Umlaut phenomena in Early New High German discourse
Subtitle: a pragmatic approach
By: Lee Forester.
Series: Berkeley insights in linguistics and semiotics,; vol. 25
Publisher: P. Lang; Lang AG International Academic Publishers, Peter
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng; ger
Number of pages: 276
Subjects: German language -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Vowels.; German language -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Phonology.
Description: "Umlaut Phenomena in Early New High German Discourse is an investigation of the spread and regularization of umlaut in Early New High German that focuses on semantic and pragmatic influences. In a detailed analysis of excerpts from three texts - Brant's Narrenschiff, von Tepl's Ackermann von Bohmen, and Luther's Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen - lexical items displaying variation in umlaut spelling are compared in an attempt to isolate discourse factors that influenced the choice of each variant.

This work differs from other studies on umlaut in that, on the basis of evidence from these Early New High German texts, it postulates that the development of umlaut was not only a phonological matter, but was in fact significantly influenced by semantic and discourse considerations."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-271) and index.