I was approached by a gentleman named Peter who is part of a small family business located in Berlin, Germany that specializes in transcribing and translating old handwritten German documents into English. Peter asked if he could possibly be a guest author and write a post for The Educated Genealogist. Sounding a little too good to be true, I snooped around and checked this company out. The company is called "Metascriptum" and found they have a great rep for accuracy and excellent customer service. With few Germans capable of translating the Old German handwriting known as Sütterlin script, many are turning to this company for help.
German Writing: The Difference in Time
As
anyone who has seen an older German document and a newer one can tell you, German writing has undergone many
changes throughout a vast span of time. What is now considered to be standard
German was only recently developed out of the ashes of older German dialects.
Understanding older German documents can be quite trying to the unpracticed
mind.
There
are actually many different variations of the German language, some of which
are no longer spoken or used in the written word. As such, there are many cases
of German writing that cannot be
read by fluent speakers and readers of standard German. A brief history of the
German language can be very interesting and worthwhile to learn.
Low and High German
Before
the middle ages, the German language went through what is called the Second
Germanic Sound Shift. This sound shift was only adopted by the Southern half of
Germany. The Northern lowlands did not adopt the sound shift. Therefore, low
and high German was born. It was called Low German due to the lowlands.
Low
German is now rarely used. It has been losing popularity over the last several
hundred years, and there are many who can no longer speak or read it. Low
German dialects are still sometimes found in the Northern lowlands, however,
although the more common standard German is used throughout Germany.
Old, Middle and New High German
High German went through many different stages.
Old high German was spoken until around the tenth century. This form of German
has many differences in how articles are used, or actually not used in Old High
German, as well as verb conjugation and other features of the language. Middle
high German was used by minstrels in speaking and particularly in writing. It
overlaps with both the
old and the new High German, but is distinctly different from both. Finally,
new High German developed out of Middle High German, near the end of the middle
ages.
The German You Hear Today
Today’s
German language is called standard German. This is now the language that all German writing is in. It has been the
language of writing for the country as a whole for some years. The development
of standard German was slow, with important steps being taken in the thirteenth
century and each century thereafter until the 1800’s. As such, there are many
older forms of German writing that
are difficult to read or understand.
If
you have writings that are clearly written in a dialect or form of German, and
you cannot understand them, there are those that can help. Professional
transcribers who have a grasp of the old and new Germanic languages can
transcribe older forms of German to the new German. Alternatively, you can also
have those writings translated into English, although this may take a bit more
time. In this way, the German writing
of the past need not be lost or misunderstood. The meaning can easily be
restored and studied, giving older German
writing back to the masses, or simply back to a united family.
DISCLOSURE: I have not received any compensation nor services from this company in return for the guest post. EVEN MORE DISCLOSURE: I have been really busy lately and my blog needed a post and he happened to approach me at the right time so I used him.
