High German
Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manThe dialects which together are grouped as German divide into Low German and High German; those in the latter group have undergone what's called the High German Consonant Shift, exemplified by High German words such as Wasser, Pflanze, Straße versus Low German Water, Plante, Straat.
For decades I thought this "low" versus "high" was a value judgement, like in "High Elvish" or "the High King of Ireland". Then I read that it corresponded to the elevation of where these dialects were spoken: High German in the uplands of southern Germany, Low German in the coastal plains.
Today I realised what it actually refers to: Obviously for a period of at least a generation the High Germans must have been too stoned to pronounce their plosives properly. ;^)
For decades I thought this "low" versus "high" was a value judgement, like in "High Elvish" or "the High King of Ireland". Then I read that it corresponded to the elevation of where these dialects were spoken: High German in the uplands of southern Germany, Low German in the coastal plains.
Today I realised what it actually refers to: Obviously for a period of at least a generation the High Germans must have been too stoned to pronounce their plosives properly. ;^)
