[Sidenote: 800-911.]
Vernacular poetry, and vernacular composition, of every kind, were
almost wholly left to the vulgar; all, who aimed at literary eminence,
wrote in the Latin language. Some discerning spirits became sensible
that the German language was susceptible of great improvement, and
excited their countrymen to its cultivation. Among these was Otfroid; he
translated the Gospel into German verse. He describes, in strong terms,
the difficulties which he had to encounter: "The barbarousness of the
German language is," he says, "so great, and its sounds are so
incoherent and strange, that it is very difficult to subject them to the
rules of grammar, to represent them by syllables, or to find in the
alphabet letters which correspond to them." It is however remarkable,
that, although he complains of the dissonance of the German language, he
never accuses it of poverty.
While France and Germany continued subject to the same monarch, German
was the language of the court, and generally used in every class of
society.
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