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 A STUDY OF SUFFIX RIME IN 
 OTFRID'S EVANGELIENBUCH 
 
 'fl 
 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS HOWARD FOWLER 
 
 
 ^-C 
 
 i^fpRNlA, 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 
 igos 
 
A STUDY OF SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID'S 
 
 EVANGELIENBUCH 
 
A STUDY OF SUFFIX RIME IN 
 OTFRID'S EVANGELIENBUCH 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS HOWARD FOWLER 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERr 
 
 OF 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 1905 
 
Im^@^ 
 
 w 
 
 i 
 
 i?r 
 
 BALTIMORE, MD., U. 8. A. 
 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 Classification of the Rimes 8 
 
 The Ultima 10 
 
 Penultimate Rime 18 
 
 Penultimate-Antepenultimate Rime 42 
 
 Antepenultimate Rime 44 
 
 Other Old High German Poems 48 
 
 Identical Rime 49 
 
 Summary 62 
 
 Vita 63 
 
A STUDY OF SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID'S 
 EVANGELIENBUCH 
 
 Introduction 
 
 The earliest important treatment of Otfrid's rime was that 
 of \\'ilhelm Grimm in 1850, under '' Zur Geschichte des 
 Reims," found in his Kleinere Schriften 4, 159 f. So far, 
 however, as Otfrid is concerned, the major part of the work 
 has to do only with identical rime, so that it can not be regarded 
 as a complete study of the Old High German author. 
 
 In 1874 Zarncke published an article entitled '' Die Reime 
 des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts " in the Berichte der sachsischen 
 Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 26, p. 34 f., but as this study 
 is almost wholly limited to rimes in which at least one word is 
 a root syllable, the sections devoted to Otfrid do not in any 
 sense present a full or satisfactory view of the entire system 
 of rimes. 
 
 Still later, in ZfdA., 16, p. 117 f., Wilmanns, in what may 
 be regarded as a continuation of Zarncke's method, treated 
 those rimes in which one or both words are wholly root syl- 
 lables, styling these stem rimes ; other sorts of rime he re- 
 garded as suffix rime, although there is no good reason why 
 rimes extending over more than one syllable, such as frono : 
 scono, should be classified as suffix rime rather than stem rime. 
 The term is, however, a convenient one, and for lack of a 
 better has been retained in the following pages. 
 
 Paul, in the second edition of the Grundriss II, 2, p. 109 f., 
 and Koegel, Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte I, 2, 23 f., have also 
 made contributions to the study of rime in Otfrid, but neither 
 represents a detailed study of suffix rime, and the point of 
 view from which they regard many of the rimes is, in the 
 opinion of the writer, not altogether correct. 
 
8 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 In the following pages, therefore, a study of suffix rime in 
 Otfrid is proposed, including: 
 
 I. Penultimate rime. (Type frono: scono) 
 11. Penultimate-antepenultimate rime. (Type folgetun : 
 woltun) 
 
 III. Antepenultimate rime. (Type worahta: forahta) 
 
 A further detailed discussion of root syllable rime is not 
 deemed necessary, and it will be considered only in connection 
 with identical rime. 
 
 One of the main questions which the present investigation 
 will aim to settle is : What minimum amount of similarity in 
 the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable will justify us in 
 asserting the existence of penultimate or antepenultimate rime ? 
 In order to answer this question the rimes will be classified 
 under various rubrics, that they may thereby lend themselves 
 more easily to observation, and that interesting facts may thus 
 be brought to notice. All evidence of varying rime usage in 
 the different books will be gathered and subjected to scrutiny, 
 with the intention of offering it as a contribution to the much 
 mooted question of the order in which the various books were 
 written. 
 
 Classification of the Rimes 
 
 The statistics given by Wilmanns ^ for so-called stem rime 
 are not entirely accurate. The correct figures for this as well 
 as for suffix rime are hence given below: 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V Total 
 
 Length. 
 
 1240 
 
 1244 
 
 1576 
 
 1572 
 
 1472 _ 7104 
 
 Root syllable rime. 
 
 261 
 
 383 
 
 492 
 
 462 
 
 406 2004 
 
 
 21% 
 
 30.8% 
 
 31-2% 
 
 29.4% 
 
 27.6% — 28.2% 
 
 Suffix rime. 
 
 971 
 
 861 
 
 1084 
 
 1109 
 
 1066 — 5091 
 
 
 78.2% 
 
 69.2% 
 
 68.8% 
 
 70.6% 
 
 72.4% 71.7% 
 
 In this connection it should be remembered that there are eight 
 instances of rimeless verses ^ in Book I, and one in Book IV. 
 From these figures it will be seen that Book V, and especially 
 
 *ZfdA., 16, 117 f. 
 
 ' Koegel, Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte I, 2, 23 f. 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF THE RIMES g 
 
 I, contain the smallest amount of root syllable rime, and there- 
 fore have a' larger proportion of suffix, i. c. penultimate and 
 antepenultimate rime. 
 
 Suffix rime includes, then, 71.7 per cent of the total number 
 of rimes, so that the ratio of its occurrence to that in which one 
 or both riming words are root syllables is about 2^/2 to i. 
 
 As penultimate and antepenultimate rime thus assume the 
 major role in Otfrid the question naturally suggests itself why 
 they have never been examined with the same care with which 
 root syllable rime has been studied. 
 
 The answer may be found in Zarncke,"^ who, after a discus- 
 sion of the type just mentioned, remarks: 
 
 " Neben der reimenden letzten Hebung lasst nun Otfrid 
 auch gerne noch die voraufgehende Silbe oder mehrere Silben 
 mitreimen, so gerne, dass diese zweisilbigen (und dreisilbigen) 
 Reime bei ihm die Ueberzahl ausmachen, und recht eigentlich 
 den Charakter seiner Reime bestimmen. Eine Statistik der- 
 selben wiirde nicht ohne Interesse sein, aber beschrankende 
 Bestimmungen lassen sich nicht feststellen, da das ganze 
 Farbenspiel vom vollstandigen Zusammenklingen bis zur abso- 
 luten Reimlosigkeit durchlaufen wird, so dass man kaum sagen 
 kann, wo die Grenze festzustellen, wo noch ein ungenaues 
 Mitreimen, wo bereits Reimlosigkeit anzunehmen sei. Nur 
 das Eine wird sich aus statistischer Beobachtung geben : 
 offenbar hat sich Otfrid allmahlig in den dem Ohre schmei- 
 chelnden vollen oder doch nahezu vollen Zweiklang hineinge- 
 funden. ]\lan vgl. z. B. die Reime in I. 4, vielleicht das erste 
 Kapitel das Otfrid dichtete, mit denen in der Widmung an 
 Ludwig. Die im Anfange nur nicht verschmahten Doppel- 
 reime sind allmahlig immer mehr die Regel geworden." 
 
 Now, while the above-mentioned difficulty is a real one, it 
 is not so insurmountable as Zarncke suggests ; for with the 
 material before one, and classified properly according to both 
 the accurate and inaccurate types, it is possible to arrive at 
 results that not only afford a better understanding of the nature 
 of penultimate and antepenultimate rime, and of the principle 
 involved in these rimes, but that also furnish a standard by 
 
 '^ Berichte der sachsischen Gesellschaft 26, 39. 
 
10 SUFFIX RIME IN OFF RID 
 
 which to judge to what extent inaccuracies of rime are com- 
 patible with the riming character of the syhable in question. 
 
 The Ultima 
 
 In discussing the rimes that extend over two or three syl- 
 lables, it is most convenient and logical to start with a con- 
 sideration of the ultima, especially since this syllable is almost 
 always accurately rimed. 
 
 The exceptions, where the vowels are entirely different, are 
 quite rare, and the latter are in all cases ^ followed by the 
 consonant n, while the initial consonants of these syllables arc 
 usually identical. Cf. gisuason : miiasiin ; faron : onin. In 
 these few instances ' it is, then, the consonants that supply the 
 element of identity for rime in the final syllable. We may dis- 
 tinguish, therefore, three classes of rimes in so far as the 
 ultima is concerned : 
 
 I. The initial consonants of the ultima are identical. Cf. 
 siti : noti; forahta : zvorahfa. 
 
 II. The initial consonants of the ultima are not identical but 
 similar. Cf. zvari: sconi; rigildn: segenon. 
 
 III. The initial consonants of the ultima are neither identi- 
 cal nor similar. Cf. higinnan : belgan; Jwhi: dati. 
 
 Of these three classes I is by far the largest, including 4265 
 rimes, that is 83.8 per cent of the total number of suffix rimes. 
 The predominance of such rimes in which the final syllables 
 are identical is not to be ascribed to accident, but is due to a 
 conscious eft'ort on the part of Otfrid, as can be shown from a 
 study of his synonyms. Let us take, for instance, the words 
 abulgi, zorn, and heizimiati, meaning in general " anger." 
 
 An examination of the rimes of heizmuati, which are 4 in 
 number, shows that they are all with noti, i. e. with a word 
 whose final syllable is identical with heizmuati (I 20, 2; III 20, 
 129 ; IV 19. 57 ; IV 30. 8). Otfrid might have used abulgi : noti, 
 and the former word occurs just as often in the text as 
 heizmuati, being used twice in rime out of a total of 4 in- 
 
 ' Cf. Erdmann's large edit, of Otfrid. Introd. LXVIII. 
 " About 12, so few that they may be included in the three classes 
 immediately following. 
 
THE ULTIMA II 
 
 stances, but as this rime would have destroyed the identity of 
 the final syllable he refrained from doing so. 
 
 Likewise, of the two rimes of come, one is with zvaiuic (IV 
 30. 9), according to the above principle, which would have 
 been violated had either Cihulge or Jicicuiuate been used in- 
 stead; the other is zornchorne (IV 26. 2), an example of 
 accurate penultimate rime. 
 
 Again, we have the group gah'i, snelll, and ila, meaning 
 "haste" or "quickness," and of these gain occur 17 times in 
 rime, 15 of which are accurate penultimate rimes. The other 
 two are gaJii : zvlhl (I 8. 13), and gdhlihdJn (V 4. 25). In 
 either place siiellJ could have stood in rime instead of gdhi, but 
 such a rime would have done away with the identity of the 
 final syllables, and its absence may be explained on this 
 ground.^ 
 
 The same observation may be made in the case of the verbs 
 (gi)gdhen and (gi)ilen, gigdhen in some inflectional form ap- 
 pearing in rime 8 times, 6 of which are accurate penultimate 
 rimes, the other 2 being gigdhe: gihohc (I i. 32), and gigdhen: 
 gihdhen (III 16. 20). If we substitute in the one case gi-lle 
 and in the other gi-Jlen, it will appear why Otfrid did not use 
 these latter forms. 
 
 x\gain, the group of words signifying " sin, crime," which 
 are : siinta, meina, akust, missiddt, iiharmiiati, and fravili. 
 The rimes of sunta, which are 12 in number, are of the accurate 
 penultimate type of rime, as sunta :wunta, with but 4 excep- 
 tions, 3 of which come under consideration here. They are 
 worton: siinton (II 7. 14; IV 22. 34) and scolfa: suntd (I 4. 
 12). Meinon and meind are in order here in the place of 
 sitnton, suntd, but the rule for the identity of the final syllable 
 interferes with their use. In a similar manner, there are 8 
 rimes of iihannuatl, of which 6 are accurate penultimate rimes, 
 while the remaining 2 are nbannuatl: noti (II 5. 7), and 
 nharniuatl.\ndti (I 18. 13). Had fravili been substituted for 
 iiharmuatJ it would have resulted in a difference between the 
 final syllables. 
 
 ^ Of course no form of ila could have been used here, as it belongs to 
 a declension in \vhich the final vowel is always different from that of 
 the other two words of this group. 
 
12 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 We have in Otfrid two verbs meaning " to think," thcnken 
 and wdnen, and there are ii instances of rimes of the former 
 with forms of wirken, in w^hich some form of wdnen might 
 have been used, instead of thenkcn, had the initial consonant 
 of the final syllable been the same. 
 
 Again, the group lioh, diuri, driit, gimiiati, zeis, signifying 
 " dear." There are 9 rimes of dinra, girnuati, and :!jei:j in 
 various inflectional forms that concern us, namely : dinra : wdra 
 (IV 35. 19; V 23. 120), dhiron'.zvdron (IV 33. 35), diuri: 
 mdri (16. 16), diuri: heri (IV 4. 22), diiiru : mdni (V 25. 22), 
 gimiiati: heroti (IV 11. 23), giniuafe:biete (III 6. 30), zcizo: 
 snazo (II 8. 15). In all these 9 rimes some one of the other 
 words of this group might have been employed but for the 
 striving after identity of final syllable described above. 
 
 Of verbs of ''saying" there are 11 ultima rimes of forms 
 of sagen with other words, in which, if some other verb of 
 " saying " as gehan or sprechan were substituted, the final 
 syllables would no longer be identical. 
 
 There is also one rime of redino: forasagono (II 18. 3), for 
 which redio, of like meaning though of less frequent occur- 
 rence, could be used ; and likewise a rime-pair irzelitun : 
 thingotiin (V 23, 237), where sprdchun would express the 
 same idea as the first rime word. In all these cases the sub- 
 stitutes seem to be avoided intentionally. 
 
 As a final group may be mentioned the adjectives ziari and 
 sconi, meaning " beautiful." In some one of its inflectional 
 forms sconi occurs 9 times in rime where some form of ziari 
 would also be in place: sconi: gisiuni (I 4. 24), sconi: ana- 
 wdni (I 4. 48), sconi :zvdni (II 7. 49), scone: suene (V 7. 13; 
 V 18. 2; V 20. 9), sconaz: seltsdnas (V 23. 175), scones: 
 gisiunes (I 12. 32), scdniu:inddnin (II 6. 19). The adverb 
 scono similarly stands in rime with sino (IV 7. 81), where the 
 adverb ciaro would have violated the regular rule. 
 
 Many other synonyms might be quoted to illustrate the point 
 in question, and in all these Otfrid's effort to secure identity 
 of the final syllable can be clearly shown, so that the predomi- 
 nance of these rimes cannot be due to mere accident, but must 
 be the result of a consistent plan. 
 
THE ULTIMA 13 
 
 It remains to discuss classes II and III, which contain to- 
 gether 826 examples, and are, therefore, much smaller in 
 number than the preceding, the ratio being nearly 5: I. 
 
 In the first of these classes the initial consonants of the final 
 syllables, though not identical, are similar. This class in- 
 cludes 428 rimes, that is over one-half of the cases in which 
 the final syllable is not identical. Here are to be classed first 
 of all the rimes of the nasals and liquids with each other, such 
 as r'uiic : ciiciie, sconi : zvari, etc. 
 
 The similarity of n, I r, and m to each other as well as the 
 frequency with which they rime, the one wath the other, proves 
 that Otfrid sought such rimes, wherever he could not secure 
 identity of the final syllable. 
 
 The statistic is as follows : 
 
 Examples 
 /:w=i04 gimeinit : gideilit 
 
 I -^^^1= 5 ar77ie : wolle 
 
 / : ;- = 36 zioro : stuolo 
 
 n \r — 40 
 
 sconi : wan 
 
 7n:r = 21 gizami -wan 
 
 VI \n '=■ 29 
 
 armon '■ /lornon 
 
 Total, 235 
 
 Noticeable is the frequency of the rimes of l:n and the 
 rarity with which Otfrid joins / and vi in rime. The con- 
 sonants occur in rime in the following order: n 173 times; 
 / 145 ; r 97 ; w 55. By comparing these numbers with those 
 given above of the rimes of the various consonants with each 
 other, we may see how often we should expect certain con- 
 sonants to rime together ; then by a comparison of this latter 
 result with the number of rimes actually found, we can judge 
 which, among the nasals and liquids, were regarded as most 
 similar for rime purposes. 
 
 Thus, 77 rimes oil : n are expected where 104 actually occur, 
 but where we should expect 45 of ^ • ^ ^^^ 27 of / : m, only 36 
 and 5 respectively are found. 
 
 If this method be carried out for each consonant we arrive 
 
14 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 at a result for their similarity which may be represented by 
 
 I 11 f I'll/ 
 the two lines \ ' ,' ' y, that is to sav, startinsr from / in 
 
 n, I, m, r . ' & 
 
 the upper line and proceeding to the right are given, in order 
 of similarity to it, the other consonants ; then with m as start- 
 ing point and advancing to the left, the same is true, and also 
 in the case of n and r in the second line. The results obtained 
 show that / and n are most similar to each other, and r and m, 
 for purposes of rime. 
 
 Beside the above consonants there are rimes of other similar 
 consonants which require some discussion, namely ng(n):n, 
 and d : n. 
 
 The following considerations justify us in assuming the 
 existence and intentional character of rime of the guttural 
 nasal and dental nasal in final syllables, as in bigmnan: sijigan: 
 
 I. Their similarity as nasal consonants. 
 
 II. The frequency of rimes of ng : n, for of the 109 rimes of 
 ng with other consonants 69, i. e. 64% per cent of the total 
 number, are with n. 
 
 III. Excluding the rimes of ng : n, the other rimes of ng 
 are with consonants^ that are similar to n (nasals, liquids, and 
 d) and joined in rime with it frequently. That is to say, 83^ 
 per cent of the rimes of ng with other consonants are with n 
 or consonants similar to n, a proportion that, taken in connec- 
 tion with other proof cited above, tends to show that the riming 
 of ng with n in final syllables is intentional. 
 
 It may be objected that if rime of ng with n is assumed, we 
 must also admit that of g with n, because of its frequency, as 
 it occurs 65 times to 69 instances of ng : n, but a study of the 
 former shows that they are clearly due to chance and are in no 
 way intentional. As proof the following may be adduced : 
 
 I. g and n are dissimilar consonants, whereas ng and n are 
 of like nature. 
 
 II. The proportion of ng rimes with n is greater than that 
 of g : n, for while out of a total of 109 rimes of ng 69 are with 
 n, i. e. 63.3 per cent, of a total of 144 rimes of g only 65, or 
 
 ^ The only exceptions are ng: g:= 14 (cf. Refrain in V 19 which con- 
 tains 5 rimes of tJiingon: mennisgon), ng:t=^i, and ng:b=zi. 
 
THE ULTIMA 1 5 
 
 45.1 per cent are with n, so that there is a difference of 18.2 
 per cent. 
 
 III. From a classification of the g : n rimes it can be seen 
 that 52 out of the total 65 are such as come under the head of 
 three-syllable or antepenultimate rime, as ingegini: rnenigl; but 
 of the rimes with ;/<,'■ : ;; only 5 are of this character, the 
 remainder belonging to the type thztnnge: iiuic. This fact is 
 significant, for in antepenultimate rime there is not only an 
 effort to secure rime of the penult, but also of the antepenult, 
 hence the number of words where this amount of agreement 
 is found must of necessity be more restricted than in penulti- 
 mate rime, and we therefore find the same rime-pairs repeated 
 again and again, or one word occurring a number of times in 
 different combinations. Thus, ingegini: menigi is found 26 
 times, nearly one-half the total number of rimes of n : g; simi- 
 larily, menigi: githigini, 4 times, and hrcdigdn:redindn, 6 
 times. Besides, in the effort to rime both penult and ante- 
 penult there is less opportunity of making the initial consonant 
 of the final syllable identical or similar ; and in a rime in which 
 the first two syllables rime and the initial consonant of the 
 ultima does not, the absence of agreement in the latter would 
 not be felt as keenly as in the case of penultimate rime. 
 
 IV. n occurs as the initial consonant of the final syllable in 
 antepenultimate rimes 102 times in all, i. e. more often than 
 any other consonant, g coming second ^ with 64 instances. It 
 is therefore the most natural state of affairs to find these two 
 consonants riming so often with each other, as it is merely a 
 question of frequency of use. There is accordingly no reason 
 for assuming intention in the numerous rimes of 11 : g. 
 
 At this point the question presents itself what was the pro- 
 nunciation of ng as evidenced by Otfrid's rimes ? ng is found 
 in rime with other consonants a total of 109 times, 70 of which, 
 or 62^2 per cent, are rimes with double consonants ; that is, 
 there are 60 rimes with )in, as higinnan: singan, and 10 with //, 
 as zellen : thin gen. So large a proportion of the rimes of ng 
 being with double consonants leads one to the point of view that 
 
 ^ r occupies third place with 31, and / fourth, with 27 rimes, which 
 serves to show the much greater frequency of n and g in this class of 
 rimes. 
 
l6 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 ng itself was a geminate, i. e. a single sound as in modern Ger- 
 man, but pronounced long and divided between the two syl- 
 lables as in the case of the Old High German geminates. 
 
 Graphically, this may be represented as follows : bigin-nan : 
 sin-nan (singan), thus affording a satisfactory explanation 
 for the frequent riming of ng with a double consonant/ 
 
 As to the rimes of n with d, the following considerations 
 will serve to show that they too were regarded by Otfrid as 
 similar, and as such joined in rime : 
 
 1. As voiced dental consonants d and n are similar. 
 II. They occur frequently in rime together, a total of 65 
 times. 
 
 III. It can be proved that such rimes are intentional. Let 
 us examine, for instance, with the aid of Ingenbleek " the rimes 
 in -an, which constitutes one of the most frequent rime 
 endings. 
 
 It is found that there are 19 cases of -dan in suffix rime, of 
 which 8 are identical rimes (i. e. -dan: -dan) ; thus leaving 11 
 instances of rime with other consonants. Now, of these ii, 
 7, or nearly 64 per cent, are rimes of -dan : -nan. If we exam- 
 ine the other rimes in -an, as for example, those in -tan, -gan, 
 -ban, etc., we find them well represented, and in some cases 
 occurring as often as the -nan rimes. Therefore, if the rimes 
 of -dan : -nan are merely accidental, and not intentional, we 
 expect to find -dan riming as freely, or nearly so, with other 
 consonants as with -nan. As a matter of fact, no other con- 
 sonant appears a reasonable number of times in rime with -dan 
 as compared with the rimes of -nan : -dan, so we are justified 
 in asserting that -dan and -nan are intentionally associated. 
 
 If, in like manner, we survey the rimes in -on we find 30 
 cases of -don in suffix rime, of which 12 are identical, leaving 
 18 instances of rime with other consonants. Of this number, 
 10, or about 56 per cent, are rimes of -don : -non, so that there 
 
 ^ Panzer in Gudrun, p. 20, Note i, arrives at this same conclusion for 
 the Gudrun, because of the numerous rimes of nning. His statement 
 is as follows : " Gem. dent. cons. : gem. gutt. cons. Diese Aussprache 
 muss die Lautgruppe ng nach Ausweis eben dieser Reime bereits gehabt 
 haben." 
 
 ' Reimlexikon zu Otfrid, QuR, XXXVII, 47 f- 
 
THE ULTIMA 1 7 
 
 remains 8 cases of -don in rime with other consonants. Of 
 other rimes in -on those in -ton, -ron, -gon, and -Ion are fre- 
 quent, and we ask ag'ain if chance ruled why should not the pro- 
 portion of rimes of -don with other consonants approach more 
 closely that of -non\-do)i? The highest number of rimes of 
 -don with any other combination than -non is 3, viz., that of 
 -don : -gon. That is to say, out of the 35 times that -gon 
 appears in rime with other consonants only one-twelfth are 
 -gon : -don. Upon comparing this with the rimes of -non : -don 
 it will be seen that of the 50 rimes of -noii with other con- 
 sonants, 10, or one-fifth, are rimes of -non : don, showing, there- 
 fore, more than twice as large a proportion in the latter case. 
 The question may be asked, how is it that of 50 rimes of 
 -}W)i only 10 are w^ith -don, and should we not expect a greater 
 percentage? What are the remaining 40 rimes of -nonf 26 
 are rimes of -non with other nasals and liquids — 10 are with I, 
 10 with r, and 6 with /// — so that the proportion of the -non: 
 -don rimes is the same as that of the nasals and liquids, which, 
 as we have already shown, Otfrid felt as similar. Hence, we 
 may conclude that n and d must likewise have been regarded 
 as similar consonants for rime purposes. 
 
 It would be possible to go through various other rime 
 endings, such as those in -es, -a, etc., and wx should find that 
 the rimes of d : n occur in much larger proportion than those 
 of other consonants with d, even though the former were met 
 with often in rime and might, therefore, be expected to occur 
 as frequently as n in rime with d, or in the proper ratio, were 
 these rimes merely accidental. As this has been shown not to 
 be the case, we may regard the point in question as proved. 
 
 In about nine-tenths of these rimes of d : n there is also rime 
 of the penult. Cf. blide: sJne, and Koegel,^ in classifying such 
 rimes states under his fourth division : " Der Vokal der vor- 
 hergehenden (i. e. penultimate) Silbe wnrd hereingezogen, 
 zunachst ohne BeriAcksichtigung der zwischenstehenden Con- 
 sonanz." The above discussion of the rimes of our entire 
 second class has shown this point of view to be incorrect, and 
 serves to confirm Paul's opinion," which is as follows : 
 
 ^ Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte I, 2, 25 f. 
 'PGr.MI. 2, 109. 
 
l8 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 " Sobald iibrigens diese Konsonanten (i. e. initial consonants 
 of the final syllables) einander wenigstens ahnlich sind, tragen 
 sie doch zu scharferem Hervortreten des Reimes bei, und es 
 zeigt sich daher auch, dass diese Aehnlichkeit in den meisten 
 Fallen vorhanden ist, also erstrebt sein muss." 
 
 As regards our third class, in which the initial consonant of 
 the final syllable is neither identical nor similar, as in such 
 rimes as hdhi:dati, hredigii:redinii, no special comment is 
 called for. In passing we may note that it is the smallest of 
 our three divisions, being represented by only 398 rimes, 
 another evidence of Otfrid's careful regard for the ultimate 
 syllable. 
 
 Penultimate Rime 
 
 Up to this point we have examined mainly the final syllable ; 
 we are now ready for a consideration of rime extending over 
 two syllables, that is penultimate rime. 
 
 Accurate rimes of the above class, such as henti:enti are 
 found in extensive use in Otfrid, and may be divided according 
 to accent ^ into the following categories : 
 
 I. Both words have primary accent on the penulti- 
 mate syllable. This comprises the rime of stem with 
 stem.^ Cf. frond: scbno = 1631 
 
 II. One penult has primary, the other secondary 
 accent. 
 
 (a) Stem : stem, one word being compound. Cf. 
 wihuii : adal-kunm = 233 
 
 {/3) Stem : suffix syllable. Ci. minna'. drfitinna = 117 
 
 III. Both penults have secondary accent. 
 
 (a) Compound : compound. Cf. itmhi-therhi : 
 adal-erbl = 6 
 
 (/?) Compound : suffix syllable. Cf. chan-re\ti : 
 drabeitl = q 
 
 Total, 1992 
 
 ^ Cf. for accent of words in rime position : PGr., 2, 919 ; Sievers, 
 PBBtr., 4, 525 f. : 13. 121 f . ; Wihnanns, ZfdA.. 16. 117 f . : 27, 105 f . ; 
 Beitrage zur alteren deutschen Litteratur, Heft 3, pp. 1-129; Trautmann, 
 Lachmann's Betonungsgesetze und Otfrid's Vers, Halle, 1877 ; Behaghel, 
 Gesch. d. deu. Sprache. p. 689. 
 
 " For such rimes as sagcti : hdbcti compare Antepenultimate Rime. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 19 
 
 Combining the examples found in these three divisions, there 
 is a total of 1992 instances, or 27.7 per cent of Otfrid's rimes 
 are to be classed under the rubric of accurate penultimate rime, 
 verv little less than the rime of root syllables with each other, 
 this being 29.2 per cent. 
 
 Considering suffix rime alone, accurate penultimate rime 
 forms about 39 per cent thereof, and as Books I and V contain 
 the "-reatest amount of the former, there is more chance for 
 accurate penultimate rime in them than in the remaining 
 books ; we should, therefore, expect them to show a larger 
 percentage than that found elsewhere. In the table given be- 
 low the third and fourth lines represent the amount of suffix 
 rime included under accurate penultimate rime. 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V Total 
 
 Suffix rime 
 
 971 
 
 861 
 
 1084 
 
 1109 
 
 1066 _ 5091 
 
 
 78.2% 
 
 69.2% 
 
 68.8% 
 
 70.6% 
 
 72.4% 71.7% 
 
 Ace. pen. rime 
 
 332 
 
 347 
 
 432 
 
 418 
 
 463 = 1992 
 
 
 34-3% 
 
 40.2% 
 
 39.8% 
 
 37.7% 
 
 43-4% — 39% 
 
 The above tabulation shows that I contains 5.8 per cent more 
 suffix rime than any of the other books ; it should, therefore, 
 comprise more accurate penultimate rime, but our enumeration 
 above shows that it includes even less, by 3.4 per cent, than 
 any other book, whereas V shows approximately the expected 
 proportion. It will be necessary to note, in the succeeding 
 categories, any increase above the normal ratio on the part of I, 
 in order to see in what class or classes of rimes its greater 
 percentage makes its appearance. 
 
 At this point we may consider the question of rime on the 
 part of the inseparable prefixes gi, hi, and ir, as in giddti : girdti, 
 bir'uiif : biscinit, invellen: ir^elloi. Grimm ^ speaks of these 
 under the heading of '' Erweiterter Reim " as follows : 
 
 '' Haufig reimen unter sich die zu einem Endreim gehorigen 
 untrennbaren Partikeln : da sie aber niemals betont, vielmehr 
 wenn sie zur Senkung an dieser Silbe nicht dienen, ganz 
 verschluckt werden, so kann man nur eine leichte Zuthat zu 
 dem Reim darin erblicken." 
 
 ^Kleinere Schriften 4, 214 f. 
 
20 SUFFIX RIME IN OFF RID 
 
 He believes, therefore, that such prefixes, when found to- 
 gether, serve as a sHght addition to the rime, and that their 
 agreement was aimed at. 
 
 Paul ^ denies all such intention, holding this agreement to be 
 merely accidental, and of little importance. This latter is prob- 
 ably the correct view as far as the prefixes ir and hi are con- 
 cerned, for as such rimes as birinit : hiscinit, irwellen : irzellen, 
 occur only 8 or lo times in each case in the entire poem, the 
 probability that the identity is merely accidental is so great 
 that no intention can be asserted, especially as both prefixes 
 occur frequently in rime in other combinations. With the 
 prefix gi, however, we have a different state of affairs : 
 
 I. Rimes like girati : giddti are numerous, there being a 
 total " of 96. 
 
 II. The type of gi- : gi- appears in all three types of rimes, 
 whether it be (a) root syllable rime, as gisah : gimah, (b) pe- 
 nultimate rime, as ginnagi: giwuagi, or (c) antepenultimate, as 
 githrewita : gistrewita; whereas, the few identical rimes of hi 
 and ir are all found in penultimate rime. 
 
 III. From a consideration of some of the rimes in which gi 
 figures it would seem as though Otfrid consciously chose in 
 the one case a form in gi when another form without it was at 
 hand and would have apparently served the purpose as well. 
 
 Let us look, for instance, at the rime gisah: gi in ah which 
 appears 9 times (I 8. 2 ; I 9. 32 ; II 6. 49 ; 9. 59 ; III 20. 28; 
 104 ; 147 ; V 8. 19 ; 12. 46) . 
 
 The form of gimah must remain invariable, but instead of 
 gisah the simple form sah might have been used without sub- 
 stantially changing the meaning of the line. That sah : gimah 
 never occurs seems to point to the fact that the poet employed 
 the compound verb in order to effect rime of the prefix in addi- 
 tion to that of the root syllable. 
 
 Likewise, the adverbial phrase in girihti, which appears 12 
 times in rime, stands in 5 cases rimed with forms in gi. Three 
 
 ^ PGr.- II, 2, 109. 
 
 ^The rime of past part. : past part, is excluded from consideration, 
 as gi would naturally occur here in both words, and fall under the 
 head of rime-parallelism. Cf. Vos, Rime-parallelism in O. H. G. verse, 
 Studies in honor of B, L. Gildersleeve, Baltimore, 1901. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 21 
 
 of these are with gisiJiti (III 26. 58; IV i. 54; V 23. 177), one 
 with gikiiiJiti (IV 8. 22), and one with the verb gisliJitl (IV 
 4. 34), of which the uncompounded form does not occur in 
 Otfrid. There is also a phrase iji riJiti which, as Piper ^ justly 
 observes, has precisely the meaning of in giriJiti, i. e. " straight- 
 way," and if the correspondence of the gi forms is not aimed 
 at, why do we not have this in riJit'i riming with the above 
 words instead of in girihti? 
 
 The adjective ginuagi, in one or the other of its inflectional 
 forms appears 3 times in rime with the verb gifuagen. The 
 latter has an uncompounded form fnagen of like meaning, 
 which is rejected here seemingly to bring the agreement of 
 the prefixes into play. These 3 rimes are found in III 14. 71 ; 
 V 12. 68; V 25. 90. 
 
 So, too, in case of the rime ginuagi: gifiangi (III 16. 74), 
 there exists the simple form of the verb Hangi, but again we 
 have the compound form apparently for the reason above 
 given.^ 
 
 The adjective ginuag appears in rime 10 times ; 8 of these 
 are with ginniag (pret. sg. of giwahan). Here, too, the agree- 
 ment seems to be sought for, in addition to the rime of the 
 accented syllable, for although the number of rimes in -uag 
 is only 38, still the percentage of rimes of ginuag with giwuag 
 is greater than one would expect, even though they are the two 
 most frequent rime words of the above ending.^ 
 
 Whenever, therefore, we find both riming words of a couplet 
 compounded with the prefix gi-, we are justified in assuming 
 that its presence is intentional,* and that it serves as a slight 
 addition to the rime of the accented syllable or syllables. 
 
 ^ Otfrid's Evangelienbuch, II. Theil, Glossar und Abriss der Gram- 
 matik. 
 
 ^ The majority of the rimes of this type are of verbs, such as gihaltan 
 : giwaltan, that exist in both simple and compound form, or both 
 rime words are such as have only the gi forms, as gimurt : giburt, in 
 which case nothing can be proved from them. 
 
 ^ The statistic is as follows: Total number of rimes in -uag^^S; 
 ginuag = 10; giwuag = 16; other words in -uag ^ 12. 
 
 * From an examination of the verbs and passages in question it does 
 not appear that the use of the gi- is in these cases due to any 
 special perfective function. 
 
22 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 This conclusion would seem to indicate that Otfrid's atti- 
 tude was : the more agreement, the more rime, and this will 
 have to be borne in mind in the discussion that is to follow. 
 
 Turning now to the consideration of inaccurate penultimate 
 rime we may make 3 main divisions : 
 
 I. The vowels or diphthongs of the penult are identical, but 
 there is some consonantal inaccuracy. Cf . guatun : stuantun, 
 waltan : stantan. 
 
 II. The penultimate vowels or diphthongs are not wholly 
 identical, but contain some element of identity, with occasion- 
 ally an inaccuracy in the consonant. Cf. guate : drute; liuti : 
 riati; thurfti : ruafti. 
 
 III. The penultimate vowels or diphthongs are different. 
 Cf. harto : zvorto; wuntar: altar; ziti: noti. 
 
 Class I may be divided into the following two subdivisions : 
 
 A. One penult ends in a consonant, the other in a vowel or 
 diphthong. 
 
 B. The penults end in consonants that are not identical, but 
 are either (a) similar, or (b) dissimilar. 
 
 As examples under A may be cited such rimes as riatun: 
 giziartun; gimeinti: chuanheiti; giiatim: stuantun. This is not 
 a large category ; it contains 97 rimes, which occur in the 
 various books as follows : 
 
 I II III IV V Total 
 
 16 23 19 22 17 97 
 
 1.6% 2.7% 1.8% 1.9% 1.5% 1.9% 
 
 As the above percentages show, the ratio between the books 
 is not far from normal, though I and V should show a higher 
 percentage — particularly the former — as they contain the 
 largest amount of suffix rime. 
 
 The most noteworthy feature of this class of rimes is that 
 in two-thirds of them the extra consonant is either a nasal or 
 liquid, r and n being especially common, the former occurring 
 26, the latter 22 times.^ The reason for this predominance of 
 nasal and liquid is to be sought in the fact that they, as the 
 
 ^ The others are I, 12 ; m, i ; of consonants that are not nasals or 
 liquids are found: t,y', h, 6; and others occurring only once each. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 
 
 most sonorous consonants, would blend with, and offer least 
 hindrance to, the rime of the vowels. This consideration seems 
 to have influenced Otfrid in his selection of rime w'ords, for 
 there is a tendency to restrict these latter to certain rime 
 groups where the consonants in question appear. Cf. horti: 
 noti (II 5. 19; III 17. 30; IV 13. 52; IV 24. 2); gihorfa: 
 zverncta (III 20. 169), and hortun: rcdinotun (III 12. 9); 
 guati-.siuanti (II 2. 10; III 13. 58; 15. 21 ; IV 15. 56; IV 30. 
 12; 2)^^. 13) : b'lta-.'ilta (III 24. 40; V 7. 56. 65), and b'ltiin: 
 'iltun (V 4. 10; 5. 4); 'iltl: z'lti (I 22. 2; V 4. 11; 16. 7); 
 fuarta: guata (I 15. 11; II 4. 51). Other instances might be 
 given : they would all serve to show an effort to secure a sonor- 
 ous consonant for the one penult, as least disturbing the vocalic 
 agreement or rime. 
 
 Other rimes that may also be mentioned here are those in 
 which the initial consonants of the penults are identical. In a 
 subsequent discussion the attempt will be made to show that this 
 identity was sought for, as an additional element of rime in 
 the penultimate syllable. Those to be classed under I A are : 
 m'lnii \ urminnu (I 4. 50) ; abahofun: gihorfun (III 19. 19; 24. 
 no) ; gieiscofa: scolfa (IV 3. 20) ; bibiiiota: notta (IV 34. i). 
 
 Subdivision B of Class I consists of such rimes as zvaltan : 
 stantan : thulti : zviirti ; Iciffa: irdeilfa, etc. It exceeds the pre- 
 ceding class in frequency, comprising a total of 158 rimes, 
 which are divided as follows, under the groups (a) and (b), 
 as mentioned on page 22 : 
 
 I II III IV V Total 
 
 (a) 24 20 3S 28 22 = 129 
 
 (b) 10 8 2 5 4 =29 
 Total 34 28 37 33 26 =158 
 
 34% 3-1% 34% 3% 24% = 3-1% 
 
 Book I approaches here more closely to the percentage we 
 should expect from the amount of its suffix rime, than in A, 
 but \', contrary to our expectations, shows the fewest in- 
 stances of all. 
 
 Another peculiarity of this class consists in the frequency 
 with which tlie penult ends in a nasal or liquid. All the rimes 
 of subdivision (a) come under this head and in only 29 rimes, 
 
24 SUFFIX RIME IN OFF RID 
 
 therefore, of the entire 158 are consonants other than these 
 used, 10 of these being found in Book I. In such rimes as 
 warten : halten we may accordingly assume intention to rime 
 not only the penultimate vowels but also the consonants, in 
 this case r and /, ending this syllable. That is to say, we have 
 a state of things similar to that already discussed in the rime 
 of final syllables. In the latter case, when not identical, the 
 initial consonants of these syllables are usually similar, the 
 riming of nasals and liquids with one another, as in scdni : wdi'i, 
 being very frequent. In the present instance, when we do not 
 get an accurate penultimate rime, such as Jienti : enti, there is 
 an effort to introduce such rimes as zvarten : halten, where the 
 penultimate consonants are similar and where their sonorous 
 quality actually becomes a feature of the rime, instead of hm- 
 dering it as other voiceless dissimilar consonants would do. 
 Rimes of / : 71 are especially numerous, appearing 63 times ; 
 / : r shows 37 instances. No rime of / : in is found in this 
 class ; the others ^ are : n :r, 18 ; n : m, 10 ; r : m, 2. The order 
 of frequency of these consonants in rime is : I, 100 times ; n, 
 91 ; ^^ 57 ; w, 12. Here the condition of affairs is very similar 
 to the statistic given under the Ultima? That is to say, / and 
 n seem to be regarded as most similar, / and r next, and / and 
 m least similar of all. The only difference in the present case 
 is that 10 of the 12 rimes of ni are with n where we should 
 expect, proportional to the total number of n rimes, only 6. 
 This, therefore, points to m and n as the most similar of all 
 the nasals and liquids ; whereas, in the class referred to above, 
 the statistic showed m and r to be the most common combina- 
 tion, m and n, however, being a very close second. 
 
 In this division we may also observe the tendency toward 
 riming certain words together so often that they may, in so 
 far as the stem of the word is concerned, be said to form tvpi- 
 cal rime pairs. As examples of such typical rimes of l:n the 
 following may be mentioned : 
 
 I. Some inflectional form of gimeinen '.soxnt form of deilen 
 (vb.) \ gimeinta : (ir)dcilta (II i. 33; III 6. 41 ; IV 7. 71 ; 19. 
 
 * To these must, of course, be added the 29 referred to on p. 23. 
 ^ P. 14. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 25 
 
 69) ; gimcintnn'.irdciltun (IV 6. 15) ; gimciutT: irdcUtl (II 12. 
 78) ; ginicintur.gidciltln (IV 28. 4). Other rimes from these 
 same stems, which may be noticed here, aUhough they do not 
 belong to this class, as the penult does not end in a consonant, 
 are: ginicinc (vh.) : dcilc (II 13- 3^ ; V 20. 64); gimeinit: 
 irdcilit (II 9. 20 ; III 18. 20 ; II 12. 84) ; gimeini (adj.) : urdcili 
 (noun.) (Ill 16. 46; V 20. 2). These rimes are mentioned 
 in passing in order to show that it is not merely inflectional 
 forms that Otfrid associates, but the words themselves. 
 
 2. Some form of gimeinen : some form of heileri — gimeinta: 
 hcilfa (II 24. 9; III 4. 37; 14. 54: 16. 34; IV 2. I. 26; 12. 15) ; 
 gimcintl-.hciln (III 2. 6; 3. 6; 11. 6. 12).' 
 
 3. gkveltiihenfi (I 7. 13 ; 16. 28; II 4. 85 ; I3- 30 ; IV 11. 8). 
 
 4. gizvelti : e;z/t (I 15. 37 ; 28. 6 ; V 6. 60. 63 ; 25. 20. 102) . 
 
 5. zalta-.irkanta (I 13. 23; II 7- 62. 69; 12. 11), and others. 
 Examples of n : r are not so numerous, though there are a 
 
 number occurring twice. Cf. also wurtiin : bifuntun (I 8. 5 ; 
 
 V 6. 26; 23. 281). 
 
 Yov n \ m zi. stimna-. mimia (I9. n ; HI 22. 22 ; IV 33. 16 ; V 
 12. 57), and minnif.sfimnu (III 13. 12; IV 21. 34; V 12. 94; 
 
 20. 66). 
 
 For l:r cf. i. thnlti \ antzmirti (III 17. 38; 18. 37; 22. 35; 
 IV 19. 41; 23. 34; V 20. 81), and thidtiiwnrti (III 19. 25; 
 
 R' 10. 4; 15. 44). 
 
 2. Some form of hclfan: some form of zi'erfair'—z^'crfet: 
 gihelfet (II 11. 33) ; hiHit : nrzjuMt (II 17. 8) ; o-//n///l// : z^'urfm 
 (III 18. 70) ; gihelfe-.iirzvcrfe (III 4. 24; 17. 16). 
 
 3. Some form of zvarteii : some form of haltan — zijartcn : 
 haltcn (I 29. 9 ; II 4. 59) ; zvartes: haltcs (I 19. 12) ; giwartent : 
 gihaltent (II 19. 10). 
 
 4. /zar^o: managfalto (IV 9. 29. 32; 26. 25). 
 
 While this does not by any means exhaust the list of rime 
 groups, the above will be sufficient to show to how large an 
 extent they occur, and the explanation of their frequency is at 
 hand ; namely, that these rimes between nasals and liquids were 
 
 ^ Similarly 5 rimes of gimeini (adj.) : hcili (noun). 
 
 - The rimes of hclfan : n'crfan afford an interesting illustration of how 
 Otfrid associates the words themselves together and not merely inflec- 
 tional forms. 
 
26 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 regarded as good, and that two words of this sort having once 
 been used together one was Hkely to call forth the other 
 whenever afterwards employed. 
 
 There are 7 rimes belonging under this category, that have 
 the initial consonant identical, and they may be noted here, to 
 bear witness later on to the fact that this identity was sought 
 for. They are : gikundti : kunfti (I 23. 6 ; IV 18. 34) ; gihelfe : 
 irheffe (II 17. 17) ; werkeiii-welke (III 7. 67) ; eisconti: scolti 
 (III 15. 38) ; giliuhta: inliiihta (III 20. 146) ; intfuarta'.fiialta 
 
 (IV 31- 34). 
 This completes the discussion of our first main class and 
 
 brings us to Class II, in which the penultimate vowel or diph- 
 thong is not identical, but contains some element of identity, 
 with occasionally a consonantal inaccuracy. For convenience 
 we may further separate this class into two divisions : 
 
 1. The vowel of one penult rimes with one element of the 
 diphthong of the other penult. 
 
 a. With the first element of the diphthong, cf. 
 liuti'. zlti = 30 
 
 (3. W^ith the second element of the diphthong, cf. 
 zvara : fiara = 122 
 
 The riming of the vowel is, in over two-thirds of the cases, 
 with the second part of the diphthong.^ 
 
 2. One element of one diphthong rimes with one element of 
 the other diphthong. 
 
 a. The first element rimes with the first element. 
 Ci. liuti iriati =z ig 
 
 (3. The first element rimes with the second ele- 
 ment. Cf. liuti: gimttati = 32 
 
 y. The second element rimes with the second ele- 
 ment. Cf. Harta : ruarta = 29 
 
 Total, 80 
 
 ^ There is nothing surprising, however, in this, for over half the rimes 
 under 3, i. e. 89. are of a: ua (60) or a:ia (29). As a is the " hellste 
 Vokal " in German it is much better adapted to carrying the rime than 
 either the u or i in the above diphthongs ; so that although the stress 
 of voice is upon the first element of the diphthong, yet the second ele- 
 ment is intrinsically the more suitable for purposes of rime. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 
 
 27 
 
 As the diphthongs in QUI High German are falHng diph- 
 thongs we should expect, as a rule, to find the first, or most 
 strongly stressed, parts of the diphthongs riming together, but 
 from a glance at the above it may be seen that this is the 
 smallest of the three divisions. 
 
 The reason for the so frequent appearance of sub-class y at 
 least will be clear when one considers that 19 of its 29 rimes 
 are of ua : ia, that is, rimes in which the second components of 
 the diphthongs can more easily carry the rime, they being 
 more sonorous than the first elements. 
 
 It would appear,' therefore, from categories a and y that 
 sonority of the vowel is of more importance in the rime of 
 diphthongs than mere stress, but it is a more difficult task to 
 explain why fi should be the most numerously represented of 
 all three categories. 
 
 A consideration of two points, however, will serve to show 
 that rime of the penult w^as undoubtedly intended, not only in 
 regard to sub-class ^, but in all examples included under our 
 main division II : 
 
 A. In addition to the vocalic agreements, the initial conson- 
 ant of the penult is sometimes identical. These cases are : 
 Under i: Tibcliebe (IV 37. 14; V 20. 45; 23. 55; 188); 
 I'lbe-.liabe (III 14. 8; V 20. 39); Tibes:Uobcs (I 16. 20); 
 wison : weison (I 18. 24; IV 15. 47) ; luto\liiito (IV 24. 13; 
 IV 26. 5) ; luti'.liuti (IV 33. 22) ; wari : Hhiiwian (III 4. 3) ; 
 sdzi:siia:;i (IV 4. 16; 5. 30) ; gifarflu : fuartln (IV 35. 25) ; 
 gimiiati: mammunti (V 23. 214). 
 
 Under 2: inliuhtc: Halite (I 12. 4) ; Hobo: giloiibo (III 2^. 
 8 ; IV 13. 28) ; leibfa : liiibfa (V 11. 43) ; Hiibi: giloiibi (V 7. 4 ; 
 20. 44); giliuben: giloiiben (I 26. 11; III 26. 12); liuti: 
 giloiibti (II 2. 9) ; liuti: bnltloiifti (III 8. 3). 
 
 B. We have again certain rime groups which would hardly 
 continue to appear with such regularity were the rime not in- 
 tended and felt in these cases as, at least, permissible. Only 
 a few will be cited. Under i are: zi'ari (adj. or vb.) : (gi)fuari 
 (noun or vb.), 5 ; luara (adj.) : fuara (noun), 5 ; zvani : fuani, 
 I ; wann (vb.) : fiiann (vb.), 2; wanin (vb.) : fuaritn (vb.), 5 ; 
 
 ^ Cf. also I /3 and note. 
 
21 
 
 17 
 
 36 
 
 39 
 
 26 
 
 139 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 i6 
 
 i8 
 
 12 
 
 68 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 |25 
 
 28 SUFFIX RIME IN OFF RID 
 
 guati-.dati, 15; liiiti or some inflectional form thereof: ziti or 
 some form thereof, 5 ; hiare : thare, 3 ; -flrliazi : sdzi, 3. 
 
 Of those under 2 may be mentioned, according to frequency : 
 gifiarta : niarta, 6 : //z/^/ : gimuati, 4 ; /in/// : guati, 4 ; /l^^ : liehe, 
 4; loufti-.anaruafti, 3, and others. 
 
 In order to give a clear idea as to how the rimes of the sub- 
 classes I and 2 are divided in the various books, a statistic of 
 the main class II is appended : 
 
 I II III IV V Total 
 (i) Vowel : elem. of diph. 
 (2) Elem. of diph. : elem. of diph. 12 
 Extra consonant in C 1. 
 one penult. \ 2. 
 
 36 34 58 63 41 232 
 3.6% 3.8% 5.2% 54% 3.7% 4.4% 
 
 Here, too, we do not get the larger percentage in Books I 
 and V to be expected from the larger amount of their suffix 
 rime, but even a somewhat less frequent use than elsewhere. 
 
 In stating this second main class,^ mention was made of an 
 occasional consonantal inaccuracy appearing in the penult. 
 As seen from the enumeration above, this inaccuracy takes 
 the form of an extra consonant ^ in one penult, as in ginuagi : 
 giangi, gimuati: niammiinti, etc., and plays only a minor role, 
 appearing in not quite one-ninth of the total number of ex- 
 amples. Of these 25 instances, the extra consonant is* a nasal 
 or liquid in four-fifths of the cases, thus again demonstrating 
 the preference for these. 
 
 We have now reached our third main category, in which the 
 penultimate vowels of the rime words are dissimilar. The first 
 question that presents itself is whether rime vowels may be dis- 
 similar, and yet the rime of the penults be maintained. Three 
 subdivisions of this class may be distinguished : 
 
 I. The penult ends in a vowel or diphthong. 
 A. The initial consonants of the penults are identical; 
 
 cf. doti : gidati, 
 
 ' P. 22. 
 
 'Most frequently r=zS, or n=8;/^4;no case of m. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 29 
 
 B. The initial consonants of the penults are not identical ; 
 cf. dati: noti. 
 
 2. One penult ends in a vowel or diphthong ; the other in a 
 consonant. Cf. guati: horti. 
 
 3. The penults end in consonants, which may be 
 (a) identical — 
 
 1. The initial consonants of the penult are identical; 
 cf. minno : nianno. 
 
 2. The initial consonants of the penult are not identical ; 
 cf. harto : zvorto. 
 
 (/8) Not identical, but 
 
 1. Similar. 
 
 A. The initial consonants of the penult are identical ; 
 cf. giborge: beige. 
 
 B. The initial consonants of the penult are not identi- 
 cal ; cf. zcunfar: alfar; or 
 
 2. Dissimilar;' cf. kundti: mahti. 
 
 In discussing the above question it seems advisable to start 
 with sub-class 3, as clearer and more satisfactory results can 
 thus be arrived at. 
 
 Let us consider first, then, 3a, where the final consonants of 
 the penultimate syllables are identical. The following 5 con- 
 siderations serve to show that we are justified in assuming 
 intentional rime in these combinations : 
 
 L The rimes occur frequently, 662 times in all, and form 
 about 13 per cent of the total amount of sufiix rime. The ex- 
 amples are distributed as follows over the various books : 
 
 Types. 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 minno : manno. 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 66 
 
 harto : zvorto. 
 
 95 
 
 120 
 
 127 
 
 132 
 
 122 
 
 596 
 
 III 129 141 150 131 662 
 Proper, of suffix rime. 11.4% 15% 13- 1% 137% 12.4% \l% 
 
 Book V and, more especially, I again fall short, as in all other 
 
 ' The division into A and B is not necessary here as there is only one 
 example where the initial consonants of the penults are identical — 
 gisihti: ivahsenti (I 2^. 44). 
 
30 
 
 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 classes thus far treated, of the amount we should expect in 
 view of their larger percentage of suffix rime. 
 
 II. There is a marked tendency to end the penult as a nasal 
 or liquid, i. e. a sonorous consonant. The proportion of rimes 
 in which this is the case to that in which it is not is 459 : 203, 
 showing how favored the nasals and liquids were.' / and r 
 are most frequent, the former occurring 186, the latter 158 
 times ; n is found in 114 rimes, but strange to say no rimes of 
 m are present in this entire subdivision. 
 
 However, as has been noted in the previous classes, m is 
 much less frequently used than the other nasals and liquids. 
 As has already been suggested, Otfrid seems to operate upon 
 the principle that the more sonority there is in a syllable the 
 greater will be the rime effect produced. This principle has 
 already been illustrated ^ by such rimes as noti : horti. 
 
 Again, in the rime of a vowel with a diphthong,^ as in 
 ddti : guati, notwithstanding the heavier stress of the first ele- 
 ment of the diphthong, in the majority of these rimes the 
 vowel rimes with the second element, it being in most cases 
 the more sonorous part. Such rimes as luti'.giiati, i. e. with 
 the first element, are rare. 
 
 III. In addition to the final consonant of the penult, its 
 initial consonant is often identical, thus heightening the rime 
 effect. Cf. minno : manno. The number of instances coming 
 under this subdivision is 66, in all of which this identity must 
 be regarded as striven for, as an increase to the rime of the 
 penult : ( i ) Because this same feature has already been noted 
 in other categories of rimes, and will also be pointed out in 
 classes not yet discussed. To mention by way of anticipation 
 one other class outside of penultimate rime where this identity is 
 found, there is, in antepenultimate rime, a type obana : thanana, 
 occurring 42 times, and belonging to the same category but 
 with the initial consonant identical are such rimes as thanana: 
 thegana, 16 instances, of which the latter rime constitutes 12. 
 In obana : thanana there is really no agreement of the antepe- 
 
 ^ Of the non-sonorous consonants there are 85 cases of rimes in j and 
 72 in h. 
 
 ' P. 23. 
 
 ^ P. 26 and note. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 3 1 
 
 niilt. whereas in thanana : thcgana this syllable is brought into 
 rime by means of its identical initial consonant. The propor- 
 tion of the latter to the former class, constituting as it does 
 two-ninths of the total, is too great to admit of the identity 
 being explained as due to accident ; it is, therefore, to be re- 
 garded as a conscious effort to bring the antepenult into rime. 
 In the juiiuio: manno type rime may be already affirmed on the 
 basis of the identical final consonant of the penult, and w-e may, 
 therefore, go a step further and assume intentional corre- 
 spondence of initial consonant, a feature that we have already 
 seen playing a part in the rime of the prefixes gi : gi. 
 
 The ratio of the minno\ manno to the harto'.ivorto rimes is 
 about 1 : 9, which, with the evidence above given, is sufficiently 
 high to prove the point. 
 
 (2) Because there is a marked tendency to use these rimes 
 in groups, showing that the rime was pleasing enough to bear 
 repetition again and again. Cf. minno : manno, i ; minnon : 
 mannon, 9: wortori: ezvarton, 9; zvorte:ewarte, i; worto: 
 zi'idanuerto, 2 ; worton : zvidarzvertdn, 2 ; rehte : rihte, 3 ; zvorte : 
 antunirte, 3 ; lante : elilente, 3 ; lante: ilente, i ; zuoiti: giwelti, 2, 
 irwolli'.irwelli, i ; zvollent : zvellent, i ; wollet: wellet, i ; others 
 might be quoted, occuring once or twice and showing the same 
 identity as in the above rimes. 
 
 IV. The rimes of both the zvorto : harto and minnon : mannon 
 types must have been in good standing because, as already 
 shown above, in a part of this class, i. e. the minno '.manno 
 rimes, they are found so often in rime groups that intention 
 may be assumed. A few of the zvorto : harto type are harto 
 : zvorto, 67 ; drnhtin : mahtin^ 27 ; zvizzi : nuzzi, 10 ; foil on : zvil- 
 Icn, 22; zuillen (noun) \fnllen (vb.), 16: festi: briisti, 10; alle: 
 folle, 9: nahtes: rehtes, 5; fristi : fcsti, 6; thanne : zellenne, 3; 
 thanne: tJiariiine, 3; herton:zvorton, 5. 
 
 Grimm " places the rimes of the minno : manno type under 
 the rubric of identical rime ; but at the beginning of his study 
 he has defined riihrendcr rcim as follows: " Riihrender Reim 
 setzt vollige Gleichheit aller Buchstaben voraus." It appears, 
 
 ' Cf. Refrain V 23. 
 
 ^ Kleinere Schriften 4, 160. 
 
32 SUFFIX RIME IN OFF RID 
 
 therefore, that he has departed from his definition with regard 
 to these rimes. PauFs designation (Grundriss," p. no) of this 
 type as " riihrender ungenauer Reim " contains a clear contra- 
 dictio in adjecto. The above discussion has presented these 
 combinations in a different Hght, and has served to show that 
 they are not to be regarded as identical rime ^ but should be 
 classified as inaccurate penultimate rime, exhibiting a some- 
 what more advanced stage than the harto : zvarto type, but 
 being of the same general nature ; that also this identity was 
 conscious, forming part of a plan to secure as much agreement 
 in the riming syllables as possible. 
 
 It may be objected that, if this latter observation be true, 
 Otfrid's conception of the most accurate rime would be identi- 
 cal rime. While such a statement would not be warranted, 
 yet Otfrid cannot be said to manifest a marked tendency 
 towards avoidance of identical rime, as 4^ per cent of the 
 entire body of his rimes consists of such. 
 
 The usage of the other rimed poems of the Old High Ger- 
 man period also corresponds rather closely to that of Otfrid,^ 
 
 V. It can be shown in the majority of cases that the vowels 
 of the penults themselves, though not identical, are not ar- 
 ranged at haphazard with reference to each other, but that 
 there is a tendency to rime the vowels most closely related with 
 one another, thus bringing both consonant and vowel into rime. 
 
 As is well known,^ a as ' reiner \"okal ' is the most sonorous 
 of all the vowels, while n and / are the least sonorous. As 
 middle stages respectively between a and i and between a and 
 u lie e and 0. If, then, we examine the riming penultimate 
 vowels of 3a with these facts in mind, what conclusions can be 
 reached in ree;ard to the riminsf vowels? 
 
 First, as to the vowel a, 152 of the 344 instances are rimes 
 with 0. That is to say, nearly one-half of the total number of 
 rimes of a, the vowel occurring most frequently, are with 0, 
 and about a fourth of the 662 rimes of which this class is com- 
 posed are rimes between these two vowels. Both mid-back 
 
 ^ Cf. Identical Rime. 
 
 ' Cf. under Identical Rime, p. 61. 
 
 ^ Cf. S levers' Phonetik, p. 78. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 33 
 
 vowels, the one unrounded and the other rounded, they are the 
 two most similar and sonorous of the vowels, and their fre- 
 quency in rime together is thus fully explained, and must be 
 regarded as intentional. That this conjunction of a and is 
 not due to mere chance may be further enforced by the con- 
 sideration that proportionally to the total number of occur- 
 rences of a we should expect rimes with only 65 times; 
 whereas, as stated, these actually number 152. 
 
 This same effort can be demonstrated in the case of other 
 vowels that are similar, though perhaps not so clearly and 
 forcibly as in the above collocation. Thus, a : e occurs 79 
 times, this being, after a : 0, the most frequent rime of a, while 
 as regards e the latter vowel is found joined in rime with it 
 most frequently of all. Though the similarity is not as great 
 as in the former case, still it may be considered as sufficient. 
 Furthermore, e is third in order of sonority, the sequence being 
 
 represented bv a-o-e \^ . So that it would seem that in this 
 
 instance, also, the riming of a : ^ is to be explained on the same 
 score. 
 
 Sixty-three rimes of c : i are found, and 79 of i : 11. The 
 former class docs not call for any special comment ; in regard 
 to the latter it is noteworthy that in 47 instances, i. e. over half 
 of them, the consonant immediately preceding the i is zu. Cf. 
 irianntan : gihnntan, fiiUe : wille. The tendency of the w is to 
 produce the efYect of a rounding of the i, a sound similar 
 enough to n to be used in rime with it. 
 
 In the vowels riming together most extensively we may, 
 therefore, see a similarity, and in proportion as this likeness 
 decreases there is a corresponding decrease in the number of 
 times that such vowels are joined together in rime. Thus, a: i, 
 46; e'.o, 40; i'.o, 33, all of which figures are less than we 
 should expect in proportion to the total number of times that 
 the vowels concerned appear in rime. On the other hand, 
 similar vowels rime together usually about twice as often as 
 the proportion to their total number of occurrences would lead 
 us to expect. 
 
 If this investigation of penultimate vowels should be ex- 
 tended so as to include all classes of penultimate rime where 
 
34 
 
 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 the vowel is not identical, the above results would remain sub- 
 stantially the same. The vowel combinations occurring most 
 frequently are : a : o, a: e, e : i, and i : u. In the case of the 
 last mentioned the numerous instances may again in great part 
 be explained as due to a similarity between them, produced by 
 the presence of a w preceding the i vowel. Furthermore, there 
 are in most cases twice as many of these rimes as would be 
 found if they were due to accident and distributed proportion- 
 ally. Contrariwise, the more unlike vowels occur less often 
 together than can be justified or explained on any other score 
 than that of conscious avoidance. 
 
 Let us next take up the sub-class fB of the above ^ division 3, 
 in which the consonant ending the penult is not identical but 
 either (i) similar, or (2) dissimilar. 
 
 Nearly the same proofs may be applied here, in support of 
 penultimate rime, as in sub-class a. 
 
 I. Though not constituting as large a class as the former, 
 these rimes are not infrequent. Altogether 169 examples occur, 
 distributed as follows : 
 
 Types. 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 Jborge : beige. 
 \wuntar : altar. 
 2. kundti: mahti. 
 
 I 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 29 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 34 
 
 
 2 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 146 
 II 
 
 
 35 
 3-6% 
 
 2>7 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 3-2% 
 
 25 
 2.3% 
 
 169 
 
 It should be noted that 6 of the 11 rimes in which the con- 
 sonants ending the penults are dissimilar are in Book I. The 
 percentage of this book is slightly higher for the entire class 
 than that in any other book except II, but in neither I nor V 
 do we find as large a proportion as would be expected in view 
 of the extent of their suffix rime. 
 
 II. The penult syllable ends regularly in a nasal or liquid, 
 i. e. a sonorous consonant. Only 11 instances of other con- 
 sonants are found. The rime of r\n is quite common, occur- 
 ring 92 times; less frequent is I'.r (36 times), and l\n (22 
 times). The rime of m is rare, occurring in only 4 cases, 
 
 * Cf. p. 29. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 35 
 
 which agrees with previous statements in other classes as to 
 its in frequency. 
 
 III. In addition to the similarity of the final consonant the 
 initial consonant of the penult is at times identical. This 
 identity, as already demonstrated, was striven for. The in- 
 stances are: zi'crkd)i : biwankoii (II 4. 88 ; 23. 11) ; antwurten 
 '.iventcn (IV 7. 22; 9.-5) ; milti: niainniiinti (II 16. 5; III 14. 
 Ill; 19. 12) ; zi'iirtitniwoltun (V 24. 9) ; giborge: beige (II 
 18. 15); giberge: abulge (I 23. 40); widarwinnon-.warndn 
 (II 3. 56); funtan: einfaltan (II 7. 55); gisihti : wahsenti (I 
 23.44). 
 
 IV. Notwithstanding the small size of the class, rime-groups 
 are present, showing that such a rime as wiintar : altar was 
 acceptable. Cf. manno : gerno, 9 ; inilti : antwurti, 8 ; a form of 
 findan : a form of zverdan, 6 ; a form of thenkeu : a form of 
 zmrken, 15 ; a form of githanko (noun) : a form of zverko 
 (noun), 13; managfalto-.ivorto, 4, and others of less frequent 
 occurrence. 
 
 V. The tendency to rime the most similar and sonorous 
 vowels may again be observed. The rime of i and « also is 
 frequent, but it should be noted that in 12 out of a total of 18 
 rimes, i is again preceded by w. 
 
 The above considerations serve to show that in class (i we 
 have penultimate rime, consisting in the rime of similar final 
 consonants and like vowels, with at times the additional agree- 
 ment of the initial consonant of the penult. 
 
 We are now prepared to take up classes i and 2 of the same 
 main category. These two are best treated together as 2 con- 
 stitutes so small a class. The statistics are : 
 
 Types. 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 Jdoti: gidati. 
 \ddti: noti. 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 II 
 
 43 
 
 43 
 
 74 
 
 92 
 
 76 
 
 328 
 
 2. gizitin : -wurtin. 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 46 
 
 
 60 
 
 48 
 
 86 
 
 104 
 
 87 
 
 385 
 
 
 6.1% 
 
 5.6% 
 
 7-9% 
 
 94% 
 
 8.2% 
 
 7.5% 
 
 As shown above, there is a redundant consonant in one 
 penult in 46 instances. Cf . guati : hortl; dati : hd}tti. These 
 
36 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 latter do not interfere with the penultimate rime because in all 
 except 8 cases these consonants are nasals or liquids, and are, 
 therefore, sonorous elements. Of these, n and r are most 
 numerous, the former occurring i8, the latter 17 times. Only 
 three instances of / are found and none of m. 
 
 There is, then, a tolerably frequent appearance of rime of 
 this noti : ddti class, Book V containing its approximate pro- 
 portion, but Book I being still found wanting. 
 
 The tendency to group the rimes around certain words is 
 very marked, as in other classes. Thus, there occur : noti : dati 
 19 ; a form of not : a form of Hut, 14 ; noti : ziti, 16 ; noti : muati, 
 12; noti: guati, 12; ginoto: thrato, 8; ndti\arabciti, 5; wdra: 
 lera, 7; wdra\mera, 18; a form of zcarra form of diuri, 6; 
 datiiliuti, 12; giddtiin (wh.) : rietiin (vb.), 7; ddti: ziti, 3; 
 giiato: araheito, 7 (cf. V 23); guatl'.heroti, 3; giiate: gibiete 
 (vb.), 3, and others. 
 
 The initial consonant of the penult is sometimes identical, 
 though less frequently than in the classes already discussed. 
 The rimes are: ddti: giddti (V 7. 41) ; ddtmi'.hiddtun (V 34. 
 3) ; girdti: herdti (III 25. 21) ; mdruiarmeru (I 7. 10) ; ungi- 
 mezen : gimasen (V 10. 24) ; nidron : meron (III 7. 86) ; sdre 
 : sere (IV 34. 19); scdiiaz: scinaz (I 17. 19); Hebe : giloiibe 
 (V 23. 211); siintildsan-.ilrliasan (IV 26. 22); ginouianan: 
 niinan (V 7. 29). 
 
 A glance at the above rime groups shows how numerous the 
 rimes are of not in its inflectional forms with forms of ddt, 
 lint, zit, etc., as also the rimes between zvdra or some form of 
 war and lera, mera, etc. ; likewise, ddt, giiati, and others of less 
 frequent occurrence. The question now presents itself, how 
 can these extremely common rimes, such as noti: ddti, be ex- 
 plained unless we admit rime of the penult ? Tesch ' has ob- 
 served that nearly all the instances of noti, wdra, etc., vised so 
 frequently in the above rime groups, occur in rime in adverbial 
 phrases as mere rime padding, neither adding to nor detracting 
 from the sense of the line. If, then, such a rime as noti: ddti 
 were not considered good by our author, why should he have 
 
 ^ Zur Entstehnngsgeschichte des Evangelienbuches von Otfrid (Greifs- 
 wald, 1890), p. 9 f. 
 
\ 
 
 ; 
 
 PENULTIMATE RIME 37 
 
 used this combination so constantly? Nor can it be urged 
 that there were few other rimes in -Cifi to rime with dati and 
 that the makeshift was due to this fact. For, on consulting 
 Ingenbleek's Lcxikon, such rime endings are found in abun- 
 dance/ and it. therefore, appears that the rime of noti: dati was 
 not forced upon the poet but clearly chosen. By this is not 
 meant that noti does not occur in rime with other words in -oti, 
 for it does, though not quite as frequently as with the word 
 under discussion." 
 
 Similarily, n'ara in its various forms is a common rime used 
 in adverbial phrases as a pure rime expedient, and if we ask 
 ourselves the reason for its frequency of rime with such words 
 as leva and iiicra, a reference to Ingenbleek shows that here, 
 too, it was a question not of compulsion, but of choice. Other 
 rimes in -era occur often enough,' and could have been used in 
 place of z<.'ara had it been felt as at all objectionable. 
 
 It seems clear, therefore, that we must accept rime of the 
 penult in this class of w^ords, and an investigation of the riming 
 penultimate vowels will strengthen this point of view, as the 
 most similar vowels are found in rime together, just as in the 
 preceding category, where this question was sufficiently dis- 
 cussed. It may be added, however, that of rimes between a 
 diphthong and vowel, as in giiati : noti, the most frequent rime 
 is of iia : 0, occurring 43 times, in which we may consider either 
 the and 11, or and a as riming, both parts of the diphthong 
 being similar to the riming vowel in question. 
 
 It cannot be denied that there may be found such instances 
 as liiiti'.dati, ziti\ndti with tolerable frequency (i. e. 23 and 
 16 times respectively), where there is little or no similarity 
 between the vocalic elements, but in the majority of cases the 
 aim to rime similar vowels can be observed and intention 
 predicated. 
 
 When, therefore, we get the type ctti'.noti, both words 
 having primary accent and long vowels, I believe that we have 
 
 ^ Rimes of -Sti: -ati=zyg; -5ti: -oti =^25; -dti : -oti =: 29- 
 ^ noti : dati = 19 ; noti : -oti z=z 17. 
 
 ^ -ara : -ara 18 times ; -era : -era 19 ; -ara : -era 28 ; wara : lera 7 and : 
 mera 18. 
 
38 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 the inception of penultimate rime, for certainly such instances 
 as scmaz: sconaz must be looked upon as rime, and though 
 these are rare as compared to the total number of this class, 
 they, nevertheless, show one of the first steps. 
 
 Secondly comes the noti'.dati types, where the similarity of 
 the vowels and their sonority constitutes the rime, and which 
 points the way to the final stage, i. e. identity of the vowels and 
 accurate penultimate rime, cf . ddti : spati. 
 
 In our examination of penultimate rime hitherto we have 
 found the final syllable always identical, but we are now to turn 
 our attention to rimes in which the initial consonant of the 
 ultima is different, although its vowel is the same. This lat- 
 ter constitutes a much smaller class than the preceding, the 
 ratio being about i6^ to i. 
 
 We may distinguish two divisions: (i) The initial con- 
 sonants of the ultima are similar, cf. wdra'. zala, and (2) The 
 initial consonants are not similar, cf. lihe : sine. The total 
 number of penultimate rimes comprised under i is 355, these 
 forming over one-half of the entire number of rimes in which 
 the final syllable is not identical. The rimes included under i 
 are of nasals and liquids, and of d : n. They are given below 
 in order of frequency : / : n^ 94 ; ng :n, 62; d: n, 54 ; m : n, 31 ; 
 l:r, 31; n:r, 30; m:r, 22; l:ng, 14; d\ng, 10; I'.m, 5; ng: 
 m, 2. 
 
 These rimes have been discussed at length under Ultima^ 
 where the riming quality of such combinations as d : }i, which 
 might be doubted, was made evident ; it is, therefore, not neces- 
 sary to consider this point again in this connection. 
 
 The way in which the rimes are divided will appear from 
 the following table: 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 84 
 
 6s 
 
 73 
 
 46 
 
 87 
 
 355 
 
 The larger amount in I and V is no doubt explained by their 
 greater proportion of sufiix rime as compared with the other 
 books; in Class I, that is where the final syllable is identical, 
 we found these two books usually lagging behind in point of 
 frequency of rimes, although we expected them, to forge ahead 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 
 
 39 
 
 for the reason above given ; we here see where, at least in part, 
 this greater percentage makes its appearance. 
 
 As in the preceding class, rime groups still hold their own, 
 a few of which may be noted, from the various divisions of 
 this main class : 
 
 An inflectional form of sui (poss. pron.) : a form of blidi 
 (adj.), 12; fJilucji: luldcii, 11; thanncallc, 15; uianne\alle, 5; 
 a form of iiciiiicu: a form of ::cllc]i, 8: a form of gimcinew. 
 deilcn, 7; giuiciiii: Jicill, 7; a form of iiidri : a form of seltsani, 
 8; qiidiiiini :zi'anin, 9; meiiia : goujiia, 4; era'.scla, 7; mera: 
 scia, 6; a form of bigijinan : a. form of thingen, 5; a form of 
 higinnan: a form of ringan, 7; gauge: thanne, 6; sindes: hei- 
 minges, 4. 
 
 The above were cited in order to show the frequency with 
 which a certain rime group is repeated in this small class of 
 355 instances. An examination of them will also bring out 
 the fact that, as we should expect, there is a conscious effort 
 to bring the penults into rime. 
 
 Neglecting for the present the difference in the final syllable, 
 and taking into account the penult alone, we may arrange these 
 rimes under the same rubrics as those given in our main Class 
 I, and we shall see that they conform perfectly to this 
 arrangement. 
 
 Corresponding to accurate penultimate rime of the above 
 class, such as hl'ide-.nlde, we have here zCda\z<.'dra, iiuie : 
 kinde, s'mw.hl'idu, gimeinen: deden, higinnew. siiide, etc. 
 
 This type includes 154 rimes, i. e. over half of the total 
 number of the class, which again illustrates the fact that rime 
 of the penult was aimed at as well as of the ultima. 
 
 Of rimes in which the initial consonants of the penults 
 heighten the rime effect by being identical there are : zvdni : 
 wdri (I 15. 23) ; niheine: heime (I i. 94) ; niheuian: heilaii (I 
 I. 98); riiarit : niauiit (II 2. 19); niheiiier: heiler (III 21. 
 2y) ; gincndu : ncnnii (III 22. 58) ; m'lnan : midan (IV 26. 30) ; 
 seltsdne : sd7'e (V 12. 17). 
 
 Corresponding to the type noti: horti, there are only 3 rimes, 
 namely, riiame: duanne, andremo: gerno, and loiignen: gou- 
 uicji; but such rimes as tliaiinc: alle, zcUen: nennen, corre- 
 sponding to the type hcilfa: giniciiifa are again numerous, there 
 
40 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 being 102 instances; the penult ends in a nasal or liquid in all 
 cases. 
 
 Of the type giiati : ddti there is a very small representation in 
 Class II, only 3 rimes being found: heilen: thine n; mdrun: 
 thiarnun, and waltendan : einan. 
 
 The type represented in Class I by riati : giiati, comprises 
 here only 4 examples, namely: zioro: stuolo ; diiira: eina; 
 ziaro: thiojio, and fuanin:iiahin (IV 16. 42), in the last of 
 which the initial consonant of the penult is identical. 
 
 Of the type worto : harto of Class I there are only 5 rimes 
 in Class II: wamie : mende , manne\kinde, mannon:undon 2, 
 sindes : siiimmannes. 
 
 Of the w lint ar : altar type, where the penultimate consonant 
 is not identical but similar, the rimes are more numerous, i. e. 
 59 ; in 3 cases the initial consonant is identical, corresponding 
 to the borge: beige class of I, viz., thanne: thinge (II 6. 45) ; 
 werreniwoUen (IV 14. 16); stirri: gistelU (V 17. 29). The 
 final consonant of the penult is in each case a nasal or liquid, 
 and this class, as well as the others above mentioned, has ex- 
 actly the same characteristics as the corresponding types of 
 Class I, leaving out of consideration, of course, the ultimate 
 syllable. 
 
 There occur 25 rimes of the ndti:ddti type, such as wari 
 : sconi, want : Rfimii, etc., in 8 of which the riming vowels are 
 a: 0, i. e. the two most similar vowels. Moreover, the initial 
 consonant of the penult is in 3 cases identical : scire : sme 
 (IV 7. 33; 19. 5) and wdra-.wtla (IV 13. 4), again illus- 
 trating the effort to rime the penult, even though the vowels 
 are not identical. 
 
 So much, then, for penultimate rime in which the ultimate 
 syllable is not identical, as in Class I, but similar. As regards 
 our second class, in which there is no similarity of the begin- 
 ning consonant of the final syllable, as in lihe: thine, sluagun 
 : wdmn, etc., little discussion seems necessary, as it exhibits 
 the same features as the preceding classes and the same aim 
 may be observed to bring the penult into rime. It remains, 
 however, to show in what proportion this rime is found in the 
 various books, and under what types it is to be classified. 
 
PENULTIMATE RIME 41 
 
 There are 269 rimes belonging- here, this being the smaller 
 of the two classes. Thev are divided : 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 74 
 
 30 
 
 45 
 
 SZ 
 
 67 
 
 269 
 
 It will be noticed that in this class, as in the preceding, 
 Books I and \ , and more especially the former, contain more 
 rimes than the remaining books. If the examples for these 
 two classes be added together, the result is as follows : 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Tota 
 
 Class I 
 
 84 
 
 65 
 
 72> 
 
 46 
 
 87 
 
 355 
 
 Class 2 
 
 74 
 
 30 
 
 45 
 
 53 
 
 67 
 
 269 
 
 158 95 118 99 154 624 
 
 The question now to be answered is, wdiat part of the penul- 
 timate rime of each book does the rime of the above classes 
 form ? 
 
 Penultimate rime, in all its types, is distributed as follows : 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 804 
 
 767 
 
 963 
 
 948 
 
 956 
 
 4438 
 
 Classes i and 2 form the following percentages of the total 
 penultimate rime: I, 19.7 per cent; II, 12.4 per cent; III, 
 12.3 per cent; I\^, 10.5 per cent; V, 16.1 per cent. 
 
 What may we conclude from the fact that V, and more 
 especially I, are distinguished from the other books in their 
 more frequent use of penultimate rime in which the final syl- 
 lable is not identical? May we not assume, on the basis of 
 this evidence, that I and V are of earlier origin? It seems 
 quite reasonable to regard such rimes as s'lne : m'lde, gdbi : zcari 
 as marking an earlier and less skilled period in the career of 
 our poet, particularly in consideration of the fact that rimes in 
 wdiich the final syllable is identical are so very much more 
 predominant. In view of the other stylistic peculiarities of 
 Book 1/ which are usually explained as due to an earlier date 
 
 ^ Especially rimeless verses and the use of alliteration. Cf. Koegel, 
 Deutsche Litteraturgeschichte, I 2. 23 and 40, and PG^ II, 116. 
 
42 
 
 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 of composition, the evidence above cited materially strength- 
 ens this point of view for this book at least, containing as it 
 does the largest proportion of the wdra : ^ala rimes. 
 
 Returning to Class III, we observe how rime groups are 
 still a favorite expedient ; to the accurate type of this class 
 belong : scozvon : ongon, i6 ; boiinie : gilonhe, 9 ; I'lhe : thine, 
 14 (cf. V 23); quamun : gisahim, 7; hoho: scono, 5. Rimes 
 of this accurate penultimate type comprise 167 instances, i. e. 
 over one-half of the total 269 of this class. 
 
 The following have the initial consonant of the penult identi- 
 cal : Maria :mdra (I 6. i) ; werdaniwerban (III 6. 21); 
 gdhi: gigdhi (IV 14. 10); iidhit:gindit (IV 29. 9). The 
 other types are so few in number that no rime groups occur 
 sufficiently often to deserve mention. 
 
 Type notiihorti of Class I, only 8 examples. Cf. liobon: 
 thioriidn, geistes: giheizes, tothes'.heimortes, etc. 
 
 Type hcilta: gimcinta, also 8 instances. Cf. stimmon: kin- 
 don, erdu; zellu, sorgon : follon, etc. 
 
 Type guati : ddti, 6 rimes. Cf. lieben : thlnen, sluagun : 
 wdrun, muates : anhiz!:es, etc. 
 
 Type riati : guati, only 5. Cf. liobcr : niamer, hoitbit : fiiagit. 
 
 Type zvorto: harto, 10. Cf. selben: galgen, zvarba: erda, 
 alles : feldes. 
 
 Type zimntar: altar, 20; in 17 of which the final consonant of 
 the penult is a nasal or liquid. Cf. zverbent: folgent, belgan 
 :biginnan. Cf. also, zjoerdeizjuoUe (I 5. 63). 
 
 Type ndti:ddti, 22 rimes. Cf. hohiiddti, sina::: gistdtaz, 
 irldren:zvezven, liobon: ginuagon. Also zjudrdn:zvezvon (III 
 16. 28). 
 
 Type ddti: Jionti, 18 instances in which the extra consonant 
 is predominantly sonorous, i. e. a nasal or liquid. Cf. stantan 
 : sconan; thinaz: gihdrtaz; slnaz: fuUoitac, and others. 
 
 Penultimate-Antepenultimate Rime 
 
 Before passing to a discussion of antepenultimate rime, we 
 have to deal with a small number of rimes, 104 altogether, in 
 which there is undoubtedly rime between the penult of one 
 word and the antepenult of the other. 
 
PEN UL TIM A TE-AN TEPEN UL TIM A TE RIME 
 
 43 
 
 A few such rimes may be cited by way of illustration : 
 folgrfun '.zi'oltiDi : gitJiaJit'i'. ahtonti; noti: stozenti; not'r.fol- 
 geti; gici}idtun\ gidciltun ; farcta : 7'uarta ; ajidrcmo -.ango; 
 wurzchln-.bhiouiun; ougun: giscozvotun; luubi: mennisgi. 
 
 As the above instances show, the antepenult is long in every 
 case, thus allowing secondary stress on either of the following 
 syllables. We may assume, however, that it is the ultima that 
 here bears the heavier of the secondary stresses, and that the 
 penult is slurred, forming a mere glide from the antepenult to 
 the ultima. For example, the rime of the first words of the 
 above is a proof that they should be accented thus : folgetun 
 : ivoltiin, as only by such stress can the riming parts be brought 
 into prominence. 
 
 These rimes fall into the same categories with regard to the 
 ultima as those of penultimate rime, namely: I. The final 
 syllable is identical, naturally the largest division, containing 
 60 rimes, i. e. over half the total number. 
 
 II. The vowel of the ultima is identical, but the initial con- 
 sonant is only similar, the smallest class, with only 9 rimes. 
 
 III. The vowel of the final syllable is identical, but the 
 initial consonant is neither identical nor similar. 
 
 Here are found 35 instances, making in all a total of 104. 
 These are distributed as follows among the various books : 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 Class I 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 60 
 
 Class II 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 Class III 
 
 19 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 
 •iC 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 104 
 
 
 4-1% 
 
 0.81% 
 
 1.9% 
 
 1-5% 
 
 1.8% 
 
 2% 
 
 It will be noticed that Book I contains about two-fifths of 
 the total number, i. e. 4.1 per cent of its total suffix rime is 
 made up of such rime. This is, again, an indication, appar- 
 ently, of the earlier composition of this book. 
 
 In contrast to the type folgetun : zvoltiin we may mention 
 such rimes as einotun : dotim, an entirely common and char- 
 acteristic type in Otfrid, in which both secondary accents have 
 their full stress, and penult rimes with penult. 
 
44 
 
 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 Antepenultimate Rime 
 
 While antepenultimate rime, such as worahta: forahta, can- 
 not be compared, in point of frequency of occurrence, with 
 penultimate rime, the proportion being only i to 9, it is found 
 not infrequently and is no doubt aimed at; its use is naturally 
 more restricted than that of penultimate rime, because of the 
 greater inherent difficulty of finding rime words of three syl- 
 lables than of two. In so far as the final syllable is identical 
 we may thus divide the rimes : 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 I. Accurate. 5 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 38 
 
 2. Others. 82 
 
 53 
 
 64 
 
 88 
 
 61 
 
 348 
 
 Total 87 
 
 59 
 
 72> 
 
 100 
 
 e? 
 
 386 
 
 9% 
 
 67% 
 
 6.6% 
 
 8.9% 
 
 6.2% 
 
 ym 
 
 In view of the fact that both the antepenult' and the penult, 
 with reference to consonants as well as to vowels, have to be 
 taken into account in this kind of rime, it is not surprising 
 that the possible types of this class as well as those actually 
 occurring should be so numerous. They will not, therefore, 
 here be exhibited in detail. A few examples of both the 
 accurate and inaccurate types may serve as illustrations : 
 githrewita: gistrewita; thegana: segana; kordtiiworolti; ha- 
 beti: sageti; msamane: habanne; lobonti'.worolti; tunicha: 
 diiirltcha; klagonti: sagenti; lobontiiwonenti; habetiin \ gidra- 
 gotnn; sageta: mahalta; HUennes'.brennennes; gimlofi: Jwloti; 
 samanon: theganon; woroiti :beranti; garota:zvorahta; sageta 
 : betota, etc. 
 
 The main accent in such rimes is regularly on a short ante- 
 penult {thegana), there being no stress on the penultimate 
 syllable. 
 
 How do Classes II and III,' in which the ultimas in the one 
 case begin with similar consonants and in the other with dis- 
 similar, compare with Class I above, in which the ultimate syl- 
 lables are identical? We find the same types of rime as in 
 I, although they do not occur so often. The statistic is as 
 follows : 
 
 ^ Cf. p. 43. 
 
ANTEPENULTIMATE RIME 45 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 Class II 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 25 
 
 68 
 
 Class III 
 
 3-2 
 
 II 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 10 
 
 95 
 
 Total 
 
 39 
 
 23 
 
 28 
 
 38 
 
 35 
 
 163 
 
 4% 2.6% 2.5% 3-3% 3-2% 3-1% 
 
 The total number grouped under these two classes is not 
 quite half as large as where the final syllable is identical ; 
 Otfrid is, therefore, on his guard in the case of antepenulti- 
 mate rime with regard to the ultima. 
 
 Examples of II are: gisidili: nidiri ; thcgana:regnla, himile 
 ': li'idirc ; himile : nidavc ; rcdinii : iiidiru; gibilidot : giredinot; 
 hiihila: obana, etc. 
 
 The rimes of the final syllables, or rather the initial conson- 
 ants of the syllables, are as follows : n: 7% ig ; n : I, i^ ; n : d, it, ', 
 11 : )ig, 5 : // : ni, ^\ l\r, 10; /: ng, i. It will be noticed that n 
 is much more frequent in these rimes than any other consonant. 
 
 As illustrations of Class III may be mentioned : hredigii : 
 redinu; mcnigi: zueUfi; edili: bilidi; managi: gisamani; pal- 
 inza : drurcnta, etc. 
 
 Paul notices in these two classes the tendency toward such 
 rimes as ingegini: uicnigi, in which at least one of the con- 
 sonants of the last two syllables is the same, but the order in 
 one is the reverse of that in the other. If we examine the 
 rimes of Class II according to this principle, we find that 
 nearly one-third, i. e. 19 of the total 64 are of this nature. To 
 make the point of view quite clear w'e cite in full : redinu : 
 frewidii, 6; redina: selida; rediiidu : bilidou, 2; tliegand: kitn- 
 ^f^S^y 3; githigine •.kuningc, i; offonoro: Judeono, i; einbo- 
 ronon : widoron, i. 
 
 Class III shows this tendency most clearly, for in 36 of its 
 86 instances both consonants are the same, and in 14 other 
 cases one consonant is identical, as in Class II above. The 
 examples are: ingegini: menigl,'^ 28; githigiiil: vienigi, 2; 
 kisild : felisd, i ; nianaga : sfigaiia, i ; niauaga : thegand, 2 ; ma- 
 nagcn: geganen, i; managan: gilegenan, i; edili : bilidi, i. 
 Also, nioiigJ: gisaniaiii, i ; uicnigu : redinu, i ; githigini: hebigi, 
 
 ^ g and 11 are especially frequent in these syllables. 
 
46 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 I ; regula: hrediga, i ; bilidi: fravili, 3 ; manage : zisamane, i ; 
 manage : giscrihene, i ; managu : redinu, i. 
 
 The ratio of frequency of this rime is too large to admit of 
 the supposition that it is due to mere accident; it is rather to 
 be regarded as a distinct feature of Otfrid's rime technic, and 
 Paul is doubtless right in regarding such rimes as intentional. 
 
 The entire range of antepenultimate rime may be exhibited 
 in the following table: 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 126 
 
 82 
 
 lOI 
 
 138 
 
 102 
 
 549 
 
 13% 
 
 94% 
 
 9.2% 
 
 12.3% 
 
 9-5% 
 
 10.8% 
 
 In Book I we find the largest proportion of this kind of rime, 
 and an explanation is thus afforded as to the reason for a 
 smaller percentage on the part of I in some types of penulti- 
 mate rime. 
 
 The same evidence that was adduced in the case of the latter 
 rime may again be resorted to in the present discussion, and it 
 leads us to the conclusion that, while antepenultimate rime 
 does not represent Otfrid's norm of rime, yet where such rimes 
 do occur they are due to a conscious intention on the part of 
 the poet to bring the syllables in question into rime. 
 
 This evidence — to recapitulate it — consists of : I. The fre- 
 quency of rime groups. The following may be mentioned: 
 
 Class I: forahta-.zvorahta, 10; zelita'.welita, 5; thageta: 
 sageta, 4; scganon: theganon, 3; werita'.nerita, 3; Uriorane: 
 giborane, 3; legitun: zelitun, 4; hahetun: sagetim, 3; redina: 
 the gaud, 9, and redindn\theganon, 7; thanana-.thegand, 12; 
 ubill: fravili, 6; obana: thanana, 3; ftirisfon: heriston, 4; sitoti: 
 irretiti, 5; sagetun: zelitun, 10; managen : heblgen, 4; worolti: 
 sageti, 3. 
 
 Under Class II, where the initial consonants of the final 
 syllables are similar, but not identical, we find : redinu : fre- 
 zvidu, 6; redina: seli da, 5; nidare: himile, 5; sidilon-.redinon, 
 3 ; redinon : koberon, 5. 
 
 Under Class III, where the initial consonants are neither 
 identical nor similar, are the following: ingegini: menigi, 28; 
 bilidi : fravili, 4 ; bilide : fravile, 3 ; menigi : githigini, 4 ; redinon : 
 bredigon, 8 ; manage : gar awe, 3. 
 
ANTEPENULTIMATE RIME 
 
 47 
 
 II. The identity of the initial consonant of the antepenult, as 
 a means of bringing^ this syllable into rime, or heightening the 
 rime effect; cf. selidoji: salidoii. This effort may be most 
 clearly proved from such a type as sainandii: theganon. Of 14 
 rimes of this kind 12 are of thegand:thanana, showing that 
 Otfrid resorted to this means as an expedient for securing rime 
 of the antepenult. 
 
 Beginning, as before, with the examples of our largest main 
 class, I, we find: cisaiuane : sabane (V 6. 57); zisamane: 
 saganne (II 9. y2>) 5 zilotun: gizeinotun (IV 37. 17) ; zvoroiti: 
 ivorahti (II i. 37; III 20. 156; IV 26. 21) ; worolti'.wonanti 
 {Y 25. 94) ; iingiwifiri: zvidari (III 8. 10) ; gigarotin : gagantin 
 (I 23. 13) : uiinuduti: meindati (I 4. 8) ; thanana: fhegana (I 
 3. 26: II. 27; II 21. 39; III 6. II ; 9. 3; 20. 3; IV 7. I ; 22. 19; 
 30. 30; 35. 21; V 9. 3; 21. 25; 22. i) ; selidon: salidon (I 7. 
 24) ; zaii:eii\ zeliti (V 13. 12, 14) ; sitota: sageta (IV 11. 26) ; 
 zisamane-.schanne (I 9. 7); zvoroiti'' -.w-unsgenti (I 11. 32); 
 zi'oraiti : irzi'eliti (V i. 2); irzvorolti'.zvegonti (I 7. 26); 
 lebenti: giloiibenti (I 6. 6); gilebetnn: lobottm (I i. 126); 
 drnhtine : dretanne (I 4. 46) ; gihogeti: habeti (I 9. 22) ; o-/^j- 
 tdti:£rseliti (IV 11. 4); Hrlorane'.biladane (IV 5. 11). 
 
 As to our main classes, II and III, it may be stated that they 
 contain no examples of the above, strangely enough, as Class 
 I shows a quite frequent usage, the proportion to the total 
 number of rimes under this class being 36 to 386, or i: ii. 
 W^hile it is true that the other two main classes are much 
 smaller than I, containing respectively 68 and 95 rimes, wx 
 should, nevertheless, expect several instances of the above 
 type. 
 
 III. Where there is no identity of the antepenultimate vow- 
 els, i. e. in three-fifths of the instances, an investigation shows 
 that, as in penultimate rime, it is the most similar vowels that 
 rime most frequently, namely, a \ 0, a: e, and e : i. Rimes of 
 /: u are extremely rare, and several of these are explained by 
 the same rounding influence of a zv that we have before wit- 
 nessed in the case of penultimate rime on page 33. 
 
 ^ Note the frequency of worolt in these combinations. 
 
48 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 As soon as such a type as sdgetd : hetota appears, there seems 
 to be the inception of rime ; next comes the type sdgetd : holotd, 
 in which the antepenultimate vowels are similar, and finally 
 the accurate stage forahta : worahta, with all the stages between 
 that affect the penult. 
 
 Other Old High German Monuments 
 
 In order to show the relation of the other Old High German 
 rimed poems to Otfrid, a few words may be said regarding 
 their rime usage. 
 
 The following percentages ' will serve to show what pro- 
 portion of each poem is made up of suffix rime, and how this 
 compares with Otfrid's use : 
 
 Otfrid, 71.7 per cent; Ludwigslied, 54.2 per cent; Georgslied, 
 58.9 per cent; Petruslied, 50 per cent; Christus u. d. Samari- 
 terin, 48.4 per cent ; Psalm 138, 40 per cent. That is, none 
 of the' poems approach Otfrid so far as this rime is concerned, 
 as we find him using 12.8 per cent more than the Ludwigslied, 
 this containing, next to Otfrid, the highest amount. 
 
 As to the vowel of the final syllable, we may perceive the 
 same care exercised as in Otfrid, and only very rarely do we 
 find such vowels not identical except in Psalm "" .138, where this 
 is frequently the case. 
 
 So far as it is a question, however, of the identity of the 
 entire final syllable, it must be confessed that one finds this 
 much less often than in the rimes of Otfrid, as the following 
 statistic, showing the percentage of suffix rime with identical 
 final syllable, will show : Otfrid, 83.8 per cent ; Ludwigslied, 
 56.2 per cent ; Georgslied, 60.6 per cent ; Petruslied, 66^ per 
 cent; Christus u. d. S., 33^ per cent; Psalm 138, 28.6 per cent. 
 
 If we proceed as previously, and divide the suffix rimes of 
 these smaller monuments into penultimate and antepenultimate 
 rime, the results are : 
 
 ^ See Vos, Rime Parallelism in O. H. G. verse, Studies in Honor of 
 B. L. Gildersleeve, p. 441. 
 ^ This is probably due to its later date. 
 
Georgslied, 
 
 727 
 
 Petruslied, 
 
 100 
 
 Christus u. d. S., 
 
 643 
 
 Psalm 138, 
 
 93 
 
 IDENTICAL RIME 49 
 
 Penultimate Rime. Antepenultimate Rime. 
 
 Ludwigslied, 68.7 per cent. 31.3 per cent. 
 
 27.3 " 
 ^ 00.0 
 
 35.7 " 
 it _ li 
 
 Penultimate rime forms 87.2 per cent of Otfrid's rimes, and 
 antepenultimate only 10.7 per cent, the remaining 2.1 per cent 
 being made up of penult-antepenultimate rime. 
 
 There is, therefore, a less frequent use of the former in the 
 smaller monuments, and correspondingly more of the latter, 
 including under both heads, of course, both accurate and inac- 
 curate types. As to other points, we may notice the same 
 method of rime as found in Otfrid, both as to his tendency to 
 rime the prefixes gi- together, and to heighten the rime efiFect 
 by identity of the initial consonant of the penult or antepenult. 
 Cf. kiscirres: kiscephes (Christus u. d. S. 13); gidanchun: 
 gizuancJwii ; gkvar: gipar (Psalm 138, 11. 5 and 22) ; giborana: 
 berega (Christus u. d. S. 29); fahair.iiUan; kaiiiaro : kunin- 
 giiiiw (Georgslied, 11. 36 and 49) ; kitoiii: gekunni; lides:llbes 
 (Ludwigslied, 11. 54 and 51). 
 
 Identical Rime 
 
 By identical rime is meant here rime in which the riming 
 words or syllables are perfectly identical in form. With re- 
 gard to rime of this sort B. J. V^os ' remarks as follows : " To 
 a modern ear this kind of rime seems objectionable and we 
 find that for the Middle High German poet, too, it did not 
 occupy the same position as ordinary rime. This is clearly 
 shown not only by its low ratio of frequency but also by the 
 limitations with which its use was attended. Identical rime 
 may then be regarded as by nature a makeshift, used mostly 
 where there was a paucity or entire lack of other rimes. From 
 this principle there follows that as the technical skill of the 
 poet developed, his recourse to this makeshift would become 
 less and less frequent. Alongside of this increase in the poet's 
 resources we must suppose that there was developing a finer 
 
 ^ Diction and Rime-Technic of Hartman von Aue, p. 60. 
 
50 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 feeling for the imperfections of this kind of rime : refinement 
 of feehng for form went side by side with a greater versatiHty 
 in the employment of resources at command." 
 
 Zwierzina^ assumes substantially this same attitude, and 
 shows with what care the more skilful Middle High German 
 poets avoided its usage, as offensive to good taste. 
 
 In a study of Otfrid's rime, the question at once arises, how 
 did he regard identical rime? Was his frame of mind toward 
 it the same as that of the above-mentioned poets, or was it 
 not displeasing to him, and did he resort to it frequently ? We 
 know that he uses various other expedients, such as adverbial 
 expressions for instance, to secure rime, and the question, there- 
 fore, presents itself whether he perhaps makes so free a use 
 of identical rime that it, too, may be regarded as due to the 
 same exigency; or whether in certain books a decrease can be 
 traced. 
 
 W. Grimm ^ has already enumerated the instances of identi- 
 cal rime, but there are quite a number of omissions, and many 
 of the rimes cited by him have to be excluded, not only accord- 
 ing to the definition above given, but also according to Grimm's 
 own definition.^ These cases will be discussed in their proper 
 place. It was such circumstances as these that made a fresh 
 classification of Otfrid's identical rimes and an effort to estab- 
 lish his point of view seem desirable. 
 
 We may classify the instances under the following cate- 
 gories : 
 
 I. Complete identity of the riming words, both in form and 
 meaning. Cf. ist : ist; thir : thir; mlmt : mimi. 
 
 II. Complete identity in form, difference in use or meaning. 
 Cf. sin (inf.) : sui (pron.) ; lihe (noun) : libe (verb) ; eino 
 (adj.) : eino (adv.). 
 
 III. One rime word is identical in form with part of the 
 other. 
 
 A. The riming parts are from the same stem. 
 
 a. Simplex : compound. Cf. richi: himilrlcJii; kind'.the- 
 gankind. 
 
 'ZfdA., 45, 286 f., "der rfihrende reim." 
 ^Kleinere Schriften 4, 159 i. 
 ' P. 31. 
 
IDENTICAL RIME 5 1 
 
 B. Riming- parts are not from the same stem. 
 
 a. Simplex : compound. Cf. antwurti (noun) : zvurfi 
 verb) ; in alwari : zvari (verb). 
 
 /3. Simplex : secondary syllable or syllables. Cf. iiote : 
 cinote : sim : Jicrasioi; )idt: giredijwt. 
 I\". Tlie parts preceding the rime syllables are dissimilar. 
 
 A. Dissimilar prefixes. Cf. iirliad\hiliazi; bigeigige. 
 
 B. Adverbs in -licho. Cf. iogilicho : guallicho ; baldltcho: 
 thcganUcho. 
 
 C. Compounds in -/I/z. Ci. stiviillJi : giliJi. 
 
 D. Others. Cf. iimbiring (adv.) : woroltring (noun) ; 
 tharasiin (adv.) : drutsun (noun). 
 
 We shall now take up these categories in turn, state the num- 
 ber of occurrences of each combination' in the several books, 
 and, where it seems desirable, discuss the instances : 
 
 I. Complete identity of the riming words, both in form and 
 meaning. 
 
 A. Parts of the verb " to be " : ist :ist {I i;ll ^', III 2) ; 
 was : was {1 2) ; si: s'l'' (III 2 ; V 7) . 
 
 B. Pronouns. 
 
 a. Personal : thir: thir (II 2 ; III i) ; thih : thih (V 2) ; 
 mill : mih (III 1) ; iniin (I i ; III 2 ; IV 3 ; V 2) ; iu : iu 
 (III i; IV 5; V I). 
 
 ^. Demonstrative: thaz'.thaz (II i; III 7; V i) ; 
 thes: thes (V i) ; thiw. thin (II 2; III 3; IV 2). 
 
 y. Possessive: mm: mm (III i) ; mimt'.mmti (III i). 
 
 8. 7iiwtht : niwiht (II i). 
 
 C. Adverbs : to : io (I 1) . 
 
 Summary : I 5 ; II 10 ; III 21 ; IV 10 ; V 14 = 60. 
 
 Of two other examples, the one, eigi (vb.) : eigi (vb.) is re- 
 jected by Grimm because Ms. F has neigi in one case; it has 
 therefore, not been included here. The other instance is found 
 in III 7. 42, goiima: goiimd (nim es harto gouma, thiz sint 
 thio selbun gouma). These two words are not identical in 
 meaning and cannot, therefore, with Grimm, be classed under 
 the above category-; for the phrase gouma neman in the sense 
 
 ^ Six of these rimes in Book V occur in a refrain in Chapter I. 
 
52 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 of " wahrnehmen, beachten," introduces an appreciably differ- 
 ent use of the word from that of the nominative plural in its 
 regular substantive meaning. 
 
 The rimes of this class are then, with the single exception 
 of io : io, parts of the verb ' to be/ or are pronouns ; excluding 
 mmii and niwiht they consist only of monosyllabic words. 
 Their unequal distribution in the various books must also be 
 noticed, for while III, with 21 instances, leads the list, IV, of 
 equal length, has only half as many identical rimes; likewise, 
 II, of the same length as I, has double the instances of I, 
 w^hich contains the fewest examples. While the number of 
 these rimes may seem rather large in itself, it should be borne 
 in mind that this class contains less than one-fifth of the total 
 amount of identical rime. The words used are of common 
 occurrence, and are found, for the most part, frequently in 
 rime. An examination of the rime endings in which they figure 
 shows that Otfrid had three options for rime: (a) another 
 root syllable; (b) identical rime; (c) inflectional syllable. 
 Although accurately riming words under (a) are as a rule 
 limited in number, his preference for them as over against 
 those of (c) is shown by the number of times these combina- 
 tions occur, the words found most frequently in identical rime 
 being those used most often in conjunction with other root 
 syllable rimes."^ 
 
 The fact, then, that there is a somewhat numerous represen- 
 tation of this class, does not necessarily mean that Otfrid had 
 an inclination towards such rime. It seems to be rather a ques- 
 tion of rime expediency, an effort to rime root syllable with 
 root syllable, this effort resulting at times in identical rime; 
 but that there is a tendency to differentiate to a certain extent 
 between identical rimes may be seen from the discussion under 
 Class II. 
 
 We now proceed to an examination of the rimes of Class II. 
 
 ^ tJiac: tJwj:, 9; but cf. thaz'.zvas, 44; -.has, 9; : alloc, 13; : hcbigac, 
 7; : s'lnaa, 7. ist : ist, 7; cf. ist: hist, 15; : krist, 8; : frist, 7. thir: thir, 
 3; cf. thir: mir, 27. thih: thih, 2; cf. thih: mih, 8; : sih, 4. mih: mih, i. 
 in: in, 8; cf. in: bin, 7; :ln, 8 (see under Class II). mm (poss.) : mm 
 (poss.), i; cf. mm:sm, 42; : thin, 11. iu:iu, 7; thiu:thiu, 7; cf. 
 iu : thiu, 17. 
 
= 6 
 = I 
 
 IDENTICAL RIME 53 
 
 Tn this class we find complete identity in form, difference in 
 
 use or meaning. 
 
 ^7;/ (pron.) : sm (inf.) I i ; II i ; HI I ; IV i ; V i ^ 
 
 ^'7;/ (pron.) : .s-7// (subj. vb.) Ill I 
 
 cr (pron.) : cr (adv.) I i 
 
 ubaral :al (pron.) II i ~ o 
 
 /;/ (pron.): 7;/ (adv.) II I ; III 2; IV 4; V I = 8 
 
 mill (poss. pron.) : mln (pers. pron.) IV i — i 
 
 ]}iaht (noun) : maht (vb.) Ill i = ^ 
 
 ciiio {^(\\.):ci)io (adj.)V i = ^ 
 
 Ilbc (noun) : Ube (verb) III i 
 
 zi'lsn (noun) : zi'lsu (adj.) Ill i 
 
 goiima (verbal expression) : gouma (noun) III i 
 
 zi'iiiuil (noun) :zvuiini (verb) III i 
 
 Total = 23 
 
 Summary : I 2 ; II 4 ; HI 8 ; IV 6 ; V 3 = 23. 
 
 Here, as in the preceding class, Book III contains the great- 
 est number of examples and Book I the fewest. The rimes 
 present a more varied aspect than in Class I, not being limited 
 to monosyllables. 
 
 The two most frequent rimes under this group are in (pron.) 
 : In (adv.), occurring 8 times, and sin (pron.) : sJn (vb.), with 
 6 examples. There are, however, no rimes of sm (vb.) :sm" 
 (vb.), or of sin (pron.) : sin (pron.). 
 
 These forms are the more interesting because they indicate 
 a tendency on the part of Otfrid (a) to distinguish quantity, 
 and (b) to differentiate between identical rimes. In the nmes 
 of in : in the quantity is preserved at the expense of differentia- 
 tion of grammatical form;' whereas, in the in: In rimes the 
 opposite is true, as also in er : er, no case of er : er or er : er bemg 
 found. In sur.sln we find a different state of affairs, for 
 
 ^ The only forms in question are, of course, the infin. and the i and 3 
 p. pi. pres. subj. The former appears in rime 33 times, while of the 
 latter, i. e. subj., only 9 rimes are found. 
 
 ^'This fact should be taken into consideration along with the state- 
 ment under Class I, in explaining the frequency of in: in and mm 
 : ))un rimes. 
 
54 
 
 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 here we can have a dififerentiation of grammatical function 
 combined with an observance of quantity. Hence, there was 
 no need of combining sin (vb.) with sin (vb.) or sin (pron.) 
 with sin (pron.). Neither do we find any rimes of sin : sin 
 (noun), where there would be a difference of quantity. In 
 like manner we have mm (poss.) : mm (poss.) and mm (poss.) 
 : mm (pers.) in preference to a mm : min rime. 
 
 Class III. One rime word is identical in form with part of the 
 other. 
 
 A. The riming parts are from the same stem. 
 
 a. Simplex : compound, riche: himUriche (I i; II i) ; 
 richi: himilrichi (II 2; IV i ; V 3) ; richi: kuningrichi (IV 
 i) ; richi :zv or oUrichi (V i) ; riches : himilriches (III i) ; 
 thegankind: kind (I i) ; ditam \ wisduam (I i) ; ummahti: 
 mahti (III i) ; alalichi : llchi (IV i) ; guallichi: lichi (IV 
 2); heit: zagaheit (IV i) ; wiht : niawiht (I i ; II i ; V 
 i) ; wurti (vb.) : Hrwurti (vb.) (I i) ; wiirti : giwurti (III 
 i) ; wurtin:iirwurtin (III i) ; wirdit : iirwirdit (II i) ; 
 werde : Hrwerde (III i) ; ward : giward (II i) ; Idset: 
 hilazet (II i) ; giheizan: heizan (II i; III i) ; bihiazi: 
 hiazi (IV i) ; iirndmln:namm (II i) ; giUgg^'-ligge (III 
 i) ; Urbdrun: bdriin (IV i) ; giang : zigiang (II i) ; gab: 
 iirgab (V i) ; ungerno: gerno (I i) ; iamerimer (II i). 
 Summary: 16; II 11; III 7; IV8; V6 = 38. 
 
 B. Riming parts are not from the same stem. 
 
 a. Simplex : compound, antwurti {nonn) : wurti (vb.) 
 
 II I ; IV I ; giwurti (noun) : wurti (vb.) Ill 3 ; IV 2 ; V i ; 
 giwerde (wk. vb.) : werde (st. vb.) Ill i ; in alazudri: wdri 
 (vb.) I I ; II I ; III I ; V 2; w alawdr:wdr (adv.) I i ; 
 in giwdri: wdri (vb.) Ill i ; wizzi (noun) : Uruzvizzi (noun) 
 
 III 2 ; V I ; wizzi (noun) itwizzi IV 2 ; sculdheizo (noun) 
 : heizo (adj.) IV i ; III i ; machon (inf.) : gimachon 
 (noun) I I ; gib erg e (vb.) : berge (noun) II i ; Urburgi 
 (vb.) : burgi (noun) IV i ; houbit (noun) : manohoubit 
 (noun) II i; githankon (noun) : thankon (inf.) Ill i; 
 dleibo (noun) : leibo (noun) III i ; fazzon (inf.) : lioht- 
 fazzon (noun) IV i ; annuzzi (noun) : nuzzi (adj.) IV i ; 
 siimillche {3.dj.) : liche (vb.) V i; tharaln (adv.) : m 
 (pron.) IV I. 
 
IDENTICAL RIME 55 
 
 Summary : I 3 ; IT 4 : HI 1 1 ; IV lo ; V 5 = 33- 
 In this class the riming parts, in addition to being from dif- 
 ferent stems, are usually words, or parts of words, that are 
 different parts of speech. 
 
 13. Simplex : secondary syllable or syllables, note : einote 
 (I I ; II 2) ; noti-.thionoti (I i ; V i) ; noti: ebonoti (I i 
 III i); ndtiwegonoti (II i) ; noti; gisamanoti (III 2) 
 ndti-.stcindti (III i); ndtin'.steinotin (III i) ; notin 
 zvarnofin (IV i), thunih ndtiredinot (I i; IV i; V i) 
 thiintJi ndt'.nrdamndt (III i; V i) ; gieinot (III i; IV 
 I); biseganot (V i) ; gisamndt (V i) ; ^^einot (IV 2); 
 plnot (IV i); in ndt:minndt (II i) ; ndt'.nrdamndt 
 (II i; V i); weinot (IV i) ; hentiirouhenti (I i) ; 
 iinhenti (I 2) ; gof.bredigot (V i) ; bimunigot (IV i) ; 
 lante-.heilante (V i) ; lanf.heilant (I 3; III 2; IV 2); 
 sun:hcrasun (I i; II 10; III 3; IV 4; V 2) ; tharasim 
 (I 2; II 2; III 2); heimortsun (II i) ; wisun (II 5); 
 mammiinti\miinti' (V 14); si:Pcrsi (I i) ; zvisi (I i; 
 III I : IV 2 ; V i) ; in gizvissi (III i ; IV 2 ; V 2) ; Urstant- 
 nissi (II I) ; so : giwisso (III 6 ; IV 2 ; V i) ; zvasso (I i) ; 
 ^^zVo (V 2); mm : nrnamm (III i) ; fjnnu:nu (IV i) ; 
 dothcs-.thes (IV I); nirknaist: ist (V i) ; /e'^:a//^^ (V 
 i) ; erdringe: ge (II i). 
 Summary : I 16 ; II 25 ; III 23 ; IV 22 ; V 32 = 1 18. 
 In this, the largest class thus far, not and its inflected forms, 
 mostly in adverbial phrases, are very numerous, riming usually 
 with the third singular present indicative or with the past 
 participle of verbs of the second weak conjugation. Also the 
 noun sun with hcrasun and tharasun, so with gizvisso, si with 
 wisi, lant with heilant and various other forms are frequent. 
 
 Under this heading Grimm classes rimes which, according 
 to the definition of identical rime abpve given, would not belong 
 here. Some of his examples are:' rehtaz:thaz; iiiazantaz'. 
 thaz; sclnantazithaz; hcimortes: thes; mithontes'.thes; nahtes 
 itJics; muatcs'.thes; widarstantanne:thanne, and also blidaz: 
 thaz; 'furdir : thir; sindes : thes and Undo : tho. While Grimm's 
 
 ' Cf . Refrain V 23. 
 
56 SUFFIX RIME IN OFF RID 
 
 dictum ' Da volliger Gleichlaut der Vocale imd Consonanten 
 nicht notwendig ist,' and the orthography of Ms. F ' would 
 claim these examples as identical rimes they clearly do not, in 
 view of the well-defined shifting of initial and medial th in 
 Otfrid ^ come within the scope of our definition of Identical 
 Rime. 
 
 A similar observation applies to such rimes as niiiates: thes 
 which Grimm has also grouped under this head. Similarly, 
 for vocalic reasons, minno'.manno, etc. (which have above ^ 
 been discussed from an entirely different point of view), and 
 for both vocalic and consonantal differences, terren'. thiirren, 
 etc., cannot be included in this category.^ Also duam and its 
 compounds in rime with duan (inf.) must also be rejected on 
 the same ground. 
 
 IV. The parts preceding the rime-syllables are dissimilar. 
 
 A. Dissimilar prefixes. Cf. Hrliazi'. giliam (IV i) ; biliazi 
 (II i) ; bisiiiches: gisifiches (III i) ; bisuichi: gisiiichi (III 
 i) ; gillchaii : niissilichan (III i) ; gisuikJiit : bisntkhit (V 
 i) ; bige-.gige (V i). 
 
 Summary : I o ; II i ; III 3 ; IV i ; V 2 = 7. 
 
 B. Adverbs in -Ilcho. Cf. iogilicho: gnallicho (I 2); 
 forahtlicho (Ii;IIi;Vi); driulicko (I i) ; giwaralicho 
 (I I ; II I ; III i) ; frazvaUcho (II 3) ; hcrlicho (I i) ; kraft- 
 llcho (I I ; II i; IV i; V i) ; baldUcho (I i) ; gilicho 
 (noun) (III i; V i) ; gomilicho (I i) ; blldllcho (II i) 
 III gilicho (II i) ; dm gilicho (II i) ; geistlicho (II 2; V i) 
 iingisewanlicho (II i) ; garalicho (II i) ; folllcho (II i 
 III i) ; wenagUcho (III i) ; jdmarlicho (III i) : theganlicho 
 (III i) ; suazlicho (IV i) ; liublicho (IV 2) ; gilicho (adv.) : 
 frawallcho (I i) ; kuninglicho (IV i) ; forahtlicho (V i) ; 
 baldlicho :fhcganlicho (IV i) ; herlicho : gnallicho {IV i). 
 Total: I 10; II 14; III 6; IV 7; V 5 = 42. 
 
 ' Kl. Schr. IV, 162. 
 
 ^ Cf. blldac: da;::; furdir: dir ; sindes: dcs; Undo: do, etc.; also muates: 
 des; rehtas: daz; nahtes: dcs, etc. 
 ' Braune, Ahd. Grammatik, §§ 167, A. 4, 163, A. 2, 3. 
 
 * P. 31. 
 
 ^ Other examples which Grimm includes under this class, and which 
 are excluded here are: minn : urminnu ; gifnah:nah; bibinota: notta. 
 
IDENTICAL RIME 57 
 
 C. Adjectives in -////. Cf. simiUlh: gil'ih (III i) ; giliimf- 
 riJi:gUlIi {I i) ; iagillh : sanialih (V i) ; zvortogillh: sama- 
 llh (I i). 
 
 Total: I 2; III i; V I = 4. 
 
 In the case of the -IlcJio adverbs above several points are 
 deserving" of our attention : 
 
 I. They occur frequently in identical rime, in 42 couplets. 
 
 II. Of the above total, 37 are rimes of iogilicho and 3 of 
 gil'icho, neither adverb being found outside of rime; 38 of 
 these are with another -I'lcho adverb, the remaining two being 
 with the noun gil'icho. Furthermore, iogilicho is used almost 
 exclusively, i. e. in 34 instances, in the first half line. Of the 
 gil'icho rimes, two are in the first and one in the second half 
 of the line. 
 
 III. The -licho adverbs, exclusive of iogilicho, appear both 
 in and outside of rime. There is a total of 78, of which 44 
 are used in rime. Of this latter number 38 are rimes with the 
 adverb iogilicho, there being only 4 cases of -Itcho : -I'lcho. 
 The remaining two rimes, not, however, identical, are with the 
 adjective rlcho. 
 
 Keeping the above points in mind, we may first ask our- 
 selves why iogilicho is limited to rime position in Otfrid? This 
 adverb is not found elsewhere in O. H. G. rimed verse, and 
 adverbs in -llcho occur only a single time.^ 
 
 In the literature of the transition period ' to ^Middle High 
 German we have a state of things similar to that found in 
 Otfrid : geliche occurs only once or twice outside of rime posi- 
 tion in all the literature examined, and its most frequent 
 rime word is with r'lche; it never rimes with itself, and only 
 rarely with other -I'lchc adverbs, differing, then, from Otfrid 
 in the latter point. Gel'ich is found more frequently (in about 
 
 ^ EUianl'icho, Ludwigslied, 1. 42, not in rime. 
 
 ' For the literature examined cf. MSD : Kleinere deutsche Gedichte 
 des XI. und XII. Jahrhs., pub. by Waag, Halle, 1891 ; Deutsche Gedichte 
 des 12. Jahrhs., pub. by C. Kraus, Halle. 1894; Deutsche Gedichte des 
 II. und 12. Jahrhs., pub. by Diemer, Wien, 1849. For the Genesis and 
 Exodus cf. Hoffmann, Fundgruben, II, 9 f. ; Genesis und Exodus nach 
 der Milstater Hs., pub. by Diemer, Wien, 1862 ; Kossmann, QuF., 57. 
 
58 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 one-half the total rimes) joined with forms in -ich, it, too, 
 being almost entirely limited to rime position. 
 
 The other adverbs in -liche, as in Otfrid, are found well rep- 
 resented both in and out of rime, and here again rlche is the 
 most common rime companion; rimes of -liche : -liche are not 
 infrequent, though not found as often as those in -Itch : -lich, 
 which cover one-fourth of the total instances of the latter in 
 rime/ 
 
 In classical Middle High German, as e. g. in Hartmann and 
 Wolfram giltche occurs both in and outside of rime, so that 
 its use is not restricted in them to rime position, as in the litera- 
 ture examined above. It was already noted that iogilicho ap- 
 pears predominantly in Otfrid in the first half line (i. e. 34: 6) ; 
 and if we examine a few of these rimes it will become clear 
 that the appearance of iogilicho is to be explained as a mere 
 expedient for securing rime with the -licho adverb in the sec- 
 ond half line. Its meaning of '' ever, always " would easily 
 lend itself to this purpose, as the word could thus be added 
 without materially changing the sense of the line. Further- 
 more, it will not seem strange that we find so many rimes of 
 this colorless iogilicho with the -lie ho adverbs, which latter 
 occur only 4 times together, when we remember that outside 
 of rlcho there are no other rime endings in -icho that could be 
 used with these -licho adverbs. Otfrid was, therefore, forced 
 to some such makeshift and iogilicho was, from its meaning, 
 or rather lack of meaning, the one chosen. 
 
 A few examples are : 
 
 V 20. 20. Thara ferit al ingegini : engili menigi 
 
 quement [iogilicho] : tharzua forahtllcho. 
 
 II 13. 14. Er wihtes firsechit, : thes er mo zuagisprichit, 
 hugit [iogilicho] : zi theru stimmu frawallcho. 
 
 II 9. 14. Siu sint innana hoi, : heileges giscribes fol, 
 
 mit thiu sie unsih [iogilicho] : drenkent frawallcho. 
 I 23. 34. Fuar er mit ther bredigu : mit mihileru redinu 
 Joh rafsta sie [iogilicho] : filu kraftlTcho. 
 
 ^ More frequent than the words in these two endings are those in 
 -lichen, occurring about twice as often outside rime as inside. Rimes 
 with -lichen are common, but riche, r'lchen, is again the rime preferred. 
 
IDEXTIQAL RIME 59 
 
 II II. 10. So thin sclben kristcs kraftielna geislun thar 
 .girtaht 
 uzstiaz er se [iogillcho] : joh filu kraftlicho. 
 
 IV 7. 42. Sine engila ouh in alawar : sie blasent iro horn thar, 
 thaz ckient sie [iogiHcho] : fihi kraftHcho. 
 
 lY I. 18. Er zalt iz in ouh harto : offonoro worto 
 
 thia saHda [iogillcho] : filu suazHcho. 
 II 6. 13. Thiu natara [iogillcho] : spuan siu drugilicho. 
 
 Examples enough have been quoted to show that if, in the 
 above classes, iogil'icho should be omitted in each, no detri- 
 ment to the sense of the line would result. In many of these 
 rimes neither iogillcho nor the -licho adverb seems of any 
 great importance to the sense of the line ; but where some- 
 thing is added it is by the latter. In several cases it would 
 almost seem as if Otfrid had finished out his line so far as 
 the sense was concerned, and then in the space left in the first 
 half line had intercalated this colorless adverb to supply the 
 word to rime with the second half line. 
 
 Zwierzina ' advances the view that rimes of gcllch and ge- 
 llche with other forms in the suffix -Ilch were not felt as identi- 
 cal by Wolfram and Hartmann, and are not to be classed under 
 this category. He remarks : '' Der zusammenhang von 
 ' gleich ' und der adjectiv-ableitung ' -lich ' ist heute im sprach- 
 bewusstsein nicht mehr vorhanden, und nur der grammatisch 
 gebildete weiss von ihm, aber audi dieser fiihlt ihn beim 
 gebrauche der sprache nicht mehr. So war es wol auch schon 
 im 13. Jh., waren ja auch schon damals gelich und -I'lcJi im 
 dialekt so vieler gegenden lautlich differenciert. Nun reimt 
 Wolfram sein gehch(e), um seinen tonsilbenanlaut ganz 
 ebenso unbekiimmert' wie in begreiflicherer weise um seine 
 etymologic, ungescheut auf -lich(e)/' He then shows that 
 although rich or rlche is the most frequent rime word by far 
 of the ending -Ich or Ichc, with which he could have rimed his 
 gelich (e), yet Wolfram rimes gellch(e) : -llch(e) very often, 
 but avoids riming forms of -llch(e) : -llch(c). 
 
 He resumes : " Aber nicht nur die verschiedene bedeutung 
 und function des -Ilch in gelich und des -Itch in der adjectiv 
 
 'ZfdA., 45, p. 291. 
 
6o SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 composition kann der grund fiir Wolframs verhalten sein. 
 Denn verschiedene bedeutung und function haben ja auch 
 sin ' esse ' und sin ' suus ' und andre mehr und dennoch reimt 
 W. sie nicht. Wir werden also mit notwendigkeit annehmen 
 miissen dass W. glich, ungUch sprach." 
 
 He also brings forward similar proof for Hartmann and 
 reaches the same conclusion as in the case of Wolfram. 
 
 The fact that Otfrid, too, with his large number of examples 
 of the above rimes, has in nearly every case rimes of (io)gilicho 
 :-Ucho, and only rarely -licho'.-licho, shows a state of affairs 
 similar to M. H. G. usage, but I do not on this account believe 
 that he pronounced (io)gUcho ; for it seems probable that the 
 relation of geUch and the -llch suffix was more keenly felt in 
 this older period of the language than in M. H. G., and this 
 would operate against the pronunciation glicho. Besides, we 
 have two instances of -Ilcho : Iicho, so that this combination is 
 not absolutely avoided, and of the four examples of rimes of 
 adjectives in -lih, one is wortogiWi : gillh, which would be 
 identical no matter how pronounced, as would two other in- 
 stances of iogiUcho: gilicho (noun). Add to this the still 
 weightier evidence, that Otfrid makes a free use of identical 
 rime otherwise, and evidently views it differently from Wolf- 
 ram and Hartman, and it seems safe to assume that gilicho 
 was pronounced as it stands, with no intention of avoiding a 
 repetition of the same sound. 
 
 As stated above, the frequency of io gilicho in rime with 
 -Ilcho would seem to be due to the exigencies of rime, and the 
 rarity of rime words with this ending. 
 
 D. Others. Cf. umbiring'.woroltring (V i. 32); thara- 
 
 wert: geginzvert (V 7. 59); tharasun: drutsiin (II 9. 41); 
 
 antwiirti: giwiirti (I4;V i = 5); nrheize: hikeise (IV 23. 
 
 28) ; antwiirti : iingiwurti (III 18. 25). Also, riuwon: giwon 
 
 (III 10. 7); gidan: Jordan (III 22. 67) ; in ginns : biruwis 
 
 (II 7. 18). 
 
 Total : I 4 ; II 2 ; III 3 ; IV I ; V 3 = 13. 
 
 We are now ready to return to our original question : How 
 does Otfrid regard identical rime? If the examples from the 
 various categories be added the total amounts to 337, i. e. 4.7 
 per cent of the entire poem. From the fact that identical rime 
 
IDEXTICAL RIME 6l 
 
 thus occupies so important a position, we may assume that 
 Otfrid felt no hesitation in its use. Its frequency finds, no 
 doubt, its explanation in the convenience of its use for ready 
 rime. It has already been shown how, after having once 
 rimed two words together, Otfrid repeatedly returned to them, 
 although in most cases other combinations were at hand ; and 
 the present case is similar, the same purpose being subserved. 
 
 Identical rime is divided amongst the various books as 
 follows : 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 Total 
 
 Stem rime. 
 
 23 
 
 41 
 
 46 
 
 38 
 
 51 
 
 199 
 
 Pen. rime. 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 37 
 
 27 
 
 19 
 
 138 
 
 48 71 83 65 70 337 
 
 The difference between the books offers nothing especially 
 noteworthy, if one bears in mind their difference in length. 
 The firmer and firmer hold which identical rime takes may be 
 seen from the increase from I to II, both books being of the 
 same length. 
 
 The procedure is then just the opposite to that of the M. H. 
 G. poets, an increase and not a decrease. It might in fact 
 almost be said that identical rime gradually becomes a fixed 
 mannerism of our poet.^ 
 
 ^ The remaining O. H. G. rimed poems are too limited in extent to 
 afford a satisfactory basis of comparison with Otfrid. The data are as 
 follows: Georgslied, "woroltrlhhi-.himilrihhi, 1. 5; Ludwigslied her 
 (pron.) : her (pron.), 1- 52, and was: was, 1. 58; Psalm 138 mirimir, 
 1. 21. It will be seen that, so far as this scanty material allows a judg- 
 ment, the point of view is the same as that which we encountered in 
 Otfrid. 
 
62 
 
 SUFFIX RIME IN OTFRID 
 
 Summary 
 In order to present a comprehensive view of the classifica- 
 tions of Otfrid's rimes, the following statement may be given : 
 
 I II III IV V Total 
 
 I. Stem rime : 
 
 1. Identical, 23 41 46 38 51 I99 
 
 2. Others, 238 342 446 424 355 1805 
 
 261 
 
 383 
 
 492 
 
 462 
 
 406 
 
 2004 
 
 II. Penultimate rime : 
 
 1. Identical, 25 
 
 2. Accurate, 332 
 
 3. Others, 448 
 
 30 
 
 347 
 395 
 
 37 
 432 
 
 493 
 
 27 
 418 
 
 509 
 
 19 
 
 463 
 463 
 
 138 
 1992 
 2308 
 
 
 
 80s 
 
 772 
 
 962 
 
 954 
 
 945 
 
 4438 
 
 III. 
 
 Pen.-Antepen. 
 
 rime: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I. Accurate, 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 
 2. Others, 
 
 37 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 92 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 104 
 
 IV. 
 
 Antepen. rime 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I, Accurate, 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 38 
 
 
 2. Others, 
 
 121 
 
 76 
 
 92 
 
 126 
 
 96 
 
 511 
 
 
 
 126 
 
 82 
 
 lOI 
 
 138 
 
 102 
 
 549 
 
 V. 
 
 Rimeless verses : 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 Total, 
 
 7104 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ''NIVER31TY 
 
 \ 
 
 -'^L FORN\h 
 
VITA 
 
 Thomas Howard Fowler was born in Howard County, Mary- 
 land, and received his early education in the High School and 
 Washington College, Chestertown, Md. He was graduated 
 from college in 1897 and in the following year took his Master's 
 Degree. He entered the Johns Hopkins University in October, 
 1898, and after one year of graduate work became instructor 
 in ]\Iodern Languages in the Horner Military School, Oxford, 
 North Carolina, where he taught during 1899-1901. He re- 
 turned to the Johns Hopkins University in 1901 and for four 
 years pursued graduate studies in German, Sanscrit, and Eng- 
 lish. To all his instructors, and especially to Prof. Henry 
 Wood and Associate Professor B. J. Vos, he desires to express 
 his sincere thanks for the inspiration and benefit gained by 
 following courses under their instruction. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
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