_n'm_l«¢i5, or fmzrlon in Old Saxon. P I all» , degree. Three main groups are easily distinguishable :— : (1) l"risi1n aml Saxon, whose nearest relation is English; (:3) Frankish, Hessian, and Thuringian; and (3) Alemannian and Bavarian. 1"risi-an is generally considered as a separate language. From Saxon the later Low German dialects (.'c'e¢lu'<lc’ulsc/u’ .lIm~lvu‘tcn) have sprung. The members of the third group (generally designated as Oberdcutsc/2, or Upper German), combined with J! ittclzleutsc-/1, or the midland dialects, viz., Thuringi-an, Hessian, and part of the Frankish dialects, are the sources of the later Iloc/ulculsc/L or High German. The greatest ditferenee prevails between the first and third groups; the second may be characterized as con- taining various transition dialects. The southern Frankish dialects are very closely akin to the adjacent Upper German idioms, while Dutch, the utmost offshoot of the Frankish language to the north, does not very materially differ from Saxon or Frisian in the earliest period. The most striking phonetic feature of the languages of the first group is their regular dropping of the nasal sounds before the spirantsf, (/2, s, accompanied by subsequent lengthening of the pre- ceding vowels. Thus we have in - glo—Saxon or Old English fff, 6602', c276, _.r/Os (.Iod. English _7z've, other, (u-72-) coutlz, goose), in Old 1"risian fir‘, 6!/mr, cc?!/1, gés, in Old S-axonféf, 6!/tar, czft/1, _r/6s, corresponding to such Gothic forms as _fim_./', (mt/ear, [cunt/as, or the ordinary High German _fz'i/zfi amlcr, I-«Incl, gans. Since, however, Dutch partakes of this peculiarity to some extent, we cannot easily form a decisive opinion as to the value of this fact as a distinctive mark; but more stress may be laid on a very remarkable difference in the inflexional system of the verb. Here the languages of the first group have melted together the forms of the three persons of the plural number, thus 2:-6, gé, /u'e _n'nrlv_ziS, or fmulon, we, you, they find, or found, in Old Eng- lisl1;'wi,_f/3, /u7u_finrlai5, or fzmdon in Old Frisian ; 20?, gi, sia The corresponding Old High German forms are 2/.-ir fimlam, ir _Iz'mIut, sie _]‘imI(u2t for the present, wir funtum, 2'/-fmztut, sie funtun for the perfect tense. Old Dutch joins, in this case, the German branch ; from wert/tan, to become, for instance, are derived act wert/um, _r/E zcert/u'i5, sia 'u'er(/umt, &c. The declension of the substantives shows another remarkable difference. While the languages of the first group have retained the original s in the nominative plural of such words as Old English I/agrts, days, Old Saxon drtgos, or changed it to 9', as Old Frisian clay/ar, Dutch and German have dropped it altogether, the corresponding forms being claga and toga. These facts must be taken for decisive, as it seems to be certain that they existed before any distinction of Low and High German in their modern sense (a distinction chiefly dependent on subsequent changes in their mute system) could be thought of. From a purely grammatical point of view, Dutch, although generally considered a separate lan- guage (which no doubt it is, with regard to its literary and political position), is entitled to claim a closer relation to High German than even Low German, whose non- literary character, taken along with the political union of northern and southern Germany, has led to the current opinion that it is only a dialect of “German” in its narrower sense. “'e do not Inean to deny that there is, at present, a more conspicuous conformity between Dutch and Low German than between Low German and High Ger- man ; but this is only due to the fact that High German, after the final settlement of the German tribes, has deviated much more from its original features than either Dutch or Low German. The most striking peculiarities of High German, as opposed to all other Teutonic idioms, have mainly been caused by the second or High German “ Lautverschicbung,” or change of mute consonants, which forms part of a long series of sound-changes generally com pre- hended under the name of Gcrmanische Lautverschicbung G 13 1: M A N v [L.N(:U-t': E. or Grimm's Law. This Lautverschiebung began, perhaps as early as the 7th century, in the south, and thence slowly spread northward, but with decreasing vigour and con- sistency, Dutch and Low German not being touched at all. 'It was only thus that the idiom of the l'ethcrl-ands Franks of the later centuries was separated from the dialects of their “ German” relations. Before, however, the first literary documents are met with, this separation is com- plete; and we may therefore restrict ourselves here to a short history of High and Low German alone. The German language presents, as do most of the cognate tongues, three main stages of development,—Old, Middle, and Modern,—distinguished by their inflcxional and lite- rary character. In accordance with Mr Henry Sweet's description of the stages of the English language,‘ (lld lerman may be defined as the period of full inflec- tions (Old Low German, dug/cs, d«.(_r/e, dagu ; (la;/65, ¢/«I3/u, ¢Iu_r/zm ; Old High German, (a_r/cs, (age, (u_r/ac; tu_r/¢?, (ago, tu_«/um), while the Middle period is that of lczelled inflections (.lidrlle Low German, claq/es, tIu,r/0, (lug/«In; Middle High German, lI_(_I]C.‘, tage, tug/en); but it is chielly the literary character that distinguishes Modern High lcrman from Low German and its own earlier stages. A special form of High German is established in this period for all literary purposes, snpplanting the dialects both of Low and of High German that formerly were freely used in literary intercourse. Assuming two periods of transition besides, we have the following divisions, with the approximate dates 1 Old High German .......................... .. to 1050 liarly Middle Iligh Gcrman .............. .. 1050 to 1150 Middle High German ...................... .. 1150 to 1350 Late Middle High German ............... .. 1350 to 1500 Modern High German ..................... .. 1500 onward. The same divisions have to be made for Low German, but the scheme cannot be so fully carried through, as the time between 1000 and 1200 is almost destitute of literary momunents. Old German.——The infiexional characteristics of Old German are almost identical with those of Old English. Nouns had the same five cases,—nominative, accusative (only in a few instances kept distinct), genitive, dative, and instrumental. Strong and weak declensions of nouns and their subdivisions are likewise the same. The dual of the first and second personal pronouns is almost ex- tinct in Old High German, but is quite common in Low lerman. In the verb we find the same distinction of the subjunctive from the indicative mood, and the same two inflected tenses, present and pas-t,—the former also used for the future, the latter for all shades of past time. The order of the sentence corresponds generally to the modern use, but is not kept so strictly as now, especially in the oldest prose texts, which are often materially influenced by the Latin sources from which they have been derived or trans- lated. The earliest extant specimen of Low German belongs to the beginning of the 9th century. It is a short formula of renunciation of the devil to be used before the ceremony of baptism.‘-’ It begins thus:—“Forsachistu diobole? ct respondeat: ec forsacho diabole. End allum diobolgelde? respondeat : end ec f orsacho allum diobolgelde. End allum dioboles uuercum? respondent : end ec forsacho allum dio- boles uuercum and uuordum, Thuner ende Uuodcn emle Saxnote ende allum them unholdum the hira genotas sint.” “1"orsakest thou (the) devil? I forsake (the) devil. Aml all devil-sacrifice? And I forsake all devil-sacrifice. And 1 See article E.'(;LlSlI I...'(;L',m-2, vol. viii. p. 391. 2 It has been published, along with all the minor pieces of Old Saxon still extant, by M. Heyne, li'leincre altrzmlcrclczztsche Imvlnniiler, 2d (-dit_, Pgulg-1'l;0]‘]], 1877. See also K. Miilleiiliofl‘ and VV. Schercr,
Dculmidlcr cluttschcr 1’nr:sic unrl I’)'osrt, ‘.2d edit., Berlin, 1873.