A question about wechselpräpositionen.
I remembering back to my German lessons, these seemed quite precise in the positions they described.
Assuming my memory serves me correctly- Did these have the same precision in meaning in the older and regional German language seen in the 14th-17th Century fencing texts, as they do now?
Did they have slightly different meanings?
I'm wondering if I'm reading into the text too much.
An example of what I'm meaning-
Extract from 26r Codex 44 A 8 (Von Danzig 1452 Rome Version) by Dierk Hagedorn
Stee mit dem lincken fueß vor vnd halt dein swert an deiner rechtñ achsel ...
Wechselpräpositionen here is 'an'.
If this were modern German, I'd interpret that as having the sword against (as in touching) my the side of shoulder somewhere (i.e. not on top of). However, I think 'an' can also be used as 'at', which would put the sword at somewhere near the shoulder. I'd still lean towards the 'against' translation. Appropriate to do so, or not?
Interestingly, my Hammer's German Grammar and Usage book states-
In older German, an was commonly used in the sense of 'down on', and this is still apparent in phrases like am Boden, an der Erder 'on the ground'...