Saxon language of the office

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The Saxon chancellery language (also Meißner chancellery German ), not to be confused with the Saxon language , developed in the age of German humanism . It formed a prerequisite for a general standard German overriding the dialects , as Martin Luther realized in his 1522 translation of the Bible . The Saxon chancellery language - and thus the resulting standard German - is a compensatory language based on late medieval East Central German and East Upper German dialects.

With the decline of Middle High German courtly poetry , this also meant a temporary end to common language efforts. In Central and Upper Germany, after the collapse of the language of chivalry, there were only partially uniform regional traffic and business languages, especially the languages ​​of the princely and urban chancelleries.

The view that the Saxon language of the chancellery was shaped by the influence of the Prague chancellery of Charles IV under its director Johannes von Neumarkt - and thus also the emerging New High German language - is only valid to a very limited extent. The Prague chancellery language was limited to Prague and some inner-Bohemian cities.

The tremendous influence of Luther's translation of the Bible on the German written language is based on the one hand on the fact that Luther grew up in the dialect of his Central German homeland, which in terms of linguistic geography occupies an intermediary position between the North and South German dialects. Luther's familiarity with the use of language in the Saxon chancellery was another unifying factor in the creation of the New High German written language.

The orthography of the Saxon chancellery language spread quickly in the Central and Low German regions, while in the Upper German south in the 16th century people wrote in the Maximilian chancellery language , from which the Upper German writing language developed in the 17th century , which was not until the south around 1750 were replaced by the New High German forms.

See also

literature

  • Heinrich Bach: The Thuringian-Saxon Chancellery Language until 1325. 2 volumes, Copenhagen 1937–1943 (reprint 1972).
  • Hermann Glaser , Jakob Lehmann, Arno Lubos : Ways of German literature. A historical account. Ullstein Book 323.
  • Adolf Bach : History of the German language. 8th edition. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg 1965.
  • Martin Luther: table speeches. Weimar edition .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adolf Bach: History of the German language §173,174 meaning. the language of the law firm : “In addition to the language of the law firm and the language of Luther's writings, their language remained upper-Saxony. Home space for the alignment of the nascent common language of importance for a long time…. The Meissniche provided the guideline for spoken and even more so for written German. "
  2. ↑ Adolf Bach: History of the German Language §121 (§110)
  3. ↑ §122
  4. ↑ Martin Luther: table speeches. Weimar edition, chap. 70: “I don't have a certain, special, language of my own in German, but need the common German language so that both people from Upper and Lower Austria can understand me. I speak to the Saxon chancellery, which is followed by all princes and kings in Germany. [...] That is why it is the meanest German language. Emperor Maximilian and Elector Friedrich, Duke of Saxony, have drawn the German languages ​​into a certain language throughout the Roman Empire. "