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Old High German 〈r〉 and Its Phonetic Identification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Herbert Penzl
Herbert Penzl*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

In a recent article Hans Kurath has admirably stated the importance of a ‘careful consideration of the phonic character and range of the several phonemes’ in historical linguistics, even if the phonemic point of view is also essential there. Indeed, the primary material of a historical linguist consists of the written reflexes of languages as transmitted to us, and all synchronic and diachronic analyses have to be based on them. Phonetic interpretation is feasible but the obvious impossibility of direct observation or instrumental recording seems to preclude phonetic analysis in the study of a ‘dead language’. Is then historical phonetics without scientific value and significance? This judgment would be erroneous, since, after all, we cannot conceive of phonemes without their phonetic variants or allophones, and, what is even more important, we see the origin of phonemic change in the development of such allophones. Phonemic changes are the main events in the phonological history of a language; but they cannot be explained or fully described without postulating specific phonetic values. Thus there cannot be any historical phonemics without historical phonetics. Phonetic identification of phonemes and their variants is an important task in historical linguistics, and the methods used as well as the results achieved deserve a more detailed investigation.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 37 , Issue 4-Part1: October-December , December 1961, pp. 488 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © 1961 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 References are to pages or sections of the following works: Adolf Bach, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache 6 (1956); Georg Baesecke, Einführung in das Althochdeutsche (1918); Otto Behaghel, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache 5 (1928); Jethro Bithell, German pronunciation and phonology (1952); Wilhelm Braune, Althochdeutsche Grammatik 8, rev. by W. Mitzka (1953); J. Franck, Altfränkische Grammatik (1909); Eberhard Kranzmayer, Historische Lautgeographie des gesamtbairischen Dialektraumes (1956); Victor Michels, Mittelhochdeutsches Elementarbuch 3, 4 (1921); W. G. Moulton, Jacob Böhme's uvular r, JEGP 51.83–9 (1952); Ingo Reiffenstein, Salzburgische Dialektgeographie (1955); Josef Schatz, Althochdeutsche Grammatik (1927); id., Bairische Grammatik (1907) [= Ab.]; Siebs Deutsche Hochsprache 16, ed. by Helmut de Boor and Paul Diels (1957); Moritz Trautmann, Besprechung einiger Schulbücher nebst bemerkungen über die r-laute, Anglia 3.204–22 (1880); W. F. Twaddell, Pre-OHG */t/, For Roman Jakobson 559 ff. (1956) ; Wilhelm Viëtor, Elemente der Phonetik des Deutschen, Englischen und Französischen 6 (1914); Hans-Heinrich Wängler, Grundriss einer Phonetik des Deutschen (1960) ; Karl Weinhold, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (1877); W. Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik 3 (1911); Joseph Wright, Historical German grammar, Vol. 1 (1914).

2 Phonemics and phonics in historical phonology, American speech 36.93–100 (1961).

3 Herbert Penzl, The evidence for phonemic changes, Studies presented to Joshua Whatmough 193–208 (1957).

4 For instance : Steigton und Fallton im Althochdeutschen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Otfrids Evangelienbuch, Braune Festschrift (1920) ; Zur Lautlehre des althochdeutschen Isidor, Germanistische Forschungen 67 ff. (1921).

5 Braune §28 Anni. 1: ‘ë ist offenes, e geschlossenes e.‘

6 Penzl, Orthography and phonemes in Wulfila's Gothic, JEGP 49.217 ff. (1950).

7 The medieval sibilants, Lg. 28.222 ff. (1952).

8 W. F. Twaddell, A note on Old High German umlaut, Monatshefte für deutschen Unterricht 30.177 ff. (1938); Penzl, Umlaut and secondary umlaut in Old High German, Lg. 25.223 ff. (1949).

9 Penzl, A phonemic change in early Old English, Lg. 20.83 ff. (1944); Hans Kurath, The loss of long consonants and the rise of voiced fricatives in Middle English, Lg. 32.435 ff. (1956).

10 Braune §47; Schatz Ab. §17; Schatz, Die Mundart von Imst §54 (1897); Wilmanns §84. Behaghel §286 calls 〈iu〉 in piugan ‘der halbgebrochene Laut’.

11 Altenglische Grammatik 2 (1951) §178.1: ‘wahrscheinlich cerebral, d.h. mit stark zurückgebogener Zungenspitze gesprochen, wie z. T. noch heute im Englischen.‘ Also Trautmann 211 f.

12 §144, §195; Bithell 178. R. von Kienle, Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Deutschen (1960) §138: ‘Wieweit in alter Zeit Zungen- oder Zäpfchen-r gilt, bleibt offen.‘

13 Baesecke §61.5, Franck §75. Braune §167 Anm. 11 calls them ‘sonderbare Formen’.

14 Baesecke §71.3, Braune §330 Anm. 3, §354 Anm. 3; Franck §182.1; Schatz §457; W. P. Lehmann, Proto-Indo-European phonology Chapter 7 (1952): ‘the Old High German r-Preterites’.

15 Braune §69; Schatz §§114 ff.; Hans Reutercrona, Svarabhakti und Erleichterungsvokal im Altdeutschen bis ca. 1250 passim (1920).

16 Siebs 61 f.; Moritz Trautmann, Kleine Lautlehre des Deutschen, Französischen und Englischen (1903) §§344 f.; Behaghel §369. Karl Luick, Deutsche Lautlehre 2 (1923), considers [r] normal, [r] especially a ladies' pronunciation; Wängler 88 f. claims [r] ‘wirkt übertrieben’.

17 L. Jutz, Die alemannischen Mundarten §107 (1931), considers alveolar [r] normal. There is a velar fricative for /r/ in the city of Basel : A. Heusler, Der alemanische Consonantismus in der Mundart von Baselstadt §§83 ff. (1888).

18 Kranzmayer §50a.l; Reiffenstein §21 f.; Primus Lessiak, Die Mundart von Pernegg §114 (1903). In Imst [r] prevails now, but /d/ before /l/ reveals former [r] (Schatz, Mundart von Imst §72).

19 §76 Anm. 1, 4. See also fn. 23 below.

20 F. Maurer, Beiträge zur Sprache Oswalds von Wolkenstein 49 (1922) ; Penzl, Lg. 18.299 ff. (1942).

21 J. Müller, Quellenschriften und Geschichte des deutschsprachlichen Unterrichts bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts 128 (1882).

22 In fn. 5 a reverse spelling is discussed, proving uvular [r] with friction for Hersfeld in 1578.

23 Bach §154; Viëtor §96 Anm. 4; Wright §245; Wängler 89; Wilmanns §113.1. Bithell 141 f. is critical of the hypothesis. H. A. Basilius, MLQ 3.449 ff. (1942), in supporting Trautmann, points to the Huguenot influx into Brandenburg and Berlin after the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

24 Braune §153 Anm. 1; K. Weinhold, Bairische Grammatik §160 (1867); Reiffenstein §21 f.; Kranzmayer §50b.

25 Braune §118 Anm. 3.

26 Baesecke §18.2a speaks of ‘antipalatale Folgelaute wie h 1, r und u̯’.

27 §69 Anm. 4: ‘Die Artikulationsstellen beider Laute sind benachbart’; Kranzmayer §50d.l. Baesecke's (§71.1) phonetic description of an ‘a-Klang’ for /r/ is not clear.

28 ‘Global’ typological comparisons are interesting but probably irrelevant. M. Joos, Readings in linguistics 378 (1957), quotes Basque sibilant phonemes in discussing MHG 〈s〉 and 〈z〉; E. Hamp, Lg. 34.361 (1958), considers the vowels of an Albanian dialect in discussing the Gothic vowel pattern.