experience as a teacher and examiner in the older periods of the German language, I have become firmly convinced that the larger books on the subject contain too many details for beginners. I feel sure that the easiest and best way to acquire a thorough knowledge of Middle High German is to start with an elementary book like the present, and then to learn the details of the grammar, especially the phonology of the various dialects, from a more advanced work.

Oxford: December, 1898.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

In the preparation of the new edition, I have steadily kept in view the class of students for whom the book was originally written. When the first edition appeared twenty-eight years ago, there were very few students in this country who took up the serious study of the older periods of the various Germanic languages at the Universities. In late years, however, the interest in the study of these languages has grown so much that Honour Courses and Examinations in them have been established at all our Universities. The result is that a book even intended for beginners can now reasonably be expected to be of a higher standard than the previous editions of this Primer. The grammatical introduction has accordingly been entirely rewritten and expanded to more than twice its original size. The texts have also been nearly doubled by the addition of eighteen poems from Walther von der Vogelweide, and selections from Reinmar, Ulrich von Lichtenstein, and Wolfram von Eschenbach.

The greater part of Middle High German literature is so excellent and interesting that most students, who have mastered the grammatical introduction and read the texts in the Primer, will doubtless desire to continue the subject. Such students should procure a copy of either the Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik by Hermann Paul, eighth edition, Halle, 1911, or the Mittelhochdeutsches Elementarbuch by Victor Michels, second edition, Heidelberg, 1912, where the Grammar, especially the phonology and syntax, can be studied in greater detail. They should also procure a copy of the Mittelhochdeutsches Taschenwörterbuch by Matthias Lexer, tenth edition, Leipzig, 1910, and also have access to the two standard Middle High German dictionaries— Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Georg Friedrich Benecke, ausgearbeitet von Wilhelm Müller und Friedrich Zarncke, drei Bände, Leipzig, 1854-61, and Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, von Matthias Lexer, zugleich als Supplement und alphabetischer Index zum Mittelhochdeutschen Wörterbuch von Benecke-Müller-Zarncke, drei Bände, Leipzig, 1872-78. An excellent bibliography of the best editions of the Middle High German texts— classified according to the dialects in which they were written— will be found on pp. 20-35 of Michels’ Elementarbuch.

May the new edition of the Primer continue to further the study of the subject in the future to the same extent as it has done in the past!

JOSEPH WRIGHT.

Oxford,
October, 1916.

CONTENTS