[split] Discussion of f116v interpretations by Anton Alipov

[-JKP-]

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is a Middle High German variant of the adverb You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. meaning "quickly". MHG manuscripts / printed texts did not include the circumflex accent (in the same way that Roman inscriptions did not include the macron), but scholars like Karl Lachmann standardized Middle German in the 19th century and wrote editions of MHG texts using that diacritic.

From A History of German by Joseph Salmons (2013), page 181-182:

"The 'Middle High German' language we typically see in non-technical editions, such as literary anthologies, is often significantly different from the language of written texts with regards to how sounds are represented in writing. This ultimately goes back to the practices of 19th century editors. In particular, following the models he followed from the editing practices of classical philology (so it's said), Karl Lachmann produced influential editions of many MHG words through the early 19th century. Unwilling to simply take the written record at face value, Lachmann worked hard to 'improve' it, following the practices of the 'best' manuscripts, and introducing spellings that are unknown from the manuscripts ... The features of this variety include regularization of highly variable but equivalent spellings like f versus v and introduction of a circumflex (^) to mark long vowels, something known but uncommon in the actual manuscripts"


Either way I agree with -JKP- (and Anton in his original blog post) that there is a dot between "gaf/s" and "mich". Since all the other "m"s have an ascender - and the one in "mich" doesn't - I think it belongs with the "mich". Personally, the idea of "geismi[l]ch" would make perfect sense and I could see how "gas" may actually be "geis." It would also make sense linguistically: "so nim geismi[l]ch" is the most clear and logical sentence that we've constructed. There are also linguistic rules that explain the missing "L" in milch.

All right, I'm familiar with gâhes (as "quickly" "in a hurry") but didn't know it existed as gâs at that time and didn't make the connection between gâhes and gâs.

I'm less certain about "milch" with a missing "l". If the parts are taken together, it seems plausible as it would be contextually meaningful, but when looked at individually, it seems like a stretch that milch would be misspelled when mich is a common word that is so distinctly different in meaning.


Geis I find plausible because it might be pronounced and spelled with an "a" in the central and northern areas in middle ages. It's an interesting word as it is associated in Celtic lore with spells (both curses and blessings). If the preceding text is a charm, it would fit right in and could mean something like "so to take the curse [from] me". It's still somewhat bad grammar, but isn't any worse than many of the alternative suggestions.