Deutsch

Editorial Guidelines

The texts of Iwein – digital consist basically of two layers: the transcription of the manuscript, and the editorial treatment, including normalisations, corrections and punctuation.

The Transcriptions

All characters will be transcribed as accurately as possible. This applies not only to letters, but also to (rare) handwritten punctuation, rhyme points, bounding lines, collation marks, overflow characters for line overhangs, separators, instruction or conversion characters.
Not recorded are elements which definitely have no relevance for the text. This includes material damage, as long it does not cause any loss of text, decorations outside of the ruling lines, pen trials etc. In case of doubt, the element concerned is described in a note.
Additional texts, such as copyist title, or closing formulas, are recorded and coded as such.
Alignment, page change and column change in the manuscript are tagged to enable exact correspondence of text and image.
Verse counting is based on the edition from Karl Lachmann, which is an accepted authority. Corresponding verses can thus be synchronised in the synopsis. Additional verses to Lachmann’s text are numbered, as is the convention in Iwein research, with a secondary numeration separated by a comma (e.g. 23,1).
Gaps are only indicated where (later) material damage has led to loss of text, not missing verses of the Lachmann text. In the transcription, the number of lost characters or lines is noted as accurately as possible.
›Older‹, i.e. medieval or early modern corrections (deletions, insertions, substitutions or conversions) are transcribed. Later, modern changes will be commented on where necessary. Complex correction phenomena that cannot be adequately represented in the coding are commented on.
Where text is not clearly legible it will be transcribed if possible, but any uncertainty will be noted in the coding.
The hyphenation of the manuscript is retained. Where it is not possible to decide objectively between hyphenation or joining, the transcription will depend on the convention applicable to that manuscript.
In the transcription, the text is tokenized, i.e. each word is tagged separately following linguistic criteria. In the manuscripts, some words are written together; they are encoded as separate tokens, but the blank space between them is erased. Conversely, sequences of letters that linguistically belong to one word, but have been handed-down containing one or more blank spaces, are tagged as a single token.
Letters of the Latin alphabet are always standardized according to modern conventions. For example, no distinction is made between the various handwritten forms of d, i, r, s. The only exception to this is the long-s ⟨ſ⟩, because its similarity to ⟨f⟩ has historically caused it to be misread or incorrectly written.
Upper and lower case will be retained. Where necessary, it will be decided on a manuscript by manuscript basis as to what is to be considered as upper or lower case (especially in littera bastarda codices). Upper case would be expected to use different pen strokes compared with lower case.
Litterae notabiliores (usually initials) are recorded as accurately as possible (type, size, colour), but always in upper case, even if the letter has the shape of (enlarged) lower case.
A distinction is made between i and j (as well as y) if a manuscript shows clear tendencies towards a graphematic distinction (usually in the case of textura manuscripts).
The optional regularization of i and j or u and v is coded during transcription according to the vowel and consonant sound values in the text output.
Superscripts are precisely transcribed (e.g. superscripts, umlauts, accents, etc.).
Diacritics appear above or below the sound to which they refer. Horizontal shifts, which occur frequently in the more recent paper manuscripts are therefore not depicted.
Abbreviations are recorded as such and their resolution is encoded at the same time, so the user can choose between abbreviation and resolution for text output.

Editorial principles

Converting the texts into ‘classical’ Middle High German would be contrary to the text-historical principle of this edition. We therefore edit the various texts in such a way that their phonetic status is preserved as far as possible.
We do not place any length marks (^) over vowels. We assume that the vowel length can in most cases be easily recognized by the reader. We only make exceptions where confusion is possible, namely with the dialectally competing prepositions an and ân ('on' and 'without'). And we do respect the length marks in manuscript B.
For the same reason, imperfect rhymes or metrical overlengths or shortenings are not considered errors, but rather documentation of what was acceptable to writers and listeners alike.
Our editorial work consists of normalizations, punctuation, and occasionally corrective interventions. Normalizations are not documented: they can be traced at any time by switching to transcription mode. Interventions in the text are justified in a note when they are not self-evident.

Normalizations

We normalize the alternating use of ⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩, which is typical of medieval writing: ⟨u⟩ denotes the vowel (vnd → und), ⟨v⟩ the consonant (graue → grave). The same applies to ⟨i⟩ and ⟨j⟩ (vocalic: jmmer → immer; semi-vocalic: iamer → jamer); only in forms with ⟨ie⟩ do we retain the ⟨i⟩, because it is unclear when the /i/ in this hiatus changed into a semi-consonant. We also normalize the frequent spelling ⟨w⟩ for /wu/, sometimes also for /vu/ (wrden → wurden; wrte → vurte). The same applies to the frequent use in the 13th century of ⟨c⟩ instead of ⟨z⟩ (dac herce), which we standardize in ⟨z⟩.
Abbreviations are resolved according to their position and meaning. Using the control option, they can be displayed in italics or simply resolved.
Diacritical marks are treated distinctively. If they are intended to mark an umlaut, they are represented as such, e.g. ⟨uͤ⟩ ⟨vͤ⟩ ⟨v̂⟩ ⟨ü⟩ ⟨ú⟩ for /ü/ becomes ⟨ü⟩, ⟨oͤ⟩ ⟨ó⟩ ⟨ö⟩ for /ö/ becomes ⟨ö⟩, or ⟨ä⟩ ⟨á⟩ for /ä/ becomes ⟨ä⟩. If the diacritics mark a diphthong, they are resolved: e.g. ⟨uͦ⟩ → ⟨uo⟩, ⟨oͮ⟩ → ⟨ou⟩ (or also ⟨uo⟩ in ms. A). If, however, no phonetic value is evident, we omit the diacritic in the edition: ⟨ú⟩ for /u/ → ⟨u⟩, eẃ for /eu/→ ⟨ew⟩, aẃ for /au/ → ⟨aw⟩, and so on. In ⟨y⟩ ⟨ÿ⟩ ⟨ẏ⟩ with sound value /i/ we normalize to ⟨i⟩; in the hiatus (usually marked by the superscript dot) we write /î/: keẏ → Keî. In ms. d it is sometimes doubtful whether and how a superscript should be resolved. We proceed according to the same principles there, too, but in case of doubt we keep the superscript.
Except for manuscript d (‘Ambraser Heldenbuch’), which shows rudiments of capitalization (numerous pronouns or nouns referring to elements of the courtly-knightly world), upper-case letters in manuscripts are generally restricted to initials and verse beginnings. We use upper-case letters for initials except in cases where they are obviously in the middle of a sentence. We normalize capitals in verse beginnings to lower-case. Conversely, we use upper-case for the first letter of names. Only occasionally do we keep upper-case letters at the beginning of words if we think that it might be a word that is stressed or emphasized in some way.
We mainly unify the separation of words following linguistic criteria. Separately written prefixes or unambiguous compounds are written together. Proclitically attached prepositions (zetuon, zeherzen) are separated. Prepositional adverbs (war umbe, da mite) and separable prepositional prefixes (ane sehen) are encoded as linguistically separate words, but we respect the manuscript in terms of the use of a space between them. For pro- and enclitic negations of verbs (ensprach, nist) and pronouns (ern, dun, also demonstrative pronouns desn), as well as for pronouns enclitically attached to verbs (sageter, also double pronouns hastus), we also follow the spelling of the handwriting in spite of our separate tokenization. For combinations with ander- (ander hande), we also follow the spelling of the handwriting, even if we tokenize separately; only anderstunt counts as one word.
We carefully normalize proper names according to the same criteria, but not where significant or striking variants may occur, e.g., Iwotyn for Iwein.
In case of spellings which, in our opinion, make legibility difficult, we carefully normalize them. Special features of individual manuscripts are noted in the respective description. These include, for example, the use of ⟨s⟩ for /∫/ in ms. D, which we normalize to ⟨sch⟩: rittersaft → ritterschaft; or eventual occurrence of ⟨i⟩ for /ü/ (wirde → würde). It is mostly a matter of judgement where coherence can hardly be achieved.
We leave diphthongs, especially those with umlaut, in their original state.
For normalization processes that only affect individual manuscripts, cf. the description of the tradition.

Editorial punctuation

One of the editorial normalisations is that we either replace the very rare punctuation of the manuscripts with modern characters when it makes sense or (e.g. in the case of rhyming points) do not reproduce it in the edition mode.
The rest of the punctuation we add according to modern rules and our understanding of the text. Occasionally we accept apokoinou-constructions by not using periods. Direct speech is marked by guillemets ( ), indirect speech by single inverted commas. After inquit-formulas we put a colon; after zwar, deiswar, entrüwen, etc. we put a comma. Instead, we don’t put a comma before simple appositions like got der guote or Artus der kuning.

The editions

Edition principles are only published when editions are available.