Old High Jermench (MGR)

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Old High Jermench Iermânêh
Spoken in:	Kingdom of Germany / Holy Roman Empire
Conworld:	Mundus Germaniae Romanae
Total speakers:	unknown
Genealogical classification:	Indo-European Romance Northern-Romance Old High Jermench
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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. /θ/ changes to /d/ in all dialects during the 9th century.
4. 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

Primary Umlaut

High Jermench Consonant Shift

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Morphology

Nouns

1st Declension

Group I

Feminine.

A Standard paradigm 1st Declension – Group Ia Singular Plural Nominative – a – as Accusative – a – as Genitive – â – âr Dative – â – îs	B Nouns with primary vowel mutation. 1st Declension – Group Ib Singular Plural Nominative – a – as Accusative – a – as Genitive – â – âr Dative – â ̈– s
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/.  1st Declension – Group Ic Singular Plural Nominative – a – as Accusative – a – as Genitive – â – âr Dative – â ̈–

Group II

Feminine.

A Standard paradigm 1st Declension – Group IIa Singular Plural Nominative – – as Accusative – – as Genitive – s – âr Dative – â – îs	B Nouns with loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 1st Declension – Group IIb Singular Plural Nominative – – as Accusative – – as Genitive – – âr Dative – â – îs
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation.  1st Declension – Group IIc Singular Plural Nominative – – as Accusative – – as Genitive – s – âr Dative – â ̈– s	D Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 1st Declension – Group IId Singular Plural Nominative – – as Accusative – – as Genitive – – âr Dative – â ̈–

2nd Declension

Group I

Masculine.

A Standard paradigm 2nd Declension – Group Ia Singular Plural Nominative – – î Accusative – – s Genitive – s – ôr Dative – î – îs	B Nouns with loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group Ib Singular Plural Nominative – – î Accusative – – Genitive – – ôr Dative – î – îs
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation.  2nd Declension – Group Ic Singular Plural Nominative – ̈– Accusative – – s Genitive – s – ôr Dative ̈– ̈– s	D Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group Id Singular Plural Nominative – ̈– Accusative – – Genitive – – ôr Dative ̈– ̈–

Group II

Masculine.

A Standard paradigm 2nd Declension – Group IIa Singular Plural Nominative – s – î Accusative – – s Genitive – s – ôr Dative – î – îs	B Nouns with loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group IIb Singular Plural Nominative – – î Accusative – – Genitive – – ôr Dative – î – îs
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation.  2nd Declension – Group IIc Singular Plural Nominative – s ̈– Accusative – – s Genitive – s – ôr Dative ̈– ̈– s	D Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group IId Singular Plural Nominative – ̈– Accusative – – Genitive – – ôr Dative ̈– ̈–

Group III

Masculine.

A Standard paradigm 2nd Declension – Group IIIa Singular Plural Nominative – s – î Accusative – – s Genitive – î – ôr Dative – – îs	B Nouns with loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group IIIb Singular Plural Nominative – – î Accusative – – Genitive – î – ôr Dative – – îs
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation.  2nd Declension – Group IIIc Singular Plural Nominative – s ̈– Accusative – – s Genitive ̈– – ôr Dative – ̈– s	D Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group IIId Singular Plural Nominative – ̈– Accusative – – Genitive ̈– – ôr Dative – ̈–

Group IV

Masculine.

A Standard paradigm 2nd Declension – Group IVa Singular Plural Nominative – – î Accusative – – s Genitive – î – ôr Dative – – îs	B Nouns with loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group IVb Singular Plural Nominative – – î Accusative – – Genitive – î – ôr Dative – – îs
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation.  2nd Declension – Group IVc Singular Plural Nominative – ̈– Accusative – – s Genitive ̈– – ôr Dative – ̈– s	D Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 2nd Declension – Group IVd Singular Plural Nominative – ̈– Accusative – – Genitive ̈– – ôr Dative – ̈–

3rd Declension

Group I

Feminine.

A Standard paradigm 3rd Declension – Group Ia Singular Plural Nominative – s – s Accusative – – s Genitive – s – Dative – î – ius	B Nouns with loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 3rd Declension – Group Ib Singular Plural Nominative – – Accusative – – Genitive – – Dative – î – ius
C Nouns with primary vowel mutation.  3rd Declension – Group Ic Singular Plural Nominative – s – s Accusative – – s Genitive – s – Dative ̈– – ius	D Nouns with primary vowel mutation and loss/assimilation of final -s after /s/, /z/, or /t͡s/. 3rd Declension – Group Id Singular Plural Nominative – – Accusative – – Genitive – – Dative ̈– – ius

Pronouns

Pronouns
		Singular				Plural
		masculine	feminine	reflexive	impersonal	masculine	feminine	reflexive
1st person	Nominative	iu		―	―	nus		―
	Accusative	mei			―	nus
	Genitive	mî		―	―	nôstar		―
	Dative	mouî		―	―	nous		―
2nd person	Nominative	zû		―	―	uuus		―
	Accusative	zei			―	uuus
	Genitive	tuuî		―	―	uuestar		―
	Dative	zouî		―	―	uuous		―
3rd person	Nominative	el	ella	―	hôm	illî	ellas	―
	Accusative	sei			hôm	sei
	Genitive	suuî		―	hôms	suuî		―
	Dative	souî		―	hômî	sîs		―
Interrogative & relative	Nominative	cî		―	―	cî		―
	Accusative	cie		―	―	cus	quas
	Genitive	cius¹	quâis	―	―	cour	quâr	―
	Dative	cî	quâî	―	―	cius²		―

¹ /kjʊs/
² /ki͜us/

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

Estzar (to be)

Present Singular Plural 1st person sou soums 2nd person es ests 3rd Person est suntz

Preterite (Simple Past) Singular Plural 1st person duî doums 2nd person dustî dusts 3rd Person duz dourntz

Estzar 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).

UUienîr (to come)

Present Singular Plural 1st person uuien uuienîms 2nd person uuienîs uuienîzzîs 3rd Person uuienaz uuienantz

Preterite (Simple Past) Singular Plural 1st person uuinuuî uuinuueims 2nd person uuinuuistî uuinuuists 3rd Person uuinuz uuinuueirntz

The present tense of uuienîr was used in conjunction with an infinitive to create the future: zû uuienîs intûzar (you will lead).

The preterite of uuienîr was used in conjunction with an infinitive to create the conditional (i.e. 'future-in-the-past): iu uuinuuî ferdounâr (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 ROMANA LINGUA GERMANIARUM 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 seffantza ah foatsâz ferdaz, sî uuard iu ekchlou mou dratzar, sîht hôm âbad teiriht sou dratzar tiuz, in lâ cî el mei sî meizzêma daz, ez âbad Luozzâr in nurr côsa nei soubîr, lâ mâ uuuontzâz souî nôzeir uuienaz.