The Sound of the Middle High German language (Numbers, Greetings, Words & Sample Texts)
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
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Middle High German (diutsch, tiutsch)
Region: Central and southern Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland
Era: High Middle Ages
Language family: Indo-European (Germanic)
is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High German is defined as those varieties of German which were affected by the Second Sound Shift; the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch languages spoken to the North and North West, which did not participate in this sound change, are not part of MHG.
While there is no standard MHG, the prestige of the Hohenstaufen court gave rise in the late 12th century to a supra-regional literary language (mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache) based on Swabian, an Alemannic dialect. This historical interpretation is complicated by the tendency of modern editions of MHG texts to use normalised spellings based on this variety (usually called "Classical MHG"), which make the written language appear more consistent than is actually the case in the manuscripts. Scholars are uncertain as to whether the literary language reflected a supra-regional spoken language of the courts.
An important development in this period was the Ostsiedlung, the eastward expansion of German settlement beyond the Elbe-Saale line which marked the limit of Old High German. This process started in the 11th century, and all the East Central German dialects are a result of this expansion.
"Judeo-German", the precursor of the Yiddish language, sees attestation in the 12th-13th centuries, as a variety of Middle High German written in Hebrew characters.
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Nice to hear German having a rolled "r", although some German dialects preserved that sound. It's surprisingly close to modern German.
Netherlandic dialectd still use "rolled r" or "Spanish r sound". Only "die deutsche Bühnenaussprache (1898)" by Theodor Siebs employs this r type. However, "die Deutsche Hochsprache" uses "French r" and "vocalised r".
My mother is from Nürnberg, and she rolls her Rs.
IM not even sure if thats how it is supposed to sound or just they lacking knowledge or choosing someone who doesnt really know how to speak german. I dont know.
Guttural R was born as a pronunciation error that spread quickly across Germanic countries.Due to wars against France, the French Parisian also ended up developing the guttural R what influenced southern France, northern Italy, Portuguese and even British English, since French later in the Renaissance was the "cultured language" and "lingua franca" worldwide.
I am native Portuguese speaker, but my dialect uses the guttural R.
Exemple:
"Correr" > "ko:χeχ"
Elegant German language. I find it softer than most modern dialects.
The Alemannic Dialects of Switzerland are closest to this
@@user-xr5up3ed3z бегемот from Austria?😂
For me as a High German native speaker I’m able to understand 80% of them.
Ich habe deutsch gelernt und ich verstehe ungefär 90% der Wörte.
As an English(American), maybe 20-40%, a lot of our words are Latin or Old French derived
my gosh who would have expected this.
Yes sure, old German is a lot more similar to English than modern German.
Yes, one can recognize pretty all the standard words in the list. But when I read for example Parzival in original it's still very hard to understand properl. I mean, you can kind of guess when thinking about every word for a minute, but you cannot fluently read it, it's kind of like reading Dutch...
As a Swedish speaker with moderate knowledge in German, I can see many examples of words closer to Swedish than German
I think a modern German speaker would be able to understand 80%-90% of this.
im not german native and im able to undertands alot things, maybe 60%, also pronunciation is very diferent, seems more similar to old germanic languages.
It really depends, 80-90% is a too high estimate I think.
Try to make a good translation of the Nibelungenlied into modern High German. Most won’t get 60% correct.
@@TheMichaelK Das Nibelungenlied ist da aber auch deutlich komplexer :D Wenn es um die Einzelnen Vokabeln geht, verstehe ich tatsächlich ca 90%, im gesprochenen Text hingegen ist das was anderes
from the north, not familiar with southern (high) dialects. i understand like maybe half of this without reading, no more.
@@furkanaydin8046 Es liegt auch nicht nur daran, dass die Vokabeln einzeln sind, es sind auch einfache Standard-Vokabeln mit Englisch-Übersetzung. Auf diese Weise verstehe ich auch 70% von Sanskrit oder Hethitisch, es ist schon so ein bisschen gemogelt. Ich schätze gesprochenes Mittelhochdeutsch zu verstehen wäre etwa so wie Schweizerdeutsch (ich z.B. verstehe es nur minimal).
As a Dutch speaker, this sounds more intelligible to me than modern German
Dû bist mîn, ich bin dîn.
des solt dû gewis sîn.
dû bist beslozzen
in mînem herzen,
verlorn ist das sluzzelîn:
dû muost ouch immêr darinne sîn.
(Love letter from around 1180, Bavaria)
Loosely translated:
You are mine, I am yours.
You can be sure about that.
You are locked
inside my heart,
lost is the little key:
so you must always stay there.
Better understandable than most of the German dialects
Standard German is based more on the 16th century east German dialect so they would be closer
In fairness, there were also very distinct dialects during the Middle High German and Old High German stages.
You’re just hearing the prestige dialect here.
It's technically Swabian with some East Franconian mixed in.
I Can more understand Bavarian
@@palepilgrim1174 Ah, that's pretty interesting all we see is mostly an uniform dialect with some minor differneces here and there. I would like to say that I read something online of a Swabian dialect, it was written in 17th century and it was already pretty distinct from the Luther bibel dialect, which was like the base for standard German today.
As a swiss guy i like the sound of this more than todays standart german. I'm sorry guys but this here has more character :) Very beautiful sound.
Germans: Yeah i can understand my language from 1000 years ago
English: The hell did Shakespeare talk about?
It sounds like a hybrid of Old English and Modern German. It has the rhythm of Old English.
interesting to see: it’s way more similar to swiss german than swiss german is to standard german.
German evolved from swiss german actually. The swiss language is older
@@parodyse3925 Not really. Both dialects have the same Upper German origin. High German, however, was more strongly influenced by Middle German and Low German.
I feel the pronunciation is closer to dutch than mordern high german is. As a native dutch speaker, this feels very easy to understand.
I got vibes of Afrikaans/Dutch from this as well
I have the same impression.
Native German here. May we both people get back to it? 😂
Ich verstehe es ebenfalls ist nicht so schwer
It really isn't. The Dutch element comes into it because the guy mispronounces some of the 'ch' sounds which worked exactly like in Modern German. There's really nothing particularly Dutch about Middle High German.
As a native swissgerman speaker I can say, that it really is very similiar to swissgerman. 😁
I am a Turkish native born in germany, and even I understand 90% of the words. It's amazing how close it is to modern German
Bence eski almanca bugünkü almancadan daha kolaydı, bu komik 😂😂😂
Why did German change so little in comparison to French and english?
@@joellaz9836 The natural German dialects are very distinct. The standard German language is based on old high German and some dialects blended in. The standard German pronounciation and grammar stayed the same, because it was used only as a literal and nobility language for a long time. Latin doesn't change too. The standard German language has become of greater use in modern times because it's a lingua franca between dialects. It's different to them, but not too different, because it has only been 1000 years. (Note that Latin can't be used as a lingua franca in romance languages, because it has been 2000 years since the different derived from Latin.) So basically standard German didn't change because it was not a spoken language (in a large extent), which has changed only recently with modernisation in the last 100 years.
@@joellaz9836 French and English on the other hand were based on specific dialects which were widespread and naturally evolved.
I can definitely hear the Alemannic parts of it. Many of the vowels and diphthongs are still found in Swiss German
Many features of middle high German are still preserved in southern (Upper) German, especially in Swiss German: the diphthongs, gemination, absence of the new high german diphthongs in Swiss German. It sounds like some weird southern (Upper) German dialect to a native German speaker. The odd things are short vowels on some words and [w] sound for w.
fun fact for those who didnt know:
swiss german dialects are almost identical to middle high german. at university while studying it we had a huge advantage. In written form sometimes it's difficult to understans, as soon as we read things out they get really clear
I recommend the folk band from Germany “Faun”, some songs are composed in Middle High German (MHD). I love this band, z.B. the song “Von den Elben”
Was expecting it to be more different and distant from Modern German but surpisingly enough, this is not the case here.
I can hear the sound shifts between this and modern German
Its so interesting listening to what German sounded like before many of its sounds changed. Thank you!
Mainly the vowels I think.
Most of them changed before that. Like Wasser/Water is already Wazzer.
@@pennypincherkevin6600 That's true, and the r.
Much easier to understand as a Swedish speaker. Easier than Old English for example.
wow ! as a Swiss I must say it sounds a lot like Swiss German
Close enough to modern high German. I am a German native speaker and I can understand everything. Sounds way more nice and melodic than modern German.
I understood almost every word here in Middle High German because it's quite similar to my German dialect.
what is your dialect?
Welchen Dialekt sprechen Sie?
Thank you for making videos like these!
To me, as a bavarian, this sounds like a heavy thick dutch dialect. Few words are pronounced very bavarish
The modern German period is considered to begin around 1350, meaning early modern German was contemporary with late middle English. These texts are not that much older than the early modern German period so that's probably why this is not too different than modern German.
Omg it hasn't changed much compared to English, the pronunciation has changed a lot though
Why does every other language stay the same for like two thousand years but with English you have a different language every 500 years
welcome to another episode of people pointing out the obvious
*MiDdLe hIgH gErMan KinDa sOUndS LiKE GerMaN*
Sounds similar to Swiss dialects, I understood most of it
I find this being closer to my local dialect (völser (based on ripuarian)) than the nowadays spoken German, or a related (and my mothertongue) Dutch.. lol
Dus jij vind dit duidelijker dan nederlands?
@@gilbeer.t Ik weet niet hoe goed jouw engels is, maar ik zou het nog een keer lezen, maar dan ietwat langzamer.
Nee, ik vind het niet makkelijker dan nederlands, alleen is het wel "closer"-> verwanter aan mijn locaal dialect.
Das kann man 1:1 ins Hochdeutsch übersetzen. Manche Wortstellung ist aber nicht mehr so gebräuchlich.
This can be translated 1: 1 into High German. However, some word order is no longer so common.
Love this.
In Danish, you can say 'knægt'. It's an informal way of saying boy; otherwise, we say 'dreng'.
This sounds a lot like Bernese dialect. Particularly the /ei, /û, /uo, /ou, which changed in standard German.
As a german I understood everything.
As a native German speaker, I'm able to understand around 90%
I think the pronounciation is closer to Swiss german than standard one.
'Slâfst du, friedel ziere?
man weckt uns leider schiere:
ein vogellîn sô wol getân
daz ist in der linden ûf daz zwî gegân'
'Ich was vil sanfte entslâven:
nu rüefstu kint Wâfen.
liep âne leit, daz mac niht sîn.
swaz du gebiutst, daz leiste ich, friundin mîn.'
Diu frouwe began zuo weinen.
'du rîtst und lâst mich all eine.
wenne wîlt du wider her zuo mir?
owê du füerest all mîn fröide mit dir!'
As an Afrikaans speaker I can hear and understand most of it. About 95%. A bit softer on the ear.....
Saying you understood 95% of the Nibelungenlied is a lie
3:07 Palästinalied !
Nibelungasaga!!!
Dieses Lied ist gar sehr schön
It sounds like a mixture of Scotts, Dutch (or Afrikaans/Flemish to be more specific) and High German. Interesting.
It sounds like Schweizer deutsch
The number "two" (zwei) would most probably have been "zwee" or "zweene" as this is the masculine, thus standard form. It is only recently (the last 150-200 years) that "zwei", the neutral form, has become the sole existing one. The feminine form was/is "zwo" by the way.
So:
zweene mann (two men m.)
zwo vrouen (two women f.)
zwei kinder (two children, n.)
in luxembourgish it is still like that. zwee Männer (two men m.), zwou Fraen (two women f.). Although the neutral form is disappearing it can still be formed: zwéin Haiser (two houses n.), usually people say zwee Haiser today
middle high german has its origin mostly in south germany but modern german was invented around cental germany because of the translation of the Bible from martin luther
I hear that pronounciation is rather similar to Swiss German
Nope
Yep, Swiss German (Highest Alemannic) did not undergo some of the vowel changes but they remained the way they were in Middle High German (ziit, huus, ... instead of zeit, haus, ...).
Middle high german is base on this i guess
Maybe the rolled R's, but it lacks all the guttural sounds of the various Swiss German dialects.
@@thecandlemaker1329 mostly the vowels in words like huus, ziit house and time
Still very understandable for a speaker of Modern German.
Just beautiful
Amazing, thanks!
Its like a mix of highgerman and some swissgerman dialects
Sounds like someone speaking all the german dialects at once
I recently discovered for myself that it wad the German language that actually transformed the “original” sound of French into the modern French we know today. Because back then the French rolled their R’s like the other typical Romance languages, but after Louis XlV I believe, the language changed, which makes me wonder when Germany quit trilling their R’s and why. It’s all very interesting.
Crazy how close it is to todays Swiss German. Some words are exactly how you pronounce it now
As a german I could understand about 90 percent of IT.
Haha, omg the Nibelungenlied in the sample text.
As a swiss guy, i understand almost every word 😎
nice to hear "ei" pronounces as ei, instead of ai
As a German speaker I understand 85% of it
me as a foreigner learner, i understood it way better than the bavarian, austrian and swiss versions of german... im really surprised now
Looks like the modern German language has stayed pretty much the same compared to English which has gone through a substantial change.
Sounds great!
This is what Yiddish is based on. Very similar even today.
I recognize some words of Age of Empires with German civilization ! (Strîten, geburen)
This kind of German is so so nice !
Honestly sounds like the male villager from Age of Empires II. :)
As someone who Learned Low German and Danish, and I study the similarities between the Germanic Languages I am proud to say I can understand 75% of it lol
Swa = as, just as in Anglo-Saxon. Now als or as. What a curious change!
very similar to swiss german
Some words (foot=vuaz) really sound Bavarian haha
Would like if you made video on ancient Aramaic dialects like Babylonian Aramaic, Egyptian Aramaic. And the Neo-Aramaic
So much similarity with latvian - brûn - brūns; bâbest - pāvests; priester - priesteris; keiser - ķeizers; künic - ķēniņš; grâve - grāfs;
because they are both indo-european languages
That’s because those are most likely German loan words from the time of the Hanse and Teutonic order in the Baltic states .
Very similar to Modern German, unsurprisingly.
Modern German was based mostly on an East German dialect in the "16th century" so comparing to something in the 12 century isn't acutally that far off.
@@pennypincherkevin6600 in Germany we called the modern German "Hochdeutsch" it's One of many dialects
@@pennypincherkevin6600 Modern standard German developed from the written language of east central German, yes, but the pronunciation comes from the northern Germans when they made it a spoken language and replaced their Low Saxon / Low German dialects (not entirely in every region, though).
One can easily hear that standard German does not sound like east central Getman (Upper Saxon-Thuringian).
@@pennypincherkevin6600 Luther created standard German and he based his writings on the German dialects spoken in Middle and Southern Germany (including Alsace, Switzerland, Austria and Bohemia) and especially on the German that was spoken and written at the courts administration in Bohemia and Saxony.
Very similar to Modern German, surprisingly. It is much closer to Modern German than, say, Chaucerian English is to Modern English or Mediaeval French to Modern French.
Sounds almost like Swiss-German
As a German, I can only say no. I understand middle high German much better than Swiss German. There are Swiss who have such a bad dialect that you understand as a German purely nothing. As if it were another language.
@@roccobln10 well i was mostly thinking about the vocabulary. For example Mother being pronounced as Mueter instead of Mutter, striten instead of streiten, guete tag instead of guten Tag, üch instead of euch, etc.
The southern dialects, i.e. Alemannic and Bavarian, have preserved some of the diphthongs that became monophthongs in the north. The ue and the ie diphthongs are good examples of that (guad or liab in Bavarian dialects).
@@roccobln10 do you know this german dialect on this video is there still any people in germany who’s native language is middle high german
Hear also a bit of this language in the Carmina Burana. "Seht mich an / Jungen man / Lat mich iu gefallen"...
Controversial take but I think this is more pleasant than modern German.
As an English speaker, I understood half of it
1:21 When did they start spelling „Keiser“
as „Kaiser“
because according to Wikipedia the „ai“
and „ei“
are the same diphthong in their „ein, Kaiser, Haydn, Verleih, Speyer“ are all "aɪ" and choosing one spelling over another appears to just be stylistic and/or because tradition.
I understand that the diphthong "aɪ" did not exist in Middle High German
As an English speaker this is unintelligible. Except for wolf. I understood that.
I find it interesting that the German toung reached so far from Germany to England to Netherland to Swiss and more parts of Europe and in these parts thet the german toung evolved differently
This is more similar to Dutch than modern German
sounds nicer than modern german
for my french ear, it seems softer than the nowadays german, a bit like dutch, or alsacian dialect.
As a german native speaker i understand 90%
मध्य उच्च जर्मन
Fun fact: the way they said rhe family members, is a similar way we say it in Austria today
A lot of the words sound like Swiss German
I more understand middle german that english, but I can say only "Ich möchte eine banane"
Überraschend leicht verständlich.
Besides the missing diffrence between primär umlaut [e] and sekundär umlaut [æ] in the pronounciation, was it quite accurat. You could argue argue that the s in swarz is already an [ʃ] or something more dental than an regular alveor s, like in modern dutch, but im not up to date with the research and think that this is still dispudet even for old high german. Also v in anlaut was a real [v] but only in middle germany so due to the binnen deutsche konsonantenschwächung, but you could argue that the speaker is more southern i guess😅
Some things are sound like swiss german (i'm swiss)
Was the "w" pronounced like English "w"? If so, when did the sound change to English "v"?
sounds kinda like dutch
It sounds more like dutch and yiddish
it basically just sound like a mix of swiss german dialects lmao
Other languages: Declaration of human rights, Bible. High Middle German: Nibelungasaga, Palestinalied. That proverbial case when we say “the Spirit of the Peoples”
sounds like some swiss german dialect.
If you let a dutch or swiss speak German , you would probably get this accent closer.
Standard German today has its Prussian roots established from Hannover. People in the east have this exaggerated modern German accent.
these videos are so dope