Zum Inhalt und zur Sprache der Einträge im Görlitzer Roten Buch aus dem 14. Jahrhundert (1351–1360)

Abstract

The aim of the paper is a presentation of the content and of the results of the phonemic-graphemic analysis of the German records from the first decade of the second half of the 14th century, which come from the town council of Zgorzelec (Görlitz). The records form a part of the first book of records of the town Zgorzelec. The aim of the article is to answer the question what the spelling rules in the town chancellery of Zgorzelec are and how the script fixes the features of the spoken language from the past. Due to the analysis, it could be explicitly proved, that the German used in the text matches to the level of evolution of the German language within the periodization of history of the language as it contains the standard Early New High German features as well as the dialectal structures and the sound changes, which are typical for the Silesian dialect. The text can therefore be classified as one of the linguistic monuments of the East Central German of Silesian tradition. All the conclusions of the study are supported with the suitable examples.

Keywords

• sound change
• innovation
• Early New High German
• East Central German