Etymologically
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Sprache

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃpʁaːxə/, [ˈʃpʁäːχə], [ˈʃpʁɑːχə][1]

Forms

Sprache f (genitive Sprache, plural Sprachen)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sprāche, inherited from Old High German sprāhha, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sprāku (“speech, language”).[2][3][1] Kluge reconstructs the West Germanic form as *sprǣkō, and Kroonen gives Proto-Germanic *sprēkō- (“speech”).[2][4] The same word is Old Saxon sprāka, Middle Low German sprāke, Old English sprǣc and Old Frisian sprēke, continued in Dutch spraak.[2][3][4] Paul notes that the word is West Germanic and was borrowed into North Germanic, as in Danish sprog and Swedish språk.[5][1]

It is an abstract noun of sprechen, formed with an ablaut grade of the verb, and first meant the act and the faculty of speaking.[3][6][2] As with the verb, Old English lost the /r/ in a variant, spǣc, which is continued in English speech.[2][3] The verb itself has no certain origin: Kluge and Duden compare Old Norse spraka (“to crackle”), so it may first have been an expressive, sound-imitating word.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sprāhha is first recorded in glosses about 765, and then in the Benediktinerregel, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[7][8] Schützeichel gives the senses “language; statement; speech; disputation; consultation, conversation; gossip”.[8]

Semantic evolution

The Middle High German senses “conversation, discussion, consultation” and “formal speech, especially in court” survive only in compounds such as Absprache, Ansprache, Aussprache and Rücksprache, and in the phrases zur Sprache kommen and zur Sprache bringen.[5][6] The faculty of speech is named from Old High German on, as is a person's way of speaking, as in Luther's denn deine Sprache verrät dich “for thy speech betrayeth thee” (Matthew 26:73).[5] The sense “language of a community” is Old High German too but became common only in New High German.[5]

Grammar was called Sprachkunst in the 16th century, translating Latin ars grammatica, and Sprachlehre from the early 17th; Sprachwissenschaft dates from the 17th century, Sprachforscher from the 18th and sprachlich from the 19th.[3] sprachlos goes back to Old High German sprāhhalōs (11th century).[3][6] English took Mischsprache (1930) and Schriftsprache (1931) as terms of linguistics.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German sprāhha in glosses.[7]
  • 11th century – Old High German sprāhhalōs “speechless”.[3]
  • 16th century – Sprachkunst for grammar.[3]
  • Early 17th century – Sprachlehre.[3]
  • 17th century – Sprachwissenschaft.[3]
  • 19th century – sprachlich.[3][6]
  • 1930 – English borrows Mischsprache.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The faculty of speech: Da blieb ihr die Sprache weg.[10][1]
  2. Speaking, talk, in phrases: etwas zur Sprache bringen “to raise a subject”;[10] mit der Sprache herausrücken “to come out with it”.[10]
  3. A way of speaking, voice, accent.[10][1]
  4. A style of expression: die Sprache der Werbung.[10]
  5. A language, the system of words and rules of a community: die deutsche Sprache.[1][11]

Word family

  • sprachlich
  • sprachlos
  • -sprachig
  • Sprachforscher
  • Sprachlehre
  • Sprachwissenschaft

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 871
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  6. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 306
  9. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  10. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org