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The emergence and development of the literary German language, the formation of its norms to this day is one of the most pressing problems in German philology, since the history of the formation of the literary language is closely linked with the history of the formation of the national language. When connecting normalization processes in language, one should first of all take into account the complex linguistic situation in Germany in the Middle Ages and modern times, as well as the peculiarities of the development of German literature, urban writing, and printing. Acquiring a supra-dialectal character, these forms of language, however, were not divorced from dialectal features and could not consider their language the most “pure”. Under these conditions, the specifics of the formation of a literary language in the 16th-18th centuries were associated with the choice of a single supraregional (national) variant with uniform norms and the purification of the language from borrowings (mainly Italian, French and Latin). Isolating a single norm from many dialects was not an easy task, but the understanding of the need to overcome dialects was obvious. In the work “Buch von der Deutschen Poetery” this “pure language” has already begun to be called “high German” (German. Hochdeutsch), untainted by dialects "misspoken".
In the 17th century, the East Central German dialect began to gain increasing popularity, influencing the formation of the literary language. It was quickly adopted as a written and in some cases as an urban vernacular language, which allowed it to quickly displace the Low German dialects from literature, although the latter could not disappear under Middle German influence and continued to be widely used in other areas. The beginning of the “East Central German expansion” is associated with the activities of Martin Luther, who, even in the Early New High German period of the development of the German language, used this dialect in his works and translations. The further development of the literary language from the East Central German dialect was associated with the purposeful activities of communities created in Germany (the most famous of them is the Fruitful Society) and writers who advocated for the purity and unity of the language (among them Gryphius, Olearius, Opitz, Schottel, von Zesen and others ) .
IN XVIII-XIX centuries New fighters for a pure and unified language were the scientists and writers Leibniz, Gottsched and Adelung, who actively dealt with issues of spelling, grammar and rhetoric, used High German for writing, recommending it in their works as the most perfect of all German dialects. Thus, Gottsched and Adelung were able to make a significant contribution to the development of German orthography by creating the first dictionaries of the German language. Later Zibs and Duden supplemented it, also reforming grammar and rhetoric. In the 20th century, literary norms were fixed, and no significant changes occurred in grammar. The German language had its own peculiarities during the rise of power of the NSDAP (see German language in the Third Reich) and after the war in the ideologized GDR (German language in the GDR), but they did not affect the literary norm and all innovations concerned exclusively lexical (semantic) shifts . Before beginning of the XXI century, some discrepancy was recorded between the norms of stage pronunciation of Siebs and the language of the Germans, but the nature of this phenomenon does not affect the fundamental norms in the present. It is believed that this is a natural process of change in the pronunciation of individual vowels.
The problem of literary language
One of the main problems of the literary language, identified in the introduction, comes down to the formalization of the terminological apparatus. To define a literary language, it is used as a concept Literaturesprache, so Standardsprache, which are practically synonymous. However, these concepts must be distinguished. Other terms that are not clearly defined but related to standard German are: Schriftsprache- written language (usually understood in a historical sense), Hochsprache- high tongue (tongue fiction, the purest language), Einheitssprache- a single language, Gemeindeutsch- the same (general German language), Dachsprache - mutual language(“roof language” that unites all native speakers). Such a terminological mess does not allow the creation of unified approaches to the description of the literary language.
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An excerpt characterizing Literary German
Having driven along the road, on both sides of which French dialect could be heard from the fires, Dolokhov turned into the courtyard of the manor’s house. Having passed through the gate, he dismounted from his horse and approached a large blazing fire, around which several people were sitting, talking loudly. Something was boiling in a pot on the edge, and a soldier in a cap and blue overcoat, kneeling, brightly illuminated by the fire, stirred it with a ramrod.“Oh, c"est un dur a cuire, [You can’t deal with this devil.],” said one of the officers sitting in the shadows on the opposite side of the fire.
“Il les fera marcher les lapins... [He will get through them...],” said another with a laugh. Both fell silent, peering into the darkness at the sound of the steps of Dolokhov and Petya, approaching the fire with their horses.
- Bonjour, messieurs! [Hello, gentlemen!] - Dolokhov said loudly and clearly.
The officers stirred in the shadow of the fire, and one, a tall officer with a long neck, walked around the fire and approached Dolokhov.
“C”est vous, Clement?” he said. “D”ou, diable... [Is that you, Clement? Where the hell...] - but he did not finish, having learned his mistake, and, frowning slightly, as if he were a stranger, he greeted Dolokhov, asking him how he could serve. Dolokhov said that he and a friend were catching up with their regiment, and asked, turning to everyone in general, if the officers knew anything about the sixth regiment. Nobody knew anything; and it seemed to Petya that the officers began to examine him and Dolokhov with hostility and suspicion. Everyone was silent for a few seconds.
“Si vous comptez sur la soupe du soir, vous venez trop tard, [If you are counting on dinner, then you are late.],” said a voice from behind the fire with a restrained laugh.
Dolokhov replied that they were full and that they needed to move on at night.
He gave the horses to the soldier who was stirring the pot, and squatted down by the fire next to the long-necked officer. This officer, without taking his eyes off, looked at Dolokhov and asked him again: what regiment was he in? Dolokhov did not answer, as if he had not heard the question, and, lighting a short French pipe, which he took out of his pocket, asked the officers how safe the road was from the Cossacks ahead of them.
“Les brigands sont partout, [These robbers are everywhere.],” answered the officer from behind the fire.
Dolokhov said that the Cossacks were terrible only for such backward people as he and his comrade, but that the Cossacks probably did not dare to attack large detachments, he added questioningly. Nobody answered.
“Well, now he’ll leave,” Petya thought every minute, standing in front of the fire and listening to his conversation.
But Dolokhov again began the conversation that had stopped and directly began asking how many people they had in the battalion, how many battalions, how many prisoners. Asking about the captured Russians who were with their detachment, Dolokhov said:
– La vilaine affaire de trainer ces cadavres apres soi. Vaudrait mieux fusiller cette canaille, [It’s a bad thing to carry these corpses around with you. It would be better to shoot this bastard.] - and laughed loudly with such a strange laugh that Petya thought the French would now recognize the deception, and he involuntarily took a step away from the fire. No one responded to Dolokhov’s words and laughter, and the French officer, who was not visible (he was lying wrapped in an overcoat), stood up and whispered something to his comrade. Dolokhov stood up and called to the soldier with the horses.
“Will they serve the horses or not?” - Petya thought, involuntarily approaching Dolokhov.
The horses were brought in.
“Bonjour, messieurs, [Here: farewell, gentlemen.],” said Dolokhov.
Petya wanted to say bonsoir [good evening] and could not finish the words. The officers were whispering something to each other. Dolokhov took a long time to mount the horse, which was not standing; then he walked out of the gate. Petya rode beside him, wanting and not daring to look back to see whether the French were running or not running after them.
Having reached the road, Dolokhov drove not back into the field, but along the village. At one point he stopped, listening.
- Do you hear? - he said.
Petya recognized the sounds of Russian voices and saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners near the fires. Going down to the bridge, Petya and Dolokhov passed the sentry, who, without saying a word, walked gloomily along the bridge, and drove out into the ravine where the Cossacks were waiting.
- Well, goodbye now. Tell Denisov that at dawn, at the first shot,” said Dolokhov and wanted to go, but Petya grabbed him with his hand.
- No! - he cried, - you are such a hero. Oh, how good! How great! How I love you.
“Okay, okay,” said Dolokhov, but Petya did not let him go, and in the darkness Dolokhov saw that Petya was bending down towards him. He wanted to kiss. Dolokhov kissed him, laughed and, turning his horse, disappeared into the darkness.
X
Returning to the guardhouse, Petya found Denisov in the entryway. Denisov, in excitement, anxiety and annoyance at himself for letting Petya go, was waiting for him.
- God bless! - he shouted. - Well, thank God! - he repeated, listening to Petya’s enthusiastic story. “What the hell, I couldn’t sleep because of you!” Denisov said. “Well, thank God, now go to bed.” Still sighing and eating until the end.
“Yes... No,” said Petya. – I don’t want to sleep yet. Yes, I know myself, if I fall asleep, it’s over. And then I got used to not sleeping before the battle.
Petya sat for some time in the hut, joyfully recalling the details of his trip and vividly imagining what would happen tomorrow. Then, noticing that Denisov had fallen asleep, he got up and went into the yard.
It was still completely dark outside. The rain had passed, but drops were still falling from the trees. Close to the guardhouse one could see black figures of Cossack huts and horses tied together. Behind the hut were two black wagons with horses standing, and in the ravine the dying fire was red. The Cossacks and hussars were not all asleep: in some places, along with the sound of falling drops and the nearby sound of horses chewing, soft, as if whispering voices were heard.
Petya came out of the entryway, looked around in the darkness and approached the wagons. Someone was snoring under the wagons, and saddled horses stood around them, chewing oats. In the darkness, Petya recognized his horse, which he called Karabakh, although it was a Little Russian horse, and approached it.
“Well, Karabakh, we’ll serve tomorrow,” he said, smelling her nostrils and kissing her.
- What, master, aren’t you sleeping? - said the Cossack sitting under the truck.
- No; and... Likhachev, I think your name is? After all, I just arrived. We went to the French. - And Petya told the Cossack in detail not only his trip, but also why he went and why he believes that it is better to risk his life than to make Lazar at random.
“Well, they should have slept,” said the Cossack.
“No, I’m used to it,” answered Petya. - What, you don’t have flints in your pistols? I brought it with me. Isn't it necessary? You take it.
The Cossack leaned out from under the truck to take a closer look at Petya.
“Because I’m used to doing everything carefully,” said Petya. “Some people just don’t get ready, and then they regret it.” I don't like it that way.
“That’s for sure,” said the Cossack.
“And one more thing, please, my dear, sharpen my saber; dull it... (but Petya was afraid to lie) it was never sharpened. Can this be done?
- Why, it’s possible.
Likhachev stood up, rummaged through his packs, and Petya soon heard the warlike sound of steel on a block. He climbed onto the truck and sat on the edge of it. The Cossack was sharpening his saber under the truck.
- Well, are the fellows sleeping? - said Petya.
- Some are sleeping, and some are like this.
- Well, what about the boy?
- Is it spring? He collapsed there in the entryway. He sleeps with fear. I was really glad.
For a long time after this, Petya was silent, listening to the sounds. Footsteps were heard in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
Have you started studying German. We are pleased with your choice and will try to slightly expand your understanding of the German language by revitalizing it. After all, a language is alive only when it has a history and is a means of communication for many, many people. For 105 million inhabitants of the planet German is a native language and 80 million study it as a foreign language.
German is the official language in Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein, as well as one of the official languages Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Development
West Germanic linguistic region in the East Frankish Kingdom (962)
Martin Luther. Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526
In 3000-2500 BC e. Indo-European tribes settled in northern Europe. From mixing with tribes of another ethnic group, they formed tribes that gave rise to the Germans. Their language, isolated from other Indo-European languages, became the basis of the languages of the Germans.
The development of the German language from tribal dialects to a national literary language is associated with migrations of its speakers. Under the rule of the Franks, there was a unification of the West German tribes (Franks, Alamanni, Bayuvars, Turings, Chatti) and Saxons, who moved in the 4th-5th centuries. in the area of Wieser and the Rhine, which created the preconditions for the formation of the Old High German language. Erminons (Alemanni, Bayuvars) from the 1st century. n. e. come to the south of Germany and become speakers of High German dialects. The Low German dialects were based on Old Saxon, which was strongly influenced by Frankish dialects.
The Christianization of the Germans contributed to the spread of Latin writing. The vocabulary of the Germans is enriched by Latin borrowings associated, as a rule, with the Christian cult. For a long time, Latin (as in other European countries) remained the language of science, official business and book language.
In 843, according to the Treaty of Verdun, the Frankish Empire was divided into three parts. The East Frankish Empire, like other fragments of great empires created by conquest, was multi-tribal, and its inhabitants realized their ethnic and linguistic unity only at the end. X - start XI centuries, that is, towards the end of the Old German and the beginning of the Middle German period, which was first reflected in the Annolied (between 1080 and 1085), where the word diutisch served as a symbol of the German linguistic community.
At all, the word Deutsch is derived from the Old German thioda, and meant “speaking the language of the people” (as opposed to speaking Latin). The Latin theodisce, derived from it and first appearing in the report of Nuncio Gregor to the synod in 786, described peoples who did not speak Latin, in particular the Germanic ones.
Unlike its Romance and Slavic neighbors, the German linguistic area had territorially fragmented political structures throughout the Middle Ages, which led to the formation and development of a large number of different dialects. Regional peculiarities of language use complicated the process of creating cultural integrity and prompted the early poets. XIII century avoid dialectal forms in order to expand the circle of potential readers, which is considered the first attempt to create a common German language. However, only the spread of literacy among the general population during the late Middle Ages marked the beginning of the development of a new written and oral literary German language.
In the Middle Ages into German strongly influenced by Arabic. Arabic borrowings in German are represented by words related to trade (Magazin, Tarif, Tara), botany (Orange, Kaffee, Ingwer), medicine (Elixier, Balsam), mathematics (Algebra, Algorithmus, Ziffer), chemistry (alkalisch, Alkohol) and astronomy (Almanach, Zenit, Rigel).
In the XIII-XIV centuries. the formation of the German language leads to the fact that Latin is gradually losing its position as the language of the official business sphere. Gradually mixed East German dialects formed as a result of the colonization of Slavic lands east of the river. Elbs, take a leading role and, enriched by interaction with the southern German literary tradition, form the basis of the German national literary language.
In 1521, Martin Luther translated (into the then not yet established) standard New German written language (Neuhochdeutsch) the New, and in 1534 - the Old Testament, which, according to scientists, influenced the development of the language of entire generations, since already in the 14th century. there was a noticeable gradual development of a region-wide written German language, also called Early Modern German (Frühneuhochdeutsch). The formation of literary written German was largely completed in the 17th century.
Unlike most European countries, whose literary language is based on the dialect of the capital, the German literary language is a cross between the Middle and High German dialects, which have undergone the so-called. second consonant movement, and is considered local only in Hanover. In the northern part of Germany this language spread in the areas government controlled and school education during the Reformation. During the heyday of the Hansa, Low German dialects and the Dutch language reigned throughout northern Germany. Over time, literary German in the northern regions of Germany practically replaced the local dialects, which have partially survived to this day. In the center and south of Germany, where the language was originally more similar to the literary one, the population retained its dialects.
Intensive development in the 17th-19th centuries was of great importance for the German language. artistic culture (literature). The formation of the norms of modern literary language is completed at the end. XVIII century., when the grammatical system is normalized, spelling is stabilized, normative dictionaries are created, in late XIX V. Orthoepic norms are developed on the basis of stage pronunciation. In the XVI-XVIII centuries. emerging literary norms spread to the north of Germany. At this time, words from French (Boulevard, Konfitüre, Trottoir) and Slavic languages (Grenze, Gurke, Pistole) actively penetrated into the German language.
The first dictionaries of the German language were compiled by I. K. Adelung (1781)and the Brothers Grimm(1852, completely finished in 1961). German spelling was formed throughout the 19th century. A significant breakthrough in the creation of a common spelling was achieved thanks to Konrad Duden, who in 1880 published the “Spelling Dictionary of the German Language”. During the German spelling reform process in 1901, this dictionary, in a slightly modified form, was recognized as the basis of German official spelling. The differences between the High and Low German literary written language were partially eliminated by the "Rules for German Spelling" of 1956.
Great influence on the language in the XX - early. XXI centuries provided English loanwords, which may be associated, for example, with the development of pop musical art in English speaking countries. The Internet and the media play a significant role in this.
Periods in the history of the German language
- about 750 - approx. 1050: Old High German (Althochdeutsch)
- about 1050 - approx. 1350: Middle High German (Mittelhochdeutsch)
- around 1350 - approx. 1650: Early New High German (Frühneuhochdeutsch)
- from about 1650: New High German, modern German (Neuhochdeutsch)
Modern spelling reform
On August 1, 1998, new rules for German spelling were introduced in Germany. Now in words with ß, after short vowels, ß is replaced by ss (Fluss, muss, dass), but after long vowels and diphthongs, the letter ß is retained (Fuß, heiß). When new words or forms are formed, the base of the word is preserved (nummerieren is written with a double mm, since the base is Nummer). For frequently used borrowings, simplified spelling is allowed (Mayonnaise → Majonäse). In words of Greek origin, the letter combination ph can be replaced by the letter f (Geographie → Geografie). Some complex verbs, previously written together, are now written separately (kennen lernen, Halt machen, verloren gehen). Designations of the time of day accompanied by the words gestern, heute, morgen (heute Nachmittag, morgen Vormittag), as well as substantivized numerals (der Zweite) are written with a capital letter. The changes also affected punctuation. Now in a complex sentence with the conjunctions und or oder, as well as in the construction Infinitiv + zu, a comma is not placed.
The reform was received ambiguously.
As it became known, most writers refused to accept the new spelling rules from the very beginning. The officials themselves also violate the new rules, even in official documents. The population of Schleswig-Holstein held a referendum back in 1998 and voted to reject the reform. In July 2005, the Institute of Demoscopy in Allensbach conducted a study on the acceptance of the reform by the population. The result showed a clear rejection of reform in Germany: only 8% of respondents supported the reform, 61% were against it.
Of all the achievements of German Federal Chancellor Schröder, this reform is called “the most dubious.” According to journalists, the new spelling rules only worsened the situation with the German language and led to mass confusion, since, according to surveys, only 38% of the German population are familiar with the new rules. In most states affected by the reform, people are given the right to decide for themselves which spelling rules to use. recycled.
On August 1, 2007, the final version of the German spelling reform law came into force in Germany.. New rules of punctuation and spelling are mandatory for everyone without exception government agencies and education systems. The reform abolishes 87 of the 212 spelling rules, instead of 52 punctuation rules, only 12 remain. The decision to reform the written German language was made on July 1, 1996 in Vienna at a meeting of the ministers of culture of German-speaking countries. Experts spent more than ten years developing updated rules.
German is the mother tongue of more than 110 million people and one of the languages of international communication. It is spoken by the population of Germany, Austria and part of the population of Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, France and other countries. Significant groups of German-speaking populations live in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania and other countries. German belongs to the western subgroup of the Germanic group of the Indo-European family of languages.
The following periods are distinguished in the history of the German language: Old High German (8th-11th centuries), Middle High German (mid-11th-14th centuries) and New High German. A more accurate periodization also takes into account the rather long period of formation of the New German literary language - Early New High German (mid-14th - mid-17th centuries). The so-called “eastern colonization” - the conquest of the Slavic and Baltic lands (10-13 centuries) played a certain role in the development of the German language. Thus, throughout eastern Germany there are numerous place names of Slavic origin with endings in -itz, -in, -ow, au, etc. Original Slavic surnames are extremely common in eastern Germany and Austria. However, lexical borrowings from Slavic languages into German are few - for example, Grenze “border”, Quark “cottage cheese”, Petschaft “seal”. In different eras, borrowings were made from German to Slavic. The vocabulary of the Russian language includes words such as fair< ср.-верх.-нем. jвrmarket, грифель < Griffel (18 в.), рубанок < Raubank (18 в.), галстук > < чешск. hrubian < нем. Grobian, ратуша < польск. ratusz < нем. Rathaus и др. Некоторые слова, восходящие к латинскому (греческому) корнеслову, проникли в русский язык через посредство немецкого: филология < Philologie (18 в.), факультет < Fakultдt (18 в.)
System functional styles The German language includes a literary language (Schriftsprache, Standardsprache, Hochdeutsch), an everyday spoken language approaching the literary norm (Umgangssprache), regional (territorially colored) everyday spoken languages (Berlin, North German, Upper Saxon-Thuringian, Württemberg, Baden, Bavarian , Palatinate, Hessian), numerous semi-dialects (regional spoken supra-dialectal forms of language that arose on the basis of dialects, differing from dialects proper by eliminating the most specific dialectal features) and territorial dialects themselves.
The German language in Austria is represented by the literary language in its Austrian national version, which is distinguished by some features of phonetics (lack of aspiration in initial p-, t-, k-, specific articulation of diphthongs, etc.), morphology (differences in the grammatical gender of nouns, in the formation of plural numbers, etc.) and vocabulary (for example, Schale instead of German Tasse “cup”, etc.). The vocabulary of the Austrian version contains more Slavic, French, Italian and other borrowings. There are also such forms as everyday spoken language, semi-dialects and territorial dialects.
The German language in Switzerland exists in two forms: the literary language in its Swiss version and territorial dialects, united by the name Schwyzertuutsch, German. Schweizerdeutsch "Swiss-German". The main features of the Swiss version of the German literary language in the field of phonetics are the specific pronunciation of diphthongs, weak aspiration of initial p-, t-, k-, voiceless pronunciation of s in initial and intervocalic positions, etc., in the field of grammar - the specifics of verbal control, the use of prepositions and etc., and in the vocabulary - the presence of Helveticisms (words that do not have an etymological correspondence in the German norm - cf. Atti "father", German Vater) and the archaic coloring of many words (cf. Gant "auction" - a word that has fallen out of use in southern German and Austrian areas). The dialects that form Schwyzertuutsch are quite numerous and sometimes show significant divergences; Some dialects (for example, Wallis) may be poorly understood by speakers of the main dialects of the country (Zurich, Bernese, etc.). The differences between Swiss German and standard German both in the field of phonetics and grammar are so significant that it is incomprehensible to a native speaker of German without special training. Swiss-German is firmly assigned to the sphere of oral speech: it is used in oral communication, regardless of the social class of the speakers, as well as in public speech (worship, radio, television) and at the initial stage of schooling, while the Swiss version of the German literary language acts as a written norm. In everyday life, the prestige of Swiss-German is very high.
Literary German is designated by the term "Hochdeutsch" (lit. "high" German). The term “hochdeutsch” itself is used in two senses. On the one hand, linguists use this term to designate the dialects of the more southern, elevated part of Germany, i.e. “High German” - in contrast to the dialects of the North German lowlands, united by the name “Low German” (“niederdeutsch”). On the other hand, “Hochdeutsch” acts as a designation for a common German literary form national language, which developed in the New German period on the basis of High German (Southeastern and Central German) dialects as opposed to territorially fragmented dialects, both Low and High German (i.e., as a “high” style as opposed to “low”; it is in this sense that the term “Hochdeutsch” is fixed in everyday consciousness).
The dialects of the German language show a wide range of variation. The main boundary of dialect division runs along the line crossing the Rhine near the city of Benrath south of Düsseldorf (the so-called “Benrath line”: Düsseldorf - Magdeburg - Frankfurt on the Oder), which separates the High German dialects from the Low German ones and represents the northern border of the distribution of the second consonant movement.
The term “second consonant movement” refers to a radical restructuring of the common German system of stop consonants that occurred in the Old High German language (6-8 centuries AD) and included both voiced and voiceless stops (the latter changed depending on the sound environment in the word). The intensity of the process is not the same: the second movement was carried out most consistently in the South German (Bavarian, Alemannic) dialects. Within the framework of the second movement of consonants, the following changes are combined: voiceless stops p, t, k in the position after the vowel turn into strong voiceless spirants ff, zz, hh (cf. Old English scip - Old Upper German scif " ship", Old English Hw?t - Old Upper German waz "what", Old English secan - Old Upper German "to search"), and in the position in front. vowel - in voiceless affricates pf, ts, kh (cf. Old English ?ppel - Old Upper German apful “apple”, Old English tid - Old Upper German zit “time”, Old English weorc - Old South German werch “work”); voiced stops b, d, g give voiceless stops p, t, k, and the most consistent transition is d > t, preserved in modern German (cf. Old English dohtor, New English daughter - Old Upper - German tohter, New German Tochter "daughter"), while the transitions b > p, g > k are limited to South German dialects (cf. Old English gifan - Old South German kepan, New German geben "to give". ") and is currently preserved only in the southernmost group of dialects of the alpine zone (Switzerland, southern Bavaria, southern Austria). Systematically and chronologically (8th-11th centuries) the second movement is associated with the process of transition of a voiceless interdental spirant into a voiced stop d.
The Low German dialect area covers the following dialects: Low Frankish, Low Saxon (Westphalian and Eastphalian), North Saxon, East Low German (Mecklenburg and Brandenburg). High German dialects are divided into Central German and South German groups (the border is approximately along the line Strasbourg - Heidelberg - southern Thuringia - Plauen). The Middle German group includes Middle Frankish (Ripuarian and Moselle-Frankish), Rhenish-Frankish (Hessian and Palatinate) and East Middle German (Thuringian and Upper Saxon) dialects, the South German group includes Upper Frankish (South Frankish and East Frankish), Alemannic (Swabian, Low Alemannic and Upper Alemannic) and Bavarian-Austrian (Northern Bavarian, Middle Bavarian, Central Austrian and South Austrian) dialects.
The German language uses the Latin alphabet with the additional letters a, o, u. Until the beginning of the 20th century. A type of Latin script called Gothic was widely used. Nouns are written with a capital letter (cf. das Haus "house"). The oldest written monuments of the German language date back to the 8th century.
The following periods are distinguished in the history of the German language: Old High German (8th-11th centuries), Middle High German (mid-11th-14th centuries) and New High German. A more accurate periodization also takes into account the rather long period of formation of the New German literary language - Early New High German (mid-14th - mid-17th centuries). The so-called “Eastern colonization” - the conquest of the Slavic and Baltic lands (10th-13th centuries) played a certain role in the development of the German language. . Thus, throughout eastern Germany there are numerous place names of Slavic origin with endings in -itz, -in, -ow, au, etc. Original Slavic surnames are extremely common in eastern Germany and Austria. However, lexical borrowings from Slavic languages into German are few - for example, Grenze “border”, Quark “cottage cheese”, Petschaft “seal”. In different eras, borrowings were made from German to Slavic. The vocabulary of the Russian language includes words such as fair< ср.-верх.-нем. jarmarket, грифель < Griffel (18 в.), рубанок < Raubank (18 в.), галстук >Halstuch (18th century) and others, including through other Slavic languages: cf. rude< чешск. hrubian < нем. Grobian, ратуша < польск. ratusz < нем. Rathaus и др. Некоторые слова, восходящие к латинскому (греческому) корнеслову, проникли в русский язык через посредство немецкого: филология < Philologie (18 в.), факультет < Fakultat (18 в.) и др.
Peculiarities historical development Germany led to the emergence of a large number of dialects, which are very different from each other in lexical, morphological, phonological and syntactic terms. In parallel with them, there is a literary version of the German language (Hochdeutsch), which allows German-speaking citizens to overcome communication problems associated with the peculiarities of German speech in different regions. The standardized literary German language (Standardsprache) exists in three official versions, each of which takes into account the national characteristics of the states in which it is used - German, Austrian and Swiss. The existence of literary German does not at all diminish the role and significance of individual dialects and in no way makes them inferior variants of the German language. Literary German Hochdeutsch was formed largely on the basis of (East) Middle German and Upper (South) German dialects. As a result, modern Hochdeutsch occupies a middle position between the High and Middle German dialects; Low German dialects did not take part in its formation.
However, one important note needs to be made regarding this. German is spoken not only in Germany, but also in Austria, Liechtenstein (where it is the official state language), Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium (where it is one of the official state languages). In addition, German is actively used by national minorities in many other countries around the world. If we discard the specifics of numerous dialects and consider the literary German language, then its variants will differ significantly in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Moreover, these differences are so noticeable that it can often be very difficult and even impossible to fully understand the person using it. Differences appear in phonetics, vocabulary (for example, the presence in the language of certain borrowings from the languages of border states), control of verbs, morphology, etc.
The dialects existing in Germany can be divided into three large groups, each of which includes whole line dialects common in certain territories, the main of which are:
- High German = southern (Oberdeutsch),
- Central German = Central (Mitteldeutsch)
- Low German = northern (Niederdeutsch).
High German includes Alemannic (Alemannisch), Bavarian (Bayerisch) and High Frankish (Oberfränkisch) dialects; to Middle German - Upper Saxon (Obersächsisch), Silesian (Schlesisch), Thuringian (Thüringisch), Middle Frankish (Mittelfränkisch); to Low German - Low Saxon (Niedersächsisch), Frisian (Friesisch) and Low Frankish (Niederfränkisch).
The formation of the three main groups of German dialects began around the 5th century and was the result of the so-called second German consonant movement - die 2. Lautverschiebung (see history of the development of the German language). As a result, the pronunciation of the same consonants is different in different dialects. In general, we can say that dialects are much older than literary German, and they reflect the historical features of the development of the German language in a certain limited territory and in a historically determined, again, certain social sphere. That is, the lexical composition of dialects is limited by distribution in a certain territory and acts as a means of oral communication for a very significant part of the German-speaking population.
The second movement of consonants was most consistently implemented in the southern German dialects; in the central German dialects it was reflected much less, and in the northern German dialects it was not reflected at all. The most characteristic reflections of the second movement of German consonants in different groups of dialects are presented in the following table; the presence of transition options for the consonants “t, k, p” is dictated by the position they occupy in a particular word:
| Old Germanic | k | k | p | p | t | t | d | g | b |
| Low German | k | k | p | p | t | t | d | g | b |
| Central German | hh | k | ff | p(pf) | zz | z | d(t) | g(k) | b(p) |
| High German | hh | kx | ff | pf | zz | z | t | g(k) | b(p) |
By following the following links, you can “walk” along the map of modern Germany and listen to how Germans speak in various parts of this country, get acquainted with current news in literary German and in practice compare the sound of different dialects and Hochdeutsch, as well as watch interesting videos with parodies of the modern Berlin dialect - the language of the population of the capital of Germany, belonging to the group of Central German dialects:
http://www.dialektkarte.de/
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,8150,00.html
Modern trends in the development of German dialects are characterized by some smoothing of the sharp boundaries between them in connection with the development of scientific and technological progress, the media and general integration. Modern spoken German often combines the features of different German dialects, which gradually leads to some kind of unification.
German language and its place in the language system
German belongs to the Germanic branch (Western group) of the Indo-European family. Approximately 3000-2500 BC. Indo-European tribes settled in northern Europe. From their mixing with local tribes of a different ethnic group, the tribes that gave rise to the Germans emerged. Their language, isolated from other Indo-European languages, became the Germanic base language, from which, in the process of subsequent fragmentation, new tribal languages of the Germans arose. Subsequently, the German language, which did not have a single ancestral basis, was formed in the process of convergence of several West German dialects. The ancient Germans early entered into military clashes with Rome, and trade and economic relations were also conducted. Contacts inevitably reflected on the vocabulary of Germanic dialects in the form of Latin borrowings.
The development of the German language from tribal dialects to a national literary language is associated with numerous migrations of its speakers. The Istveons (Franks) spread to the west of the continent, to Romanized northern Gaul, where at the end of the 5th century. The bilingual state of the Merovingians was formed. Under the rule of the Franks, within the framework of the state of the Merovingians and Carolingians (5-9 centuries), there was a unification of West Germanic tribes (Franks, Alemanni, Bayuvars, Turings, Chatti), as well as the Saxons, who moved in the 4-5 centuries. from the North Sea coast in the Weser and Rhine region, which created the preconditions for the later formation of the Old High German language as the language of the German people. Erminons (Alemanni, Bayuvars) from the 1st century. n. e. move from the Elbe basin to the south of Germany and subsequently become speakers of southern German dialects. The basis of the Low German dialects was Old Saxon, which was originally part of the Ingveonian group and was strongly influenced by Frankish dialects. This influence is associated with the Frankish conquests. Under Charlemagne (768 - 814), the Saxon tribes living in the wooded area between the lower Rhine and the Elbe were conquered and subjected to forced Christianization as a result of a series of long, fierce wars. The Christianization of the Germans contributed to the spread of the Latin script and the Latin alphabet among them; the vocabulary was enriched with Latin vocabulary associated with the Christian cult. For a long time, Latin - as in other European countries - remained the language of science, the official business and book language. The gigantic Frankish empire was later divided into three parts, which was secured by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The East Frankish Empire, like other fragments of great empires created by conquest, was multi-tribal, and its inhabitants realized their ethnic and linguistic unity only at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries, i.e. towards the end of Old German and the beginning of the Middle German period, which was first reflected in the Annolied (between 1080 and 1085), where the word diutisch served as a symbol of the German linguistic community.
The basis of the language of the German people was primarily a group of dialects of the Frankish union of tribes (Saliev and Ripuari), the sphere of influence of which first included the Alemannic and Bavarian dialects, and then, from the 9th century, the dialects of the Saxon language (Altsaechsisch), which gradually received the status of a Low German dialect as part of the German language, while the Frankish, Alemannic and Bavarian dialects began to oppose it as a High German dialect, uniting South German and Central German dialects. The tendency towards the formation of supra-dialectal forms of the language on a southwestern basis began in the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 13th-14th centuries. the formation of the German language leads to the fact that Latin is gradually losing its position as the language of the official business sphere. Gradually mixed East German dialects formed as a result of the colonization of Slavic lands east of the river. Elbs, take a leading role and, enriched by interaction with the southern German literary tradition, form the basis of the German national literary language. The emergence of this language as a national language was facilitated by the victory of the Reformation and the translation of the Bible into German by Martin Luther, as well as intensive development in the 17th-19th centuries. fiction. The formation of the norms of modern literary language is completed mainly in the end. XVIII century, when the grammatical system was normalized, spelling was stabilized, normative dictionaries were created, at the end of the XIX century. Orthoepic norms are developed on the basis of stage pronunciation. In the XVI-XVIII centuries. emerging literary norms spread to the north of Germany.
The German language belongs to the Germanic group of Indo-European languages. Currently, Germanic languages are divided into:
The kinship of the Germanic languages has been proven on the basis of an in-depth study of written monuments from various eras using the comparative historical method of linguistics. The founders of this method are considered to be the German linguist Franz Bopp and the Dane Rasmus Rask. A significant contribution to the development of comparative historical research was made by the works of Jacob Grimm, in particular “German Grammar”. The essence of this method is (in the most general sense) to search for morphological, word-formation and lexical correspondences within different languages German group.
As a result of comparative historical research, it was proven that the kinship of Germanic languages can be traced both in the general German vocabulary and in the morphological structure, word formation, the formation of analytical forms of the verb and degrees of comparison of adjectives. For example (Table 1.1):
Table 1. Benchmarking words and word forms in Germanic languages
The similarity of the German and English languages makes it possible to compare linguistic phenomena, draw parallels and find differences between these languages. Comparative analysis of phenomena characteristic of German and English, as well as Russian languages, finding similarities and differences between language systems is a priority The objective of the course is “Fundamentals of the theory of a second foreign language”.
Question 2. Forms of existence of the German language. Variation, pluricentricity of the German language.
The German language has several historically based forms of existence. Along with these forms, there are various spaces of language, within which there are certain lexical-phraseological, word-formation and other features. IN in this case We are talking about the variation of the German language (dt: Varietät).
The term “variation” in linguistics refers to the totality of forms of existence of a particular language. In this case, form is understood as a system of signs that complements and modifies the language, but cannot exist independently of the literary norm. The distinction between language variants may be based on various non-linguistic (extralinguistic) criteria:
Geographical “area” of distribution (dialects / German Dialekt / Mundart /, regiolects / Regiolekt / or area languages / Arealsprachen).
National standard variants (Swiss German/Schweizer Hochdeutsch/, Austrian German/österreichische Standardsprache/ and federal language/bundesdeutsche Standardsprache).
Function (professional dialect/Fachsprache/, scientific language/).
Identity of speakers (youth language/Jugendsprache/, idiolect/Idiolekt/, language of women and men/Frauensprache und Männersprache).
Belonging to a specific social group and stratum (socialect/Soziolekt/, language of the group/Gruppensprache).
Language situation (spoken language/ Umgangssprache).
However, there is also variation within the literary norm itself. We are talking here primarily about the norms of written language, regulated by grammatical rules, as well as about oral language and pronunciation (descriptive norm).
The concept of variation is in a certain way connected with the concept of pluricentricity of language. A pluricentric language is understood as a language with several national centers, within which various variants of the language norm are formed. The distribution space of such languages is not limited to one state; as a rule, there are several of them (from 2 to ...). And although different national variants have clear differences, we are still talking about the same language. Examples of pluricentric languages are English, German, Russian and other languages.
English: English language is a pluricentric language with clear differences in phonology and orthography within the languages of the UK, US, Australia and other countries. None of the options has pronounced cultural dominance. However, according to statistics, speakers of American English make up about 70% of all English speakers, speakers of British English and other variants form a ratio of 16% to 5%.
German: Unlike English pluricentricity, which is synchronous (no one variant is dominant), German pluricentricity is not symmetrical, since the federal variant of the German language is considered dominant throughout the German-speaking space. This is expressed, on the one hand, in more speakers of standard German. On the other hand, within the German-speaking space itself, the Austrian and Swiss variants are often not perceived as such. At the same time, although there is an official standard language (here the language of the stage), the unofficial standard is the language of the media, in particular television. This language has some differences not only within the states of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, but also within Germany itself (Bavaria, Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia). Differences are observed in the areas of phonology, vocabulary and, in rare cases, in the areas of grammar and spelling. These differences are due to pre-existing basic dialects and different cultural traditions (for example, in the designation of food products), as well as differences in political and legal terms used in these regions.
The above-mentioned concept of a standard language requires separate consideration within the framework of our course. In this regard, let us turn to a number of terms that in one way or another denote the concept of standard language. One such term is “literary German”.
Literary German has several designations: Hochdeutsch, Hochsprache, Standardsprache, Standarddeutsch, Gemeinsprache, and is defined as the codified pronunciation, grammatical and written norm of the German language.
Literary language is a historical concept, since it developed during the history of the peoples speaking a given language. Lit. The language is an exponent of a single national norm, opposed to the diversity of local dialects and national variants. A literary language has different forms of isolation from dialects (supra-dialectality), which is manifested, firstly, in structural isolation from a dialect (in the rejection of narrow regional features of one dialect or in the combination of different features of one dialect). Secondly, in functional-stylistic isolation, which is expressed in the presence of special layers of vocabulary inherent only in the literary language. Thirdly, in the use of syntactic structures specific to written literary languages.
Within the literary German language, several aspects are distinguished that have varying degrees of change during the historical development of the language and the peoples speaking it. These aspects primarily include
Lexical composition of the language / Wortschatz (most susceptible to change);
Word formation / Wortbildung / (word formation, derivation, etc.);
Phonetics / Phonetik / (changes extremely slowly);
Grammar / Grammatik / (mostly unchanged);
Spelling /Rechtschreibung/ (periodically subject to targeted reform).
Spelling is the result of the development of the written language and greatly enriches the possibilities of the literary version, ensuring the unity of the national norm based on the fixation of uniform rules of grammar, word production, word usage and pronunciation. The rules themselves are formed on the basis of generalization and fixation of linguistic processes of the national language.