Early New High German extends from around 1350 to 1650. One can distinguish between three periods: older (around 1350 to around 1500), middle (around 1500 to 1580) and more recent (around 1580 to around 1650) Early New High German. The political and cultural situation is characterized by a number of factors that are also significant for the development of the German language: The economic and political upswing in the cities, in which more and more schools have been founded since the late Middle Ages, promoted the literacy of the population. The German Ostsiedlung, temporarily closed, decisively expanded the German-speaking area; as a result, new empire territories emerged (such as the Luxemburger in Bohemia, the Wettin in Meißen and Lausitz, the Hohenzollern in Brandenburg), which were politically independent and within whose borders uniform linguistic landscapes developed. With the takeover of imperial power by the Luxembourgers in the new imperial residence in Prague (as well as the establishment of the university there in 1348), the cultural emphasis of this period shifted to the east. In the chancelleries of the emperor and territorial princes, the increasing importance of written documents for administration and administration of justice laid the groundwork for supra-regional chancellery languages (e.g. those of the Prague and Upper Saxon-Meissnian chancelleries), which play an important role in connection with the development of a single German language. The settlers coming from different dialectal linguistic areas also favored the emergence of compensatory mouth species with supra-landscape validity. The common language tendencies were also met by the invention of the printing press, which enabled a wide distribution of printed matter. With the loss of importance of chivalry as a culture-bearing layer, the shift of the cultural focus to the cities and to the bourgeoisie was initiated. In addition to the administrative and documentary language trained in the law firms, a German business language was created – combined with trade and money management – with partly new terms (e.g. merchant, postage and risk, the last two borrowed from Italian in the course of long-distance trade), partly adopted terms (e.g. disposition, confront, legally from the language of the documents). Another social group that was important for the development of language at that time – with the rise of humanism and renaissance and the emergence of the first German universities – were the scholars. While German has not yet been able to assert itself as a scientific language – unlike in the fields of law, administration and trade – alongside Latin, the proportion of translation literature (including real-life specialist literature) increased considerably under the influence of humanism and the Renaissance. The religious literature of this epoch was of decisive importance for the formation of the German language. As a result of the Reformation, the German language became – alongside Latin, Greek and Hebrew – an equal form of expression for the word of God. so – under the influence of humanism and renaissance – the share of translation literature (including real history specialist literature) increased considerably. The religious literature of this epoch was of decisive importance for the formation of the German language. As a result of the Reformation, the German language became – alongside Latin, Greek and Hebrew – an equal form of expression for the word of God. so – under the influence of humanism and renaissance – the share of translation literature (including real history specialist literature) increased considerably. The religious literature of this epoch was of decisive importance for the formation of the German language. As a result of the Reformation, the German language became – alongside Latin, Greek and Hebrew – an equal form of expression for the word of God. M. Luther’s translation of the Bible with its compensatory language formed from East Central German and East Upper German elements had a great influence on the development of the New High German language: Luther largely adopted the Saxon chancellery language, which had developed in interaction with the East Upper German language of the imperial chancellery in Vienna. Through the prose versions of court epics, the translation of French prose novels into German and the translation of ancient and neo-Latin works in the age of humanism, a German art prose emerged. in syntax – consciously followed the Latin model. This influence remained in effect for a long time in stylistics and poetics. Latin-German and Greek-German dictionaries have also been created (e.g. by P. Dasypodius). Overall, after a period of greatest possible regional diversity on all linguistic levels from graphics to sentence patterns, a gradually increasing tendency towards standardization and standardization of the German language can be recognized around 1500.
In the phonetic structure, Early New High German stands out from Middle High German, although the phonematic changes sometimes started much earlier. Through the New High German diphthongization, the long closed vowels ī, ū, iu [y:] become the diphthongs ei, au, äu or eu (e.g. »līden« to »suffer«, »hūs« to »house«, » hiuser “to” houses “); the monophthonging converts the Middle High German diphthongs ie, üe, uo to the long vowels ī, ǖ, ū (e.g. »lie« with separately spoken i and e to today’s form with long spoken i, »küene« to »kühn«, »muot« to »courage«). Furthermore, the vowels of the short open stem syllables are stretched (later also those of the closed ones), e.g. B. “stomach” (with a short a) to “stomach” (with a long a). In morphemics, the increasing collapse of the declension classes caused by the weakening of the adjacent syllable vowels and by apocopes (elimination of the final -e) has the effect that the singular and plural now have to be identified by other means, e.g. B. by an umlaut (mother – mothers) or through endings as a plural feature (glass – glasses). The analytical paraphrase by prepositions also increases as a result of the blurring of the case differences. In the syntax, the main and subordinate clauses are more strongly separated due to the steady position of the verb (second position in the main clause, end position in the subordinate clause); The grammatical possibilities for more complicated constructions of subordinate clauses (e.g. conjunctions) are also increasingly used and expanded. Related to this is the expansion of punctuation in the sense of a grammatical structure of the sentence as a whole. – According to recent research, early New High German is the period in which (at the beginning of the 16th century) the development of today’s common language, which lasted around 250 years, began. Related to this is the expansion of punctuation in the sense of a grammatical structure of the sentence as a whole. – According to recent research, early New High German is the period in which (at the beginning of the 16th century) the development of today’s common language, which lasted around 250 years, began. Related to this is the expansion of punctuation in the sense of a grammatical structure of the sentence as a whole. – According to recent research, early New High German is the period in which (at the beginning of the 16th century) the development of today’s common language, which lasted around 250 years, began.
