Re: Development of Germanic *k in High German

sanlosinst@xxxxxxxxxxx:

> There is a danger in talking about Swiss German because it varies so
> much. For instance, Zu"rich German has _chum-_ for come but I believe
> some rural dialects have _kchum-_. This is why I restricted my comments
> to Zu"rich (where I live) rather than claiming any forms for Swiss
> German as a whole.

Certainly true.

The question has already been discussed by non-linguists, although
some of them residents of high-Alemannic regions (thread strating with
message <MPG.1374bffd9320424d9896b1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>). The general
rule, although with many local variations, seems to be:

1. affricative [kx] in the middle of a word at the beginning of a
syllable (trinken [trInk@n] - [trInkxE])

2. affricative [kx] in the middle of a word where there is a geminated
consonant in Standard German (backen [bak@n] - [bakXE])

3. fricative [x] in the middle of a word where there is a
non-geminated consonant in Standard German which even there has
become [x] or [ç] in the Second Germanic Sound Shift (machen
[max@n] - [maxE], richtig [rIçtIç] - [rIExtIk]).

4. fricative [x] in word-initial positions (Kind [kInt]- [xInt],
Kuh [ku:] - [xUE])

Rules 1 to 3 are basically the same as those for other consonants in
the Second Germanic Sound Shift (p->f/pf, t->ss/z/tz).

Affricatives [kx] could also stem from an assimilation in consonant
clusters: "d Chue" (die Kuh) becoming [kxUE] in analogy to Bavarian
"d Kua" becoming [?kUa] or "d Frau" (die Frau) becoming [bfraU].

> Peter Dy wrote (I have mixed text from two of his posts here):
>
>> But the shift of /k/ to /kx/ simply didn't happen much...
>> it was restricted to the Südoberdeutsch region (Südalemannisch,
>> Südbairisch, and Mittelbairisch.)

Südbairisch, especially Tirolisch, yes, but, Mittelbairisch hardly so,
at least no longer today.

> The only OHG text I have is Hildebrant, which has _chind_ and
> _chuninc_. Where does this text originate? Also, Carmina Burana (13th
> century I think, from the monastery of Benedictbeuren) has _chumme_
> 'come (imper)' and _chramer_ 'shopkeeper'. Where is Benedictbeuren?

Very probably "Benedi_k_tbeu_er_n" in Bavaria between Munich and
Garmisch
(http://www.kloster-benediktbeuern.de/zu_gast/anfahrtsbeschreibung.htm).
Today, this is in the Mittelbairisch region, and there is no "Swiss"
[x] spoken there.

Helmut Richter
.

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