The pronunciation of the diphthongs <ei> and <ou> in literary Old High German (the case of normalized texts by Walther von der Vogelweide)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to establish and reconstruct the phonetic and phonological features the diphthongs <ei> and <ou> in literary Middle High German, using the poetic texts by Walter von der Vogelweide, normalized by Germanists. The study is carried out both in the diachronic plane – the origin of these diphthongs and their reflections in New High German – and in the synchronic plane, i.e., their written and articulatory reproduction in the selected period of time. The philological facts include both historical data on changes in the phonemic composition of the German language and data from dialects at different stages of their development (Bavarian, Tyrolean, Swiss), as well as territorial pronunciation peculiarities of the national (supra-dialectal) variant of German in its dialectal zones. The analysis begins with a consideration of the idiosyncrasies of these diphthongs displayed in ancient manuscripts. After which we draw conclusions about the existence of ambiguity in their reproduction in the established literary norm, which was being shaped in the southern area of the contemporary Germany and supported by the Old German tradition, on the one hand, and in oral usage exposed to the incessant trends of language change, on the other. Using the collected facts, comparisons, and taking into account the general patterns of language development, the authors conclude that the old pronunciation of these diphthongs was preserved among representatives of upper (posh) class, the so-called feudal lords, who had access to literary documents of previous times, and thus cultivated the refinement of their language, preserved their ancient sacred traditions, because they considered it a sign of sophistication and thus tried to alienate themselves from the local dialects of the lower class.Thus, it has been established that scribes from different social backgrounds could not help reflecting the living pronunciation in their manuscripts, especially since it formed the basis of the phonetics of the unified New German language along with the “folk” realization of the diphthongs <ei> and <ou> as [ai] and [au].However, we consider their pronunciation in territorial variants of the national language (Austria, Switzerland) and in some southern dialects to be an echo of their archaic form, which, in our opinion, existed and was realized in the German literary language of the medieval period (mid-11th – early 14th centuries).