Latin and German Abstractions as Forms of Address

NotesCf. Ehrismann, “Duzen und Ihrzen im Mittelalter,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung,v (1903-4), p. 206, 209, and passim.Unless otherwise indicated, the term “abstraction” as used in this paper will mean “abstraction employed as a substitute for a pronoun of direct address.”Unter Mitwirkung Gustav Bebermeyers herausgegeben von Konrad Burdach. “Vom Mittelalter zur Reformation,” V. Berlin, 1926. Referred to hereafter as Briefmuster.The abbreviation No. refers to the number of the letter in the collection; where the reference is more specific, the first number refers to the page and the second, to the line. In the transcription below, the elevated s is used for the suffix -er, -ir. Another symbol in the MS, for ich, -eburg, is resolved.This number includes achtbarkeit (cf. note 24), and keynwertikeyt (cf. note 27); ebarkeyten, erbirheyt, and erbirkeit are considered as variant forms and counted as one abstraction. If other interpretations were given to these problems, the number would vary between a minimum of fifteen and a maximum of nineteen.This assumes the accuracy of the editorial resolution of s v as sinceritatem vestram (No. 45; 68, 9) and v r as vestre reuerencie (No. 46; 70, 10). Cf. note 25, where the alternative suggested, however, does not affect the total number of abstractions employed.The smaller number of German abstractions is not explained by the occasional German tendency to use simple pronominal address where the Latin employs an abstraction, or to avoid the abstract phrase completely. There are eleven such instances [the German has pronominal forms in contrast to Latin abstractions in No. 6; 10, 4-5: II, 4. No. 20; 26, 8:27, 8. No. 23; 30, 5: 31, 5. No. 26; 34, 10: 35, II. No. 40; 62, 12: 63, 12. No. 46; 70, 10: 71, 9. No. 48; 72, 6: 73, 6; the German employs second person plural verb forms paralleling Latin abstractions in No. 36; 54, 13-14: 55, 14. No. 41; 64, 12: 65, 11; the German text omits the Latin phrase entirely in No. 29; 38, 9-10. No. 33; 48, 16-17] in contrast to six instances of the reverse trend [the German adds abstractions not called for in the Latin version in No. 33; 49, 14. No. 34; 51, 18. No. 35; 53, 18. No. 37; 57, II. No. 37; 57, 15. No. 40; 63, 8]. However, because of parallel forms in other portions of the collection, only three Latin abstractions in these instances remain without correspondence: persona (No. 26), honorabilitas (No. 33), and pietas (No. 41); against these, three German abstractions likewise lack a Latin parallel: achtbarkeit (No. 33), togund (No. 34), and mechtikeyt (No.37).Laurentius Diefenbach, Glossarium Latino-Germanicum Mediae et-lnfimae Aetatis, Frankfurt a. M., 1857. This work (cited as Dief.), together with the same author’s Novum Glossarium (Frankfurt a. M., 1867), was consulted as a gauge for conventional German equivalents of the Latin forms.Fruntschaft (friuntscaf), gnade (genâda), trawe (triwa), togund (tuge(n)d), and weisheit (wÎsheit) are listed by Sister Agnes Rita Lingl among the current OHG abstrac tions (Über den Gebrauch der Abstrakta im Plural im Ahd. und Mhd., München, 1934). Libe (liubi) was also in use in the OHG period (Graff, Ahd. Sprachschatz, II, 56), while mechtikeyt (mahtigheit) had been employed by Notker (ibid., II, 617).Achtbarkeit (aht-baerkeit), edelkeyt (edelec-heit), gnedi keyt (ge-naedec-heit), andwerdekeit (wirdec-heit).Durchlauchtekeit (durch-liuhtec-heit), ersamkeyt (êr-samec-heit), erbirkeit (êr-baerec heit), keynwertikeyt (gegen-wertec-heit); the two variants of the third (erbirheyt and eba, keyt(en)) were not, however, in any of the cited passages. In contrast to the other abstractions, and despite its first appearance in the language of my sticism (Pfeiffer, “Sprüche Deutscher Mystiker,” Germania, III (1858), pp. 242 a and 225) , durchlauchtekeit appears to have been largely confined to the function of replacing a pronoun of address (cf. the citations in the Deutsches Wörterbuch, II, 1641).lt · is twice used in the same letter, No. 35. vestra ... magnificencia (52, 14): uwer lobeliche grosekeyt (53, 12); Vestre magnificencie ... supplicamus (52, 16): Vws alls hochste grosekeyt bit wir (53, 14).Novum glossarium, 310b cited under quantitas. In the glossarium, it is not listed under magnificentia, the nearest equivalent being großheit (343b). lt is cited, however, in the glossarium under ingentia (298b), magnitudo (343e) and quantitas (477b), either with later or uncertain dating.Cf. Metcalf, Forms of Address in German (St. Louis, 1938), pp. 166-67 and noten3.No. 5; 8, 4: 9, 4. No. 10; 16, 8-9: 17, 10. No. 12; 18, 8: 19, 9. No. 16; 22, 8: 23, 8. No. 18; 26, 9: 27, 9. No. 24; 32, 6: 33, 6. No. 29; 38, 7: 39, 7. No. 40; 62, 5: 63, 5. No. 40; 62, 10: 63, 10. No. 41; 64, II: 65, 9. No. 41; 64, 15: 65, 12. No. 42; 64, 9-10: 65, 8. No. 42; 66, 14: 67, 14. No. 43; 66, 14-15: 67, 14. No. 44; 68, 10: 69, 9. No. 45; 68, 9:69, 9. No. 49; 72, 7: 73, 7. No. 50; 74, 7: 75, 7. No. 51; 74, 8: 75, 7. .No. 35; 52, 5: 53, 4. No. 37; 56, 19: 57, 19-20. No. 38; 58, 12: 59, I0-II. No. 39; 60,17-18: 61, 16-17. Three times in No. 36—54, 8: 55, 8, 54, 13: 55, 13, and 54, 17-18: 55, 17-18. The adverbial intensive aller, to be sure, precedes the descriptive adjective in three of these instances: preclarissime: allir obersten (52, 5: 53, 4); preclarissime: aller hochste (54, 17-18: 55, 18); reuerendam: alls wirdigeste (58, 12: 59, I0-II).Cf. ülustris, Dief. 286°.Cf. reuerendus, Dief. 497a.Abstract usage, then, can scarcely be cited to support Bebermeyer’s contention that there is, in the style of the entire German version, a “Zug zu einfacher, klarer Stilistik” (“Ein­ leitung,” 202). One of Bebermeyer’s illustrations (deyne trawe: tuam fidelitatis constan­ ciam, No. 1) is one of the only two instances where a two-word German abstract phrase parallels a three-word Latin phrase; the other is uws keynwertikeyt: vestre ingenuissime nobilitati (No. 35; 53, 16: 52,19).A singular abstraction is used both in Latin and German in Ietters No. 12, No. 16, No. 18, and No. 50, which are directed to “Bürgermeister und Rat”; in No. 20, similarly addressed, a German pronoun [euch] parallels the singular Latinabstraction.Letter No. 5 is addressed to one individual (“Honesto viro Nicolao Burg”), No. 10 to a group (“Honestis et prouidis viris prothoconsuli, consulibus ciuitatis Swedenecensis”). This is further evidence that there was no necessary relationship between the number of the abstraction and the number of those actually addressed.Metcalf, “Abstractions as Forms of Address,” Studies in Honor of John. Albrecht Walz (1941), pp. 242-50. The plural form of eba, keytm is, however, quite striking (ibid., notes 7, 9, 16).Cf. August Engelbrecht, Das Titelwesn bei den spätlateinischn Epistolographen. [Vienna, 1893] for a survey of the beginnings of this construction in the Latin of the Fourth to the Sixth Centuries. Of the twenty-five Latin abstractions employed in the Briefmuster, thirteen are already cited by Engelbrecht from the early period: Caritas, Claritas, Deuotio, Dignitas, Dilectio, Generositas, Magnificentia, Nobilitas, Pietas, Prudentia, Reuerntia, Serenitas, Sinceritas (pp. 54-58). Honorabilitas is also listed with the remark, “wohl nur zufällig in unseren Texten fehlend” (p. 56).The exact interpretation of this deviation from the Latin is not clear, but the construing of “uwer achtbarkeit” as a substitute for direct address seems to me the most reasonable explanation.In Johannes von Gelnhausen’s translation of the Constitutiones juris metallici Wenceslai II with the same background of time and region as the Briefmuster, durchleuchtikeit is used paralleling the Latin serenitatis (Zycha, Das böhmische Bergrecht des Mittelalters,. n, 87, 20: 86, 14. Cf. also Jelinek, Mhd. Wörterbuch su den Sprachdenkmälern Böhmens [Heidelberg, 19II], 170 and v, x). Hence the resolution of s v in this passage could well be s v . Serenitas is used in the Briefmuster (No. 49; 72, 7), matching, however, Edilkeyt (73,7).The numhering of lines on this page has slipped. The reference here, as in other citations to this page, is to the true numbering.That keynwertikeyt should be construed as a substitute for pronominal address is indi­ cated also by a letter from the Schweidnitz MS (reproduced “Einleitung”, 145) where f>resenciam v· (line II) and the parallel ewir keginwartikeit (line 10) are clearly substituting for vos [te] and euch [dick].Cf. Briefmuster, “Nachträge und Berichtigungen,” p. 147.Cf. note 25

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