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New High German -el- in Nominal Compounds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
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In a paper entitled Assimilation and Dissimilation, read at the Linguistic Institute in the summer of 1936, Roland G. Kent explained these two types of linguistic change as the products of psychological conditions. They are due to the fact that ‘the thinking of the speaker is ahead of his utterance’ and they are hence for the most part regressive. Regressive assimilation is caused by an attempt to catch up with the thought, resulting in the replacement of one phoneme by another more similar to or identical with a subsequent phoneme. Regressive dissimilation is caused by an endeavor to avoid identity with what is coming by preventing the recurrence of the same phoneme within the same form. Because of the psychological factors involved, assimilation and dissimilation prove to be semiregular processes, that is to say, they are linguistic changes very different from the gradual and unnoticeable alterations of ‘phonetic change’. They consist in a redistribution of phonemes which is unpredictable, even though under certain conditions they occur with considerable regularity.
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- Copyright © 1949 by the Linguistic Society of America
References
1 Lg. 12.245-58 (1936).
2 L. Bloomfield, Language 391 (1933), is inclined to consider assimilation and dissimilation as akin to ‘analogic change’, a point of view expressed also by R. Thurneysen in his challenging review of K. Brugmann’s theory, Dissimilation und Analogie, Zschr. f. vgl. Sprachforschung 44.110-2 (1911).
3 In spite of the frequent discussion and the extensive literature on this problem. Cf. 0. Behaghel, Gesch. d. dt. Sprache5 341-75 (1928) with bibliography.
4 K. Brugmann, Grundriss 2.1.186-200 (1889); H. Hirt, Idg. Grammatik 3.137-40 (1927); F. Kluge, Nominale Stammbildungslehre d. altgerm. Dialekte2 26 f. (1899); W. Wilmanns, Dt. Grammatik2 2.260-75 (1922); W. Henzen, Dt. Wortbildung 143-54 (1947).
5 Zschr. f. hd. Mundarten 2.243 (1901).
6 E. Förstemann, Altdt. Namenbuch31.1152 (1913).
7 Württ. Geschichtsquellen 10.66 (1910).
8 Cf. the old form of the name Korbsalza in Bavaria, Hurewinasalzaha 810; Förstemann, Altdt. Namenbuch3 1.1512.
9 Förstemann, Altdt. Namenbuch8 2.1073 (1916), Zschr. f. dt. Mundarten 2.188 (1907).
10 A. Krieger, Topogr. Wörterbuch d. Grossherz. Baden 2.80 (1905).
11 At any rate, Kluge’s attempt to formulate a ‘phonetic law’, according to which ‘prehistoric n after i in unstressed syllable became Z, although with dialectal variations’ (Urger- manisch3 68), an attempt which had never been taken very seriously, was deprived of practically all its supporting evidence by E. Schwentner, who showed that Esel and Kessel were more likely to derive from Lat. asellus and catillus, and that Kümmel and Orgel as well as Himmel and Forelle (MHG forhele, forhel) were most plausibly explained through dissimilation from Lat. cumīnum and organum, and from PGme. *himin- and MHG forhenen (inflected form) respectively. Cf. PBB 44.497-500 (1918-19).
12 Zschr. f. dt. Mundarten 4.369 (1909).
13 Förstemann, Altdt. Namenbuch3 1.50.
14 Württ. Urkundenbuch 1.259 (1849).
15 Ibid. 4.163.
16 Krieger, Topogr. Wörterbuch d. Grossherz. Baden 1.322.
17 The plural of the MHG noun büechel n. is diu büechel.
18 Förstemann, Altdt. Namenbuch3 1.530.
19 Krieger, Topogr. Wörterbuch d. Grossherz. Baden 1.954.
20 Württ. Geschichtsquellen 6.64 (1904).
21 Ed. W. Braune, Ahd. Lesebuch10 p. 7 line 1 to p. 8 line 64 (1942). For bibliography cf. ibid. 144, and G. Ehrismann, Gesch. d. dt. Lit.2 1.350-2 (1932).
22 Ed. Braune, Ahd. Lesebuch10 p. 6 line 1 to p. 7 line 21. For bibliography cf. ibid. 143, and Ehrismann 1.349-50.
23 Cf. Collard, Deutsche Gaue, Supplement 113.14.
24 W. Braune, Ahd. Grammatik6 54 (1936); W. Wilmanns, Dt. Grammatik3 398-404 (1911).
25 Cf. NHG Schweinefleisch, MHG swīnīnfleisch.
26 Besides the suffix with long -ī- which is the only form attested in Gothic, an ablaut variation with short -i- is generally assumed as reflected in OE -en, and also in certain Middle German dialects which show -en besides -īn at a relatively early date.
27 Cf. on pone stenenan stapol 672 Cartularium Saxonicum, ed. Birch, 1.47 (1885); of sandigum 
: de arenosis Zschr. f. dt. Altertum 9.449.
28 OE hurweht ‘swampy, foul’ with different suffix.
29 Cf. Æscen-ege 706 Cartularium Saxonicum 1.172 = Ashney, Worces.
30 Förstemann, Altdt. Namenbuch3 1.1201.
31 Cf. Behaghel, Gesch. d. dt. Sprache6 343 ff. with bibliography, and more recently A. Bach, Die dt. Personennamen 161 f. (1943), and W. Henzen, Dt. Wortbildung 266 f. (1947).
32 Grimm, Dt. Wörterbuch 4.2.803 (1877).
33 E. Schroder’s suggestion (Zschr. f. dt. Altertum 50.224) that heidel alone originally was the name of the berry is untenable. There is no historical evidence whatsoever for the use of such a word in the sense of ‘blueberry’, whereas OHG heitberi and similar forms in other Germanic dialects are attested for a very early period. The word heidel has come into use more recently and only as a dialectal word for ‘buckwheat’. Cf. also B. Martin, Deutsche Wortgeographie, VII. Die Heidelbeere, Teuthonista 3.310-3.
34 Cf. F. Dornseiff, Der dt. Wortschatz nach Sachgruppen 98-183 passim (1934).
35 Cf. note 11 above.
36 Zschr. f. hd. Mundarten 2.243 (1901).
37 Paston Letters No. 410 II 42 God … send y owe vyttorye of yowr elmyes. For this reference I am indebted to my colleague Harold S. Stine.
38 R. Jordan, Handbuch d. mittelengl. Grammatik 155 (1925).
39 Ibid. 222.
40 A. N. Jannaris, Hist. Greek Grammar 79 (1897).