| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 8 May 1875 |
ENGELS TO EUGEN OSWALD
IN LONDON
[London,] 8 May 1875
Dear Oswald,
I can't imagine what I was thinking about during our discussion yesterday when I maintained that teutsch was quite a modern spelling. What is modern is not the spelling but merely the significance attached to it as being the correct one. In Middle High German tiutsch, tiusch actually predominates throughout (e.g. Walther von der Vogelweide). Also diutisch (e.g. Annolied[1] ). During the 16th century teutsch again predominated (e.g. Luther, U. von Hütten). In Old High German, on the other hand, it is always diutisk, diotisk. Indeed I believe that the older form thiodisk, theotisk has even been identified somewhere.
The facts are as follows: the Gothic, Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian th (p) subsequently changes into d in Saxon and Franconian as a result of reduction or slurring, and likewise into d in High German as a result of the sound shift (which is why all words beginning with th in English uniformly start with d both in High German and in Low German, including Dutch). This correspondence, ostensibly flouting all the rules, induced in 13th-century High German scribes, when dealing with a word as important as the name of the nation itself, a tendency to redress the ostensibly correct distinction resulting from the sound shift by using T and thus adulterating the language.—All this had been as completely forgotten in Luther's day as had the origin of the word itself. From the Renaissance onwards, on the other hand, the names handed down by the Romans—Teutones, Tuisto, etc.—were used as an etymological basis and continued as such up till the time of Jacob Grimm.
My philological conscience will give me no peace until I have sent you a rectification of the statement I made yesterday. Règle Générale[2] : one ought not to prattle away about comparative philology after 2 o'clock in the morning.
Yours,
F. Engels