Usage of "sei" in old and modern german?

Question

I have noticed in both commercial folk music as well as older texts it seems very often that constructions with "sei" (alter sein/ist?) are being frequently used. Meanwhile I have almost never seen it in (my) homework assignments, newspaper text, TV or from other modern sources.

Is it still part of the german language?

Example of some old text where it occurs:

my attempt at reading (lol):

Anschaulicher, als durch dieses Gleichniß vom menschlichen Leibe, läßt sich gewiß nicht zeigen, wie notwendig es für das Gedeihen einer jeden gesellschaftlichen Verbindung sei, daß deren Glieder stets in Eintracht mit einander bleiben...

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Edit: OMG here is also word Leib as in Leibler(?) (Kullback-Leibler Divergenz für die Mathe-freaks)

Is it also an example of Hochdeutsch or something else?

Answer 1

Actually, your two examples show two totally different forms of "sein".

The sei from the folk music song is simply a dialect version of the infinitive sein, which is shortened to "sei" in lots of (mainly southern) dialects. These dialects are still very much alive in German.

The text example shows a sort of "reported speech". It is actually hochdeutsch, but sei in that example is Konjunktiv I. This usage is a bit archaic, as we probably wouldn't use Konjunktiv with "zeigen" today - with other verbs of expression (like "sagen", for example), the usage of Konjunktiv I sei in reported speech is totally common.

Answer 2

I have not turned on the sound, but I doubt that there is anything traditional about that song. Anyway, sei in it is merely a dialect version of sein. On the other hand, the sei in the quoted text is Konjunktiv I. That form is stil alive and well, but I do indeed see no reason for Konjunktiv in contemporary grammar in that place.

Answer 3

In the modern spoken language, the konjunktiv present (as in the form sei) is rarely used except in Switzerland and Vorarlberg, see indirekte Rede « atlas-alltagssprache.

It is therefore not surprising that modern texts use the konjunktiv present less frequently than older texts.

As the others have already pointed out, the song you have linked has a dialectal form of sein.

Why?

The reason for the decreasing usage has to do with the forms. The konjunktiv present is often not distinguishable from the indicative present. In that sense, the konjunktiv present is going the way the indicative preterit has gone in Southern German: it is disappearing because it has merged with another form.

In the following forms, konjunktiv and indicative present have completely merged:

• ich singe
• wir singen
• sie singen

The only distinction between konjunktiv and indicative present in the following forms is a schwa, which is easily lost in speech:

• du singest – singst
• ihr singet – singt

Consequently, the only form with a reliable distinction between konjunktiv and indicative present is the third person singular:

• er/sie/es singe – singt

On the other hand, dialects in Switzerland and Vorarlberg have conserved a more complete konjunktiv present paradigm than other dialects or Standard German. In Bernese German – as an example for a Swiss German dialect – the entire paradigm is distinct:

• i singi – singe
• du singisch – singsch
• är/si/äs singi – singt
• mir singi – singe
• dihr singit – singet
• si singi – si singe