Etymologically
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Deutsch

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Pronunciation

  • /dɔʏ̯t͡ʃ/, [dɔɪ̯t͡ʃ][1]

Forms

Deutsch n (proper noun, language name, genitive Deutsch or Deutschs, alternative nominative (used with the definite article) Deutsche, alternative genitive Deutschen, no plural)[1] Adelung insisted on unser Deutsch “our German” rather than unser Deutsches.[2] In the 16th and 17th centuries, and occasionally until the 19th, it was often spelled Teutsch.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German tiutsch (“the German language”), the adjective deutsch used as a noun.[5][6][7]

The adjective is diutisch, Old High German diutisc, Old Saxon thiudisc, from Proto-West Germanic *þiudisk, Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz (“of the people”).[8][1] It was formed with the suffix of belonging (-isch) from *þeudō (“people”), found in Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰 (þiuda), Old Norse þjóð, Old English þēod and diot;[8][4] the old noun survives in names such as Dietrich.[4][9] It continues Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“tribe, people”), also behind Lithuanian tauta (“people, nation”) and Old Irish túath (“people, tribe, land”).[1][8][4] Kluge takes the original sense of the root to be “strength”, and Pfeifer derives it from *teu̯ə- (“to swell”), so that the noun first meant “the great (mighty) mass”.[8][4]

The adjective first appears in Latinized form, Medieval Latin theodiscus.[4][10] Its model is debated: Duden thinks of a West Frankish word formed in contrast to *walhisk (“Romance”) and perhaps calqued on Ancient Greek ἐθνικός (ethnikós) or Latin gentīlis,[9][11] while Pfeifer and the revised Grimm dictionary consider a loan translation of Latin vulgāris (“common”).[4][11] 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍉 (þiudiskō, “in the manner of the heathens”), which matches it exactly in form, is an independent translation of Greek ἐθνικῶς (ethnikôs).[8][4] Because the vowel differs from that of diot, Kluge holds that the adjective must be old.[8] The same word is Dutch Duits, from which comes English Dutch “of the Netherlands”.[8][9] Medieval Latin theodiscus is the source of Italian tedesco and Spanish tudesco.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record of the adjective is Medieval Latin: in 786 the decisions of a synod in England were to be read out tam latine quam theodisce “in Latin and in the vernacular”, here meaning Old English.[10][8] In 788 the death sentence on Duke Tassilo names a crime quod theodisca lingua harisliz dicitur (“which is called harisliz in the vernacular”).[10] The German form appears from the 10th century.[10][9] The noun for the language is first quoted from Rudolf von Ems (about 1220–1225), who was asked to put a story in tiutsch.[7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word meant the vernacular of the people as opposed to Latin; as the West Franks became Romance-speaking, it came to mark the language of the eastern Franks as opposed to Romance, and in the 10th and 11th centuries it became the general name of the continental Germanic languages.[8][4] Paul defines Deutsch since Old High German as the vernacular north of the Alps, between Romance in the west and Slavonic in the east; in New High German it usually refers to the standard and written language.[12]

The spelling with ⟨t⟩ arose under the influence of Latin teutonicus and was very common from the early 12th century, especially in Upper German.[10][1] Teutsch was still written in the 18th century;[12] Gottsched (1748) and Adelung rejected it, and in the 19th century it became a mark of nationalistic attitudes.[12] Because German was the plain speech of the people as opposed to learned Latin, deutsch also came to mean “frank, plain”, as in Brant's teutsch mit einem reden (1494).[12] From that sense come the modern phrases mit jemandem deutsch reden and auf gut Deutsch.[13] The language name was borrowed into English as Deutsch.[1]

Timeline

  • 786 – Medieval Latin theodisce “in the vernacular” is used of Old English at an English synod.[10]
  • 788 – theodisca lingua appears in the sentence on Duke Tassilo.[10]
  • c. 830 – thiutisce “in German” is recorded.[12]
  • 10th century – The German adjective appears in Old High German.[10]
  • c. 1220–1225 – Rudolf von Ems uses tiutsch for the German language.[7]
  • 1494 – Brant uses teutsch reden for plain speaking.[12]
  • 1748 – Gottsched rejects the spelling teutsch.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The German language, also as spoken or written by a person or group: Er spricht ein fehlerfreies Deutsch.[13][1]
  2. German language and literature as a school subject: In Deutsch hat sie eine Eins.[13][6]

Word family

  • Hochdeutsch
  • Plattdeutsch
  • Schweizerdeutsch
  • Mittelhochdeutsch
  • Althochdeutsch
  • Deutschunterricht
  • deutsch
  • Deutschland
  • deuten
  • English Dutch

Usage notes

Auf Deutsch and zu Deutsch mean “in German”;[13] auf gut Deutsch (colloquial) is “in plain words, bluntly”, and kein Deutsch (mehr) verstehen (colloquial) is to refuse to understand or obey.[13] With the definite article the language is das Deutsche.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 1472
  3. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1043
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 444
  6. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  7. ^ a b c Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 6, 816
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 194
  9. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 217
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 699
  11. ^ a b c Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 6, 811
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  13. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag