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Karl-Heinz Mottausch: Die Flexion des Adjektivs in den Mundarten um Lorsch. Systematik und Vorgeschichte

Adjectival inflection in the dialect of Lorsch (and the surrounding area) is more complex than is usually assumed and described in the dialect handbooks. Alongside the traditional division into strong and weak declensions, there is also a difference between attributive and substantival use. In addition, the weak declension has a full and a reduced variant, the latter occurring only after the "true" article (as opposed to the "demonstrative" article).

Starting from the (reconstructed) state reached by the declension in the 13th century, when [´] and final -nhad almost completely disappeared, we see that the main changes took place in the 13th and 14th centuries and in the period from the 18th to the 20th century. The tendency followed by most of these changes was to restore or reinforce the strong adjective as an important determiner of the substantive, which had lost its inflectional endings in the 13th century. Additionally, there was also a pronounced tendency to give the substantivized adjective syllabic endings.

Another important factor which played an important role in the shaping of adjectival inflection was the influence of the literary language, which increased steadily from the 18th century onwards.