Zweisprachigkeit im deutschen Frühmittelalter: kulturelle, philologische und linguistische Phänomene

Abstract

Bilingualism in the Early German Middle Ages: cultural, philological and linguistic phenomena The German language was rising in the Middle Ages like the majority of vernacular languages of the Western Europe in the linguistic area dominated by Latin, which from the beginning had been the church language, the official language, the language of science and literature. In the Middle Ages the non-codified German language remained in the shadow of the Latin language as lingua vulgaris. Nevertheless, the Early Middle Ages vernacular languages, including German, gradually started being used in other social groups and developing as written languages, paving the long way for an equalization of their rights. The manner this emancipation took its course and what it consisted in is shown in this contribution on the basis of two Bible translations from the 9th century drawn up in the Old High German.

Keywords

• latin
• old high german
• german translations of the bible
• gospel harmony
• bilingualism