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VARIETIES Middle High German is not a unified written language and the term covers two main dialect areas:
While there is no ''standard'' MHG, the prestige of the Hohenstaufen court gave rise in the late 12th century to a supra-regional literary language (''mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache'') based on Swabian . However, the picture is complicated by the fact that modern editions of MHG texts have a tendency to use ''normalised'' spellings based on this variety (usually called "Classical MHG"), which make the written language appear more consistent than is actually the case in the manuscripts. It is uncertain whether the literary language reflected a supra-regional ''spoken'' language of the courts. An important development in this period was the Eastward Expansion of German settlement beyond the Elbe - Saale line which marked the limit of Old High German . This process started in the 11th century, and all the East Central German dialects are a result of this expansion. "Judeo-German" is the precursor of the Yiddish language which is attested in the 13th-14th centuries as a variety of Middle High German written in Hebrew characters. PERIODISATION There are several criteria which separate MHG from the preceding Old High German period:
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 Imperial court in Vienna and the rise of the Swabian Hohenstaufen and then the Habsburg dynasties make South Germany the dominant region in both political and cultural terms. Linguistically, the transition to Early New High German is marked by:
The centres of culture in the ENHG period are no longer the courts but the towns. PHONOLOGY The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of classical MHG. The spellings indicated are the standard spellings used in modern editions - there is much more variation in the manuscripts. Vowels Notes: # Not all dialects distinguish the three unrounded mid front vowels. # It is probable that the short high and mid vowels are lower than their long equivalents, as in Modern German, but this is impossible to establish from the written sources. # The Diphthongs MHG diphthongs are indicated by the spellings: Consonants #Precise information about the articulation of consonants is impossible to establish, and will have varied between dialects. #In the plosive and fricative series, where there are two consonants in a cell, the first is Fortis the second Lenis . The voicing of lenis consonants varied between dialects. #MHG has long consonants, and the following double consonant spellings indicate not vowel length as in Modern German orthography, but rather genuine double consonants: pp, bb, tt, dd, ck (for /kk/), gg, ff, ss, zz, mm, nn, ll, rr. #It is reasonable to assume that /x/ had an allophone {Link without Title} before back vowels, as in Modern German. EXAMPLE TEXT From the prologue of Hartmann Von Aue 's ''Iwein'' (circa 1200)
LITERATURE See also Medieval German Literature .
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