Konrad von Megenberg's “Book of Nature” (1350): Written language variants in 14th century German as an expression of regional language awareness and its Reflection

The topic is of course particularly important in the context of the German language history of the late Middle Ages in the transition to the early New High German period. Important questions include, for example, how the dialect situation should be assessed at this time, whether there are tendencies to expand language use beyond dialect boundaries, what these tendencies look like, and how they should be assessed from today's linguistic-historical perspective. Are there already clear indications of nationwide standardization of language use, and how should these indications be interpreted? When dealing with such questions, one must of course stick to the written tradition of the time; We know almost nothing from the sources about how people actually spoke in the late Middle Ages. I would like to address Konrad von Megenberg's “Book of Nature” and deal with this text under the guiding questions that I have suggested. - [Author]

Language: German