Old High Jermench (MGR)
| Old High Jermench Iermânêh | |
| Spoken in: | Kingdom of Germany / Holy Roman Empire |
| Conworld: | Mundus Germaniae Romanae |
| Total speakers: | unknown |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European
|
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Morphological type: | inflecting |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | nominative-accusative |
| Writing system: | |
| Created by: | |
| P Collier, BP Jonsson | 2006+ |
Introduction
The term Old High Jermench (OHJ) refers to the earliest stage of the Jermench language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050 CE. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of OHJ proper to 750 for this reason.
The main difference between OHJ and the Northern-Romance dialects from which it developed is that it underwent the High Jermench Consonant Shift. This is generally dated very approximately to the late 5th and early 6th centuries - hence dating the start of OHJ to around 500. The result of this sound change is that the consonant system of Jermench remains different from all other Northern Romance languages, including {Rom-English} and Low Jermench. Grammatically, however, OHJ remained very similar to Old {Rom-English}, Old {Rom-Dutch} and Old {Rom-Low Saxon}.
By the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had all been reduced to 'e'. Since these vowels were part of the grammatical endings in the nouns and verbs, their loss led to radical simplification of the inflectional grammar of Jermench. For that reason, 1050 is seen as the start of the Middle High Jermench period.
Modern Descendants
- (Modern High) Jermench
- {Rom-Luxembourgish}
- {Rom-Yiddish}
Phonology
Consonants
| Consonants | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | ||||||||||||||||
| Affricate | p͡f | t͡s | |||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f v | θ | s z | x | h | ||||||||||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||||||||||||||
¹The stop allophones occured in initial position or when geminated. In other positions b d and g are realised as fricatives.
- There is wide variation in the consonant systems of the OHJ dialects arising mainly from the differing extent to which they are affected by the High Jermench Consonant Shift. Precise information about the articulation of consonants is impossible to establish.
- In the plosive and fricative series, where there are two consonants in a cell, the first is fortis the second lenis. The voicing of lenis consonants varied between dialects.
- /θ/ changes to /d/ in all dialects during the 9th century.
- OHJ has long consonants, and the following double consonant spellings indicate not vowel length as in Modern Jermench orthography, but rather genuine double consonants: pp, bb, tt, dd, ck (for /kk/), gg, ff, ss, hh, zz, mm, nn, ll, rr.
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||||
| High | iː | uː | ||||||||||
| Near-high | ɪ | ʊ | ||||||||||
| High-mid | e | oː | ||||||||||
| Low-mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | ||||||||||
| Low | a aː | |||||||||||
Phonological History
Morphology
Nouns
1st Declension
2nd Declension
3rd Declension
Pronouns
Verbs
Indicative Mood
1st Conjugation
2nd Conjugation
3rd Conjugation
4th Conjugation
Subjunctive Mood
1st Conjugation
2nd Conjugation
3rd Conjugation
4th Conjugation
Imperative Mood
Infinitive and Past Participles
Auxilliary Verbs
*Eszar (to be)
| Present | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||||
| 1st person | sou | soums | ||||
| 2nd person | es | ests | ||||
| 3rd Person | est | suntz | ||||
| Preterite (Simple Past) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person | duī | doums | |
| 2nd person | dustī | dusts | |
| 3rd Person | duz | dourntz | |
*Eszar was used in conjunction with a passive participle to create the passive voice.
The passive participle agrees in gender with the patient. For example, *ella est cunâmâzza (she is loved), *el duz cuntâts (it was given).
*Hâbeir (to have)
| Present | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person | hâb | hâbeims | |
| 2nd person | *hôs | hâbeits | |
| 3rd Person | *houz | *hôntz | |
| Preterite (Simple Past) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person | houuuî | houuueims | |
| 2nd person | houuuistî | houuuists | |
| 3rd Person | houuut | houuueirntz | |
The present tense of *hâbeir was used in conjunction with a past participle to create the perfect: *iu hâb cundouz (I have been).
The preterite of *hâbeir was used in conjunction with a past participle to create the pluperfect: *uuus houuueims cunuuintz (we had come).
*Weanīr (to come)
| Present | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person | *wean | *weanīms | |
| 2nd person | *weanīs | *weanītīs | |
| 3rd Person | *weanant | *weannt | |
| Preterite (Simple Past) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person | *winwi | *winweims | |
| 2nd person | *winwistī | *winwists | |
| 3rd Person | *winūt | *winweirnt | |
The present tense of *weanīr was used in conjunction with an infinitive to create the future: *tū weanīs indūttar (you will lead).
The preterite of *weanīr was used in conjunction with an infinitive to create the conditional (i.e. 'future-in-the-past): *jo winwi ferdhounār (I would forgive).
Sample Texts
Sacramenta Argentariae
The Sacramenta Argentariae are the pledges of allegiance taken in 842 by Louis the German and his brother Charles the Bald. As well as their allegiance to each other, Louis and Charles pledged their opposition to the Emperor, their elder brother Lothair.
According to our chief source for the meeting, Nithard's De dissensionibus filiorum Ludovici pii (On the Dissensions of the Sons of Louis the Pious), each king swore the oath not in Latin but in the vernacular of the other's kingdom, in front of the assembled armies, which then made their pledge in their own languages. The first oath is in a variety of old Gallo-Romance, the ancestor of Old French; The second is in Old High Jermench. They are one of the first texts we have written in Romance languages clearly distinct from Latin.
- LODHUVICUS, QUONIAM MAJOR NATU ERAT, PRIOR HAEC DEINDE SE SERVATURUM TESTATUS EST:
- Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, d'ist di in avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo et in aiudha et in cadhuna cosa, si cum om per dreit son fradra salvar dift, in o quid il me altresi fazet, et ab Ludher nul plaid numquam prindrai, qui, meon vol, cist meon fradre Karle in damno sit
- QUOD CUM LODHUVICUS EXPLESSET, KAROLUS TEUDISCA LINGUA SIC HEC EADEM VERBA TESTATUS EST:
- Fôr Iî âmarî ez louis cristânî foaflî ez nôstrâ ambôs sâlûzzî, tei ikchlouî iurn ah âbantz, in sî mouî Ius seffanza ah foatsâz ferdaz, sî uuard iu ekchlou mou drazar, sîht hôm âbad teiriht sou drazar tiuz, in lâ cî el mei sî meizzêma daz, ez âbad Luozzâr in nurr côsa nei soubîr, lâ mâ uuuonzâz souî nôzeir uuienaz.
