Re: OT: Gruess (was Comma gets a cure -- in German?)

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 20:10, J. 'Mach' Wust <j_mach_wust@...> wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:39:19 +0200, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:
>
>>BTW, do you happen to know if it is Standard German which
>>has monophthongized _üe_ or Allemannic which has
>>diphthongized _üü_ in this particular word?  IIANM both
>>things have occurred.
>
> This is an instance of modern High German monophthongization. This is
> essentially an innovation of (geographically) Middle German varieties,
> though it goes back to the Middle Ages.
The German Wikipedia (s.v. _Monophthongierung_) dates it to "starting
from C11" and lists the mnemonic "liebe guote brüeder" to help
remember the three dipthongs that became monophthongs (liebe gute
Brüder -- in the first case, the spelling still "remembers" the
diphthong).

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>