§ 10 Words Shortened
Condensation is effected by absorption, as of d by n in ‘wunǝr’ (wonder) G. wunder; and of f by p in ‘kǝp’ (head) G. kopf;—by the elision of consonants (an Austrian feature) as in ‘wet’ (would) G. wollte; ‘net’ (not) G. nicht.
By elision of vowels (particularly final e) as in ‘schuul’ (school) G. schule, ‘tsammǝ’ (together) G. zusammen; and by shortening vowels, as in ‘siw’ǝ’ (seven) G. sieben; ‘gew’ǝ’ (to give) G. gēben; G. heurathen (to marry), Suab. heuren, PG. ‘heiǝrǝ’; G. gleich (like) PG. ‘glei’; ‘tsimlich’ (tolerable) G. ziemlich.
| PG. | G. | E. | PG. | G. | E. | |
| niks | nichts | nothing | mr sin | wir sind | we are | |
| wet | wollte | would | géscht’r | gestern | yesterday | |
| set | sollte | should | nemmǝ | nehmen | to take | |
| knǝp | knopf | button | nam’itag | nachmittag | afternoon | |
| knep | knöpfe | buttons | geblíwǝ | geblieben | remained | |
| kich | küche | kitchen | jets13 | jetzt | now | |
| kuuchǝ | kūchen | cake | parr’ǝ | pfarrer | preacher | |
| wǝch | woche | week | oowǝt | abend | evening | |
| wǝchǝ | wochen | weeks | weipsleit | weibsleute | women | |
| kiw’l | kübel | bucket | rei˛ | herein | herein | |
| blos | blase | bladder | nei˛ | hinein | hither-in | |
| meim | meinem | to my | draa˛ | daran | thereon | |
| anǝr | ander | other | eltscht | älteste | oldest | |
| nanǝr | einander | each other | tswíwlǝ | zwiebeln | onions | |
| unǝr | unter | under | hend | hände | hands | |
| drunǝ | darunter | ther’under | plets | plätze | places | |
| nunǝr | hinunter | down there | nummǝ13 | nun mehr | only | |
| dro’wǝ | daroben | above | nimmǝ13 | nimmer | never | |
| driw’ǝ | darüber | ther’over | mee13 | mehr | more | |
| drin | darin | ther’in | noo | darnach | ther’after | |
| ruff | darauf | there up | pluuk | pflūg | plow | |
| nuff | hinauf | up there | pliighǝ | plfüge | plows | |
| sind | sünde | sin | kalénǝr | kalénder | cálendar |
As G. ‘ü’ becomes ‘i’ in PG., G. lügen (to tell a lie) and liegen (to lie down—both having the first vowel long) might be confused, but the latter is shortened in PG., as in ‘ær likt’ (he lies down) ‘ær liikt’ (he tells a lie).
| PG. Was wi’t? | What wilst thou? | G. Was willst du? |
| Woo’t weepe? | Woo’t fight? | Woo’t teare thy ſelfe?14 |
| Ich wil fischǝ gee˛. | I will go to fish. |
| Ich hab kschriwwǝ. | I have (geschrieben) written. |
| Sin mr net keiǝrt? | Are we not married? G. Sind wir nicht geheirathet? (or verheirathet.) |
Infinitive-n is rejected, as in the Swiss and Suabian dialects. In an Austrian dialect it is rejected when m, n, or ng precedes, as in singa, rena, nehma, for singen, rennen, nehmen.—Castelli, Wörterbuch, 1847, p. 31.
The length of some vowels is doubtful, as in ‘rot’ or ‘root’ (red, like English rŏte or rōde), ‘so’ or ‘soo,’ ‘nochbǝr’ or ‘noochbǝr,’ ‘ǝmol’ or ‘ǝmool,’ ‘ja’ or ‘jaa,’ ‘sii’ or ‘sĭ’ (she, they, ĭ in deceĭt, not in sit). Compare English ‘Sēe!’ and ‘Sĕe thêre!’
Accent in PG. agrees with that of High German. When indicated, as in danóot or danoot’ (for the ‘oo’ represent a single vowel, as in Eng. floor), it is to afford aid to the reader not familiar with German accent.
Footnotes
6 For example, as the vowel of German schaf is long, the PG. word ‘schafleit,’ which occurs in a quoted passage farther on, would be likely to be read ‘schaafleit’ (sheep-people or shepherds) instead of ‘schaffleit’ (work-people), although it is stated that in the spelling used, a vowel must not be made long unless its letter is doubled. “This tendency, and a trick of reading words like nisbut, relation, qismut, fortune, as if written nizbut, qizmut, should be carefully guarded against.... Even is, as, rusm, will, in spite of the caveat,... become again in his mouth iz, az, ruzm, rather than the iss, auss, russm, intended.”—Gilchrist, 1806.
7 High German letters which represent PG. sounds are in parentheses.
8 The long vowel used by native speakers in Bath, Somersetshire, England.
9 These two powers are not quite the same.
10 Indicated in 1860 in my Analytic Orthography, §§ 661-3, and in my note to A. J. Ellis’s Early English Pronunciation, 1869, p. 655, note 2, col. 2. “The lost final n is commonly recalled by a nasal vowel.”
11 The real physiological generation of these flat consonants is very difficult for an Englishman to understand. Dr. C. L. Merkel, of Leipzig, a middle-German, confesses that for a long time he did not understand the pure b, d, not having heard them in his neighbourhood. He distinguishes (Physiologie der Menschlichen Sprache, Leipzig, 1866, pp. 146-156), 1. The “soft shut sounds” or mediæ, characterized by an attempt to utter voice before the closure is released, 2. “the half-hard shut sounds” or tenues implosivæ, characterized by a sound produced by compressing the air in the mouth by the elevation of the larynx, the glottis being closed, which “therefore acts like a piston,” followed by the sudden opening of the mouth and glottis, allowing the vowel to pass, (this is his description of the flat sounds, which he says Brücke, a Low-Saxon, reckons among his mediæ), 3. “the hard explosive shut sounds,” characterized by a shut mouth and open glottis through which the unvocalised breath is forced against the closing barrier more strongly than in the last case, but without pressure from the diaphragm, 4. “the aspirated or sharpened explosive sound,” in which the last pressure occurs with a jerk. The compound English distinction, p, b; t, d; k, g, seem almost impossible for a middle and south-German to understand.—A. J. E.
12 On the inconsistencies of Rauch’s Orthography on an English basis, see my note 2, p. 655 of Ellis’s Early English Pronunciation.
13 Swiss forms.
14 Hamlet, act 5, sc. 1, speech 106; folio 1623, tragedies, p. 278, col. 2.