Vowel color ladder
A vowel color ladder is a rhetorical stylistic device in which all vowels of the German language are used systematically, usually in the order aeiou . This is intended to express moods. Terms such as vowel fan and vowel game also appear in the literature .
The "summer poem" by Walther von der Vogelweide is an early example that is said to have been written around 1210. His pupil Ulrich von Singenberg (1209–1228) and Rudolf the Schreiber (1220–1254) followed his example. Later examples can be found in a cycle of poems by Seifried Helbling , in the Carmina Burana and also in French and Spanish texts from the Middle Ages. From the modern era, a text of is Friedrich von Logau with a vowel colors conductor known and also the marriage secret of diphthongs of Clemens Brentano uses this stylistic device, as Gottfried Keller's Evening Song . Vocal guides are also known from folk songs and joke poems.
August Wilhelm von Schlegel assigned a color to each vowel in his “Considerations on Metrics”.
| vocal | colour |
|---|---|
| Ä | yellow |
| A. | red or bright |
| Ö | brownish |
| E. | Gray |
| O | purple |
| I. | sky blue |
| Ü | violet |
| U | dark blue |
But he remarks: "You could also give A the white and U the black color". He assigns the color gray to the E standing between these two vowels.
Jacob Grimm also printed a vowel color ladder in the third edition of his German grammar, although it cannot be determined whether he was familiar with Schlegel's version. Apart from the contrast between A and U, Grimm interprets the colors differently than Schlegel:
| vocal | colour |
|---|---|
| A. | White |
| I. | red |
| U | black |
| E. | yellow |
| O | blue |
| egg | orange |
| iu | violet |
| ái | pink |
| áu | sky blue |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Hans Emons: Language as Music . Frank & Timme, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86596-327-7 , pp. 27 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Gerhard Grümmer: Game forms of poetry . Verlag Werner Dausien, Hanau 1985, ISBN 3-7684-4521-6 , p. 33-37 .
- ^ August Wilhelm von Schlegel: Considerations on metrics. To Friedrich Schlegel . In: Eduard Böcking (Ed.): August Wilhelm von Schlegel's complete works . Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1846, p. 175 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Alfred Liede: Poetry as a game: studies on nonsense poetry at the borders of language. With an addendum “Parody”, supplementary selected bibliography, name register . 2nd Edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-012923-X , p. 224 ( limited preview in Google Book search).