A Middle High German Primer

A Middle High German Primer, by Joseph Wright

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Title: A Middle High German Primer Third Edition
Author: Joseph Wright
Release Date: September 16, 2007 [EBook #22636]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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[Transcriber's Note:
This file is intended for users whose text readers cannot open the "real" (UTF-8, Unicode) version of the file, even after making the character substitutions suggested in that version.
This document can be used as-is, but it will be much more readable if you open it in a word processor or text editor and make as many as possible of the listed changes. The object is to reconstruct the real file in a form that your own computer or text reader can handle. When making changes, be sure to include the period after "Sec." and the brackets surrounding all letters or letter groups.
Sec. section symbol, or use pilcrow (paragraph symbol) Secs. two section symbols
[ae] ae ligature [oe] oe ligature
[a] a with macron (overline, "long" mark) If macron is unavailable, use a-circumflex instead [e] [i] [o] [u] (same for e, i, o, u) [a:] [e:] [o:] [u:] a, e, o, u with umlaut ['a] ['e] a, e with acute accent [e.] e with dot under, used in reading selections If you have nothing suitable, replace with plain e [i.] same as above; rare
[z] z with hook at end of bottom line [zz] two of these z's (often used in pairs) If this character is unavailable, try z with cedilla. As a last resort, replace with plain "z" after reading Sec. 19 carefully.
[A] [E] [I] [O] [U] [U:] (capital letters as above; rare)
A few additional characters are used mainly in the historical introduction, along with two or three Greek words, here transliterated and shown between +marks+. They can be disregarded.
[)a] [)e] [)i] [)o] a, e, i, o with both macron and breve ("long" and "short" mark) [-u:] u-umlaut with macron [-ae] ae ligature with macron [th] thorn [dh] edh [bh] b with line through stem [zh] ezh [ch] Greek letter chi [ng] eng ("n" with curve below line)
Italics are marked with lines. Boldface type is shown with {braces}. Boldface markings have generally been omitted from tables to aid readability.
Punctuation in the Glossary has been silently regularized. Other typographical errors are listed at the end of the text.]
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A
MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN PRIMER
with Grammar, Notes, And Glossary
by JOSEPH WRIGHT M.A., Ph.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.
Fellow of the British Academy Corpus Christi Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford
THIRD EDITION Re-Written And Enlarged
OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1917

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Bombay
HUMPHREY MILFORD Publisher to the University

EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACES TO THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS
The present book has been written in the hope that it will serve as an elementary introduction to the larger German works on the subject from which I have appropriated whatever seemed necessary for the purpose. In the grammar much aid has been derived from Paul's Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, second edition, Halle, 1884, and Weinhold's Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, second edition, Paderborn, 1883. The former work, besides containing by far the most complete syntax, is also the only Middle High German Grammar which is based on the present state of German Philology.... I believe that the day is not far distant when English students will take a much more lively interest in the study of their own and the other Germanic languages (especially German and Old Norse) than has hitherto been the case. And if this little book should contribute anything towards furthering the cause, it will have amply fulfilled its purpose.
LONDON: January, 1888.
When I wrote the preface to the first edition of this primer in 1888, I ventured to predict that the interest of English students in the subject would grow and develop as time went on, but I hardly expected that it would grow so much that a second edition of the book would be required within so short a period. It has been revised throughout, and several changes have been made in the phonology, but I have not thought it advisable to alter the general plan and scope of the former edition. After many years of personal experience as a teacher and examiner in the older periods of the German language, I have become firmly convinced that the larger books on the subject contain too