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The History of the Third Nasal Phoneme of Modern German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Herbert Penzl
Herbert Penzl*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

The distributional environment of the nasal phoneme /ŋ/, compared to those of /n/ /m/, is restricted in Modem German but reflects its origin from an allophone (variant) of /n/ before velar consonants. The phoneme developed first in medial position through the loss of /g/ in the cluster /ng/; in final position the frequent replacement of /g/ by its fortis counterpart /k/ largely prevented this loss. Late Old High German n-spellings (e.g., sinen), particularly in the 11th-century Physiologus, are the first evidence for the /ŋ/-phoneme, which generally continues, however, to be written ng (singeri). Middle High German assonances made medial/ŋŋ/ likely, which is still found in some Swiss dialects. Descriptive statements by Early New High German grammarians clearly reveal the phonemic status of /ŋ/.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , May 1968 , pp. 340 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1968

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References

1 The following publications are quoted by the names of the authors only:

Baesecke: Georg Baesecke, Einfuhrung in das Althochdeutsche (Munich, 1918)

Braune-Mitzka: Wilhelm Braune und Walther Mitzka, Althochdeutsche Crammatik (Tubingen, 1963“)

Luick: Karl Luick, Deutsche Lautlehre mit besonderer Beriick- sichtigung der Sprechweise Wiens und der osterreichischen Alpenlànder (Vienna, 19232)

Miiller: Johannes Miiller, Quellenschriften und Geschichte des deutschsprachigen Unterrichts bis zur Mille des 16. Jahr- hunderts (Gotha, 1882)

Paul: Hermann Paul, Deutsche Grammatik, Band I (Halle, 1916)

Schatz: Josef Schatz, Althochdeutsche Grammatik (GSttingen, 1927)

Schirmunski: V. M. Schirmunski, Deutsche Mundartkunde, Vergleichende Laut- und Formenlehre der deutschen Mund- arlen (Berlin, 1962)

Siebs: eds., Helmut de Boor und Paul Diels, Siebs' DeutscheEochsprache; Bilhnenaussprache (Berlin, 1957“)

Sturtevant: Edgar H. Sturtevant, The Pronunciation of Greek and Latin (Philadelphia, 19402)

Viëtor: Wilhelm Viëtor, Elemente der Phonetik des Deutschen, Englischen und Pranzosischen (Leipzig, 1914e)

Wângler: Hans-Heinrich Wângler, Grundriû einer Phonetik des Deutschen (Marburg, 1960)

Weinhold: Karl Weinhold, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (Paderborn, 1877)

2 “Der phonologische Status des velaren Nasals im Deutschen,” Zeitschrift fur Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung, xvi (1963), 77–84. In this article [] enclose sounds, / / phonemes, () orthographic symbols.

3 Viëtor, ?118, Anm. 7; Siebs, p. 64, Wângler, p. 76; Duden, Ausspracheworlerbuch (1962), p. 43.

4 Viëtor (?118, Anm. 5) calls this “Nachlâssigkeiten.”

5 Luick (?150) hears initial [kn] [grj] in Austria. Osterreichisches Beiblatt zu Siebs (1957) condemns kni: for Knit Wângler (p. 75) calls [kn] in Knochen a “children's pronunciation.”

6 Jethro Bithell, German Pronunciation and Phonology (London, 1952), p. 194.

7 Wângler, p. 76. W. Braune, Uber die Einigung der deutschen Aussprache (Heidelberg, 1904), p. 28: [nk] “uberwiegend in Norddeutschland.” But Viëtor (?118, Anm. 2) disagreed with G. Curme's statement in MLN, VI (1891), 7, that [nk] was “allgemein norddeutsch.”

8 Phonetik der deuischen Sprache (Munich, 1961), p. 127; Siebs, p. 64. Duden, Ausspracheworterhuch (p. 44) calls [nk] in jung “eine Umgangslautung.” W. Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik (19113), ?80.2, refers to g m jung, Ding as “noch nicht ganz aufgegeben.”

9 Paul, ii, ?177; Bithell, pp. 121, 423.

10 Schirmunski, pp. 393 f.; O. Behaghel, Geschichte der deuischen Sprache (19286), ?331.2.

11 Leo Jutz, Die alemannischen Mundarten (1931), ?92.

12 Schirmunski, ?17.4 (pp. 394 f.); W. Henzen, Schriftsprache und Mundarten (1954), p. 259; Behaghel, ?331.3.

13 Theodor Frings und L. E. Schmitt, “Gutturalisierung,” Zeitschrift fiir Mundartforschung, XVIII (1942), 49–58; Josef Millier, “Einige Bemerkungen zur rheinischen Gutturalisierung,” ibid., pp. 58 f. Leo Jutz (?75) considers the influence of French nasalization for the western Swiss occurrence. W. Mitzka, Deutsche Mundarten (1943), pp. 124 f., assumes independent development of [n] in various areas.

14 “Ed. E. Sievers, Tatian (18922), ?12 (pp. xxviiif.); Schatz, ?272.

15 G. A. Hench, Der althochdeutsche Isidor (1893), p. 90.

16 Grundzuge der Phonologie (Prague, 1939), p. 163.

17 Braune-Mitzka, ?126, Anm. 1: “Dagegen konnte der Ubergang des n in m vor labial anlautendem zweitem Kompositionsglied in der Schreibung nicht durchdringen, wo das erste Kompositionsglied etymologisch klar blieb, wenn auch in der gesprochenen Sprache sich der Ubergang vollziehen mufite.” Open juncture makes [n+b], [n+k] pronounceable in Modem German. Cf. Luick, ?150 a.

18 “Steigton und Fallton im Althochdeutschen,” Aufsatze zur Sprach- und Lileralurgeschichte (1920), pp. 197 f.

19 Sturtevant (?179) can base his phonetic identification of Latin [n] as dental not alveolar on a description by Martianus Capella (?176).

20 Sturtevarit, ?178a; Helmut Arntz, Eandbuch der Runenkunde (19442), p. 47.

21 Braune-Mitzka, ?128, Anm. 2; Sievers, Tatian, ?13.2.

22 W. Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik, ?107.2; V. Michels, Mittelhochdeutsches Elementarbuch (192134), ?143, Anm. 4, ?145, Anm. 2.

23 Schatz, ?281; Braune-Mitzka, ?148, Anm. 1 (-k, -c), ?167, Anm. 6 (-0, ?135, Anm. 2 (-/>). Otfrid even has reverse spellings: thang for thank.

24 E. von Steinmeyer, Die kleineren althochdeulschen Sprachdenkmaler (Berlin, 1916), pp. 124–134, 11. 1–89. The only (ng) form is jurebringit (1. 21); in later chapters suanger (1. 115), springêt (1. 132) occur.

25 Other irregular spellings involving nasals are: dûgeden (1. 99), sutnit (1. 123), uuanbe (1.118).

26 Braune-Mitzka, ?128, Anm. 3; J. Schatz, Altbairische Grammatik (1907), ?86; Baesecke, ?69.1.

27 Michels, Mhd. Elementarbuch, ?192.

28 ?169, Bairische Grammatik (Berlin, 1867), ?139 (p. 143). F. Wilhelm, Denkmàler deutscher Prosa des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts (1960), quotes (B, p. 49) Bavarian spellings in commenting on geruma in the Physiologus.

29 Weinhold, ?170; Paul, ii, ?235; Otto Mausser, Mitiahochdeutsche Grammatik (1932), p. 8.

30 ?201; ?198, on nn(mm):ng rimes. Schirmunski, p. 396, n. 1, and P. Lessiak, Beitrage zur Geschichle des deulschen Konsonanlismus (1933), p. 129, are sceptical.

31 Friihmittelhoclideutsche Reimstudien (1925), pp. 25 f., 43.

32 Lessiak, pp. 127–129, assumed a palatalized n before d as the first stage. Cf. Schirmunski, pp. 395–400.

33 Millier (p. 139): “in the words Engel / angel / franck one hears neither /n/ nor /g/ completely but one hears out of their fusion quite another sound and voice which Aulus Gellius indicates out of the Nigidius …” The Gellius passage is quoted by Sturtevant, ?178a. Similarly, in Die rechte Wets auffs Kilrlzist lesen tu lernen (1534), Miiller, p. 59.

34 Miilier, p. 145: “they cannot be divided.”

35 Max Hermann Jellinek, Die Psalmenubersetzung des Paul Schede Melissus (Halle, 1896), pp. cv f., cxxxiii f.

36 Carl Miiller-Fraureuth, Die deulsche Grammatik des Laurentius Alhertus (1895), p. 41.

37 Geschichte der neukochdeutschen Grammatik von den Anfangen bis auf Adelung (1913), ?213, also ??211, 212, 219.

38 Sturtevant, ?178b.; H. M. Hoenigswald, Language Change and Linguistic Reconstruction (1960), 9.1.2.2 (p. 89).

39 Mûller, p. 77: “For ng the g is written alone and the same happens only in those words which have n immediately after the g as Agnes / regnieren for Angnes / rengnieren.”

40 Millier, p. 140 (Ickelsamer); John Meier, Das Buchlein gleichstimmender Warier, aber ungleichs Verstandes des Hans Fabrilius (1895), p. 8. For Modern German, cf. Viëtor, ?118, Anm. 6; Paul, ii, ?177, Anm.; Siebs, p. 64.

41 Herbert Penzl, in Studies Presented to Joshua Whatmough (1957), pp. 196 f.