Middle High German - Periodisation

Periodisation

There are several criteria which separate MHG from the preceding Old High German period:

• the weakening of unstressed vowels to - OHG taga > MHG tage ("days")
• the full development of Umlaut and its use to mark a number of morphological categories
• the devoicing of final stops - OHG tag > MHG tac ("day")

Culturally, the two periods are distinguished by the transition from a predominantly clerical written culture to one centred on the courts of the great nobles. The rise of the Swabian Hohenstaufen and then the Luxemburg, Wittelsbach and Habsburg dynasties make the South the dominant region in both political and cultural terms.

Linguistically, the transition to Early New High German is marked by four vowel changes which together produce the phonemic system of modern German:

• Monophthongisation of some of the MHG diphthongs: MHG huot> NHG Hut ("hat")
• Diphthongisation of long vowels MHG hût > NHG Haut ("skin").
• lengthening of stressed short vowels in open syllables MHG sagen /zaɡən/ > NHG sagen /zaːɡən/ ("say")
• The loss of unstressed vowels in many circumstances - MHG vrouwe > NHG Frau ("lady")

The centres of culture in the ENHG period are no longer the courts but the towns.