Anyway, I don't expect people to be able to read MHG or modern German just like that. I was just tempted to try and write my reply that way (while hoping it would be grammatical) because of the mock ME in Morrígan's post.

Also, a lot of people even here in Germany are totally unaware of the periodicization of German, so when I showed them what I was working on for my BA thesis (transcriptions of MHG legal documents from the 13th century) they were often like "What is that, Old Gothic?"

Really I feel like periodization of most European languages is generally well known, neither the "Middle" or "Old" in for Spanish and French for example. MHG is much more interesting, being contemporaneous with the "Old" Romance language. Like when Old Spanish had 3 pairs of sibilants.


Also, I forgot that OHG doesn't have umlaut yet! That's kind of a major development.

quoting Morrígan, Marquise:

Also, I forgot that OHG doesn't have umlaut yet! That's kind of a major development.

If you accuse me of nitpicking, I'll have to plead guilty as charged, but: OHG probably already had umlaut, it just wasn't indicated in the writing system, except for a > e. (The fact that this is indicated makes it likely that /u/ > /y/ etc. also were present in the spoken language, the writing system just hadn't developed the means yet to indicate them.) 

Primary umlaut occurred pretty early, AFAIK, yeah, and it's represented in late OHG spelling IIRC. Since there was no standardized orthography, the spelling of vowel sounds varies a lot in actual MHG texts. Umlauted <a> should be pretty solidly represented by <e>, though.

Goddammed conjunctivitis. Again.

Phonemically, that is. The conditioning high-vowels are still present, non?

quoting Morrígan, Marquise:

Phonemically, that is. The conditioning high-vowels are still present, non?

At least partially, I don't remember whether all short /i/'s that caused umlaut still were around. But the /j/ that caused umlaut was already gone after geminated consonants; so I'd say the umlaut vowels had become phonemical in OHG.

Ah! Interesting, I'll have to go back and read up on it more. I wasn't aware of /j/'s deletion. I've been out of the IE game too long, man.

Fucking hell I hate sports.

I don't care if other people care about and watch them, that's their thing, but when they're screaming so loudly about it that I can hear them over music being piped through noise-cancelling headphones? There is a problem.

That's super obnoxious and I fucking hate that so much.

And not a day after I feel like I've finally recovered from conjunctivitis, I get hit with a bleepin' awful cold.

Life is pain. In the kind of way that would make Buddha step back and say "Whoah, man, it's not that bad."

Eh, this can go here.  Warning: sad cathartic shit I need to get out.

One of my cats got put down over the weekend.  The other one has spent the last two days wandering around the house, sniffing everything, checking everywhere, miaowing loudly, looking for her brother.

I wish I could explain to her.

I'm sorry, that's awful and sad.

So, while I normally like getting letters from people across the pond, I don't like getting letters saying that I didn't pay a tax bill that I know damn well I paid about 14 months ago (and can prove I paid) and that I owe more money to the French authorities. Especially when I get the letter a month after they mailed it. Hopefully me e-mailing them and saying that I already paid the bill along with the information to prove I paid it is enough and I don't have to deal with them any more.

quoting bloodbath, Lepton, Ohio, USA:

So, while I normally like getting letters from people across the pond, I don't like getting letters saying that I didn't pay a tax bill that I know damn well I paid about 14 months ago (and can prove I paid) and that I owe more money to the French authorities. Especially when I get the letter a month after they mailed it. Hopefully me e-mailing them and saying that I already paid the bill along with the information to prove I paid it is enough and I don't have to deal with them any more.

Just so you know (this is kind of belated, just read this thread now), at least here in the US there is a scam where people call people claiming to be the IRS (the American federal tax authorities) claiming that they have not paid their taxes, and threatening them with prosecution unless they pay up immediately (usually in the form of something like gift cards, which should be an obvious red flag that it is a scam beyond the fact that the real IRS does not contact people by phone).

(Oh, I did not see that you were in the US until after I posted this.)

quoting Travis B., Transition Metal, Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

quoting bloodbath, Lepton, Ohio, USA:

So, while I normally like getting letters from people across the pond, I don't like getting letters saying that I didn't pay a tax bill that I know damn well I paid about 14 months ago (and can prove I paid) and that I owe more money to the French authorities. Especially when I get the letter a month after they mailed it. Hopefully me e-mailing them and saying that I already paid the bill along with the information to prove I paid it is enough and I don't have to deal with them any more.

Just so you know (this is kind of belated, just read this thread now), at least here in the US there is a scam where people call people claiming to be the IRS (the American federal tax authorities) claiming that they have not paid their taxes, and threatening them with prosecution unless they pay up immediately (usually in the form of something like gift cards, which should be an obvious red flag that it is a scam beyond the fact that the real IRS does not contact people by phone).

(Oh, I did not see that you were in the US until after I posted this.)

I'm fully aware of the scam. Thing is that this was a letter I received from the local authorities in Clermont-Ferrand, on official letterhead and everything: no phone calls or anything.

The nice thing is that, after I contacted the tax attaché of the French Embassy to the US, they offered to contact the Clermont-Ferrand tax authorities on my behalf. So, right now, the embassy contacted the SIP in Clermont-Ferrand to try to locate the payment. Unfortunately, it's been about a week or so since they contacted them, but, as this is France, this is not surprising.

——
Update of sorts for those interested: I found out what the issue was: they billed me for an additional year of taxe d'habitation and contribution à l'audiovisuel publique despite having paid the tax for 2012 and having left France in May of that year. (I know I told them that I had left France, especially since I wrote it on my final income tax declaration. But whatever.) My payment for 2012 did, in fact, go through without issue. So it wasn't a letter about the bill that I had already paid, but about a bill I never received and should not have to pay.

In any event, the French Embassy has been exceptionally helpful in helping me find out what the problem was. I know, it's a bit surprising for it being French bureaucracy, but still doesn't make it any less helpful or welcome.