization and later due to the High German consonant shift, that affected only the
continental continuums, leaving Old English alone. Therefore, in the lapse of time we
have surveyed, it was OHG which suffered real changes and not OE, whereas from the
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th
Century, it was the other way around: Modern German didnt seem to change so
much as it did Modern English, in opposition to its earlier phase, Middle English.
The overall conclusion is that a work of such characteristics is interesting to understand
the etymological evolution and to understand definitively why German and English bear
weak phonological resemblances in words that, in written form, are identical.
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7. Sources
Many different sources, both in electronic and written format, have been consulted. The
first two books information was consulted in the High German consonant shift article
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift
Knig, Werner, dtv- Atlas zur deutschen Sprache, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag
GmbH & Co, 1978
Waterman, John C. (1991). A History of the German Language (Revised edition 1976
ed.). Long Grove IL: Waveland Press Inc.
Written sources:
Fernndez lvarez, Maria Pilar, Manual de antiguo alto alemn, Salamanca:
Ediciones Univ. Salamanca, 1988,
Fisia, Jacek, An outline history of English, Volume One: External History, 1995
Freeborn, Denis, From Old English to Standard English, Palgrave Macmillan, 3rd
Edition, 2006
Kbler, Gerhard, Deutsches Etymologisches Wrterbuch, 1995
Electronic sources:
The Online Etymoloy Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com/
Old English Dictionary, http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm
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