Literary language
Literary language (also language of literature , literary language or poets' language ) is a form of language within a language that differs from the other written language of other types of text ("everyday literature", i.e. newspaper texts, instructions for use, cooking recipes, etc.) through a number of features .
The differences to other varieties of a language are based primarily on the special function of literature : Its language therefore does not have to serve the purpose of communication efficiently and be clearly understandable, but primarily fulfills aesthetic functions. There is therefore much “poetic freedom” here.
Oral folk epic language
A poetic language in the narrow sense is a verbally special rules handed down, subject language oral cultures, which often includes a special kind of presentation in the form of a chant , a melody or certain intonations includes (see FIG. Epic ).
Examples are the Nordic poetic language , which was later recorded in Iceland (see Skald ), but which already existed before, the old Arabic poet language in pre-Islamic times, which was recorded in writing in early Islamic times (see Hafiz ) or the old Indian poet language . The Celtic bards also used a poetic language .
There are still poetic languages in oral cultures today, for example in Africa , where they are cultivated by certain singers ( griots ) who know many long poems by heart and recite them on certain occasions. The poetic language of the West African Yoruba is called Ibeji ; according to its origin it is closely related to the traditional twin cult.
Orally transmitted poetic languages sometimes continue to exist long after a written culture has developed , often in the form of traditional folk songs . In the 20th century, for example, an ancient Greek woman was discovered who could recite a long folk song, the text of which until then was only known in almost the same form from medieval manuscripts .
The transmission of the subject matter of the Nibelungenlied is also difficult to imagine without the existence of a Germanic poet's language, as it partly describes historical events that took place 700 years earlier and of which we had little knowledge from other sources at the time the epic was written down.
See also
- Kalevala # Finnish folk poetry (rune singer)
literature
- Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language. 4th, updated and revised edition. JB Metzler, Stuttgart et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02335-3 .
