A history of the German language : with special reference to the cultural and social forces that shaped the standard literary language

by John T. Waterman

The most accessible, well-balanced history of the German language available! No comparable work is available in English or German that gives readers an adequate foundation in the methods, goals, and results of historico-comparative linguistics as they apply to the German language and its historical antecedents. Waterman's monograph excels through its clear presentation of materials, the extensive use of charts and maps, and a well- organized bibliography. A wealth of examples document a surprisingly broad review of German language issues.

Genres: German Literature, Language, Linguistics, Germany, History, Nonfiction

266 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1966

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if John T. Waterman's A History of the German Language is indeed more than a bit dated in places, and as such could and perhaps even should be considered for a bit of an update (seeing that it was first published in 1966, the second and revised edition in 1975 and both editions thus of course prior to the 1993 reunification of West and East Germany as well as the orthographical reforms of 2000, the Neue Deutsche Rechtschreibung), this handy study and research tome is still and in my humble opinion amongst the most easily and painlessly approachable monographs of German language history available at present. And as such, A History of the German Language is both academically and from a general reading pleasure and value point of view very much a beloved and appreciated personal favourite, a book that unlike some of the more popular recent language "biographies" does manage to retain a primarily academic focus throughout (especially with regard to language structure and sound shifts, how in particular grammatical endings, how verb conjugations and noun/adjective declensions have changed, have altered since Proto-Indo-European times) whilst at the same time also featuring both a delightfully and appreciatively smooth and easy to peruse, easy to understand structure and general presentation (and one that makes in particular the two main consonant sound shifts, the Germanic and the High German shifts appear both logical and clearly delineated and explained, which from my own reading experiences has most definitely not always been the case with both recent and not so recent examples of German language history books and unfortunately with both German and English language offerings at that).

When I was preparing for my First Comprehensive Exam for my PhD at the University of Waterloo (this happened in 1996, and the First Comprehensive Exam featured both standard linguistics and specifically German language history, as well as German literature from the Mediaeval era to the end of the 15th century), I actually read and consulted a goodly number of library books on linguistics and German language history during the many weeks of heavy-duty and intensive preparation. However, it was really only Waterman's A History of the German Language that I found lastingly beneficial and to such an extent that I even purchased a copy for my personal library (also because I was getting pretty sick and tired of the fact that the library book I had signed out kept getting recalled over and over again). And it was indeed this very tome, it was indeed A History of the German Language which I not only (and obviously) consulted the most, it was also the one main research monographs of the many I had checked out of the library and read that provided me with the essential necessary information and enough of a basic linguistic and language history understanding of German to pass my First Comprehensive Examination with very much and surprising flying colours so to speak.

And therefore, even considering the minor issues with regard to datedness (which is also and by simple necessity and reality the accepted nature of the academic beast), I still and very highly recommend Waterman, and absolutely do consider his A History of the German Language a simply and utterly perfect basic level research and study guide for especially undergraduate and graduate college and university students of German, and as such rated and ranked with five most well deserved stars, both for its presented, featured text and also for its intensive and extensive bibliographical lists (with the necessary caveat that while indeed an amazing and extensive treasure trove of academic works on the German language and its history and historical significances, the bibliographical listings do, of course, cease post 1975 in this here, in the revised edition, and thus, the many linguistic and language history books published since then, will of course and by simple deduction and reasoning, not be included).

[J. Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a linguistic history written in a lovely style. The treatment of the language can be divided into two parts, the first treating the phonetic changes that serve to distinguish the language in its different historical stages from the Indo-European (Indogermanisch) to the Proto-Germanic, to Old High German (OHG), Middle-High German (MHG), and so forth. Once German emerges upon the New High German (NHG) stage, the history of the language discovers a new landscape, one where the revolutionary phonetic changes have settled into place, and the meandering course of the language now begins to explore stylistic variations, observable in the literature of German writers. These sections on NHG feel more like a survey of writers and literary movements.

Waterman indicates what each voice contributes to the shaping of the language as an instrument of literary expression. Everywhere he offers carefully selected passages of German literature (and word-lists) to illustrate and illuminate the linguistic landscape of German in its growing strength, versatility, and maturity as a language, which he masterfully describes in words.

The literary passages are given without the help of a translation for the reader to work through in quest of a deeper understanding of the history of the language by association of its historical and literary stages with these chosen landmarks from its terrain. A reader with no knowledge of German will not be able to make much use of these passages, which are an important feature of the book.

Some of the most interesting details for me were the use of Gothic examples (as representative of the proto-Germanic forms in the comparative tables; that in OHG and MHG the diphthong ei was pronounced [ei] (as in Old Norse) rather than [ai] (as NHG, Modern Hochdeutsch); that the umlaut of vowels, which today is associated with plural number, in its origin was merely an effect of the phonetic environment, having no semantic meaning yet attached to it. These details helped me to see some important and distinguishing differences between OHG, MHG, and NHG though these are diachronically different stages of the ‘same’ language.

Stunning and notable was the influence of the Latin Humanists and the Latin periodic style on the literary style and consequent established word order of German; what is today one of the most characteristic and beautiful features of German began as an imitation of high Latin style. Notable as well were the excessive Latin and French encroachments upon the language that began to change it to such an extent that later writers found it necessary to protect their German speech by setting up a literary Wacht am Rhein, to expel and hold off the invaders.

I learned many things from reading this book: the differences between (and locations of) the multiple German dialects; the importance of Martin Luther to the forging of a common German standard; and several authors of which I had been ignorant, such as Johann von Tepl, author of Der Ackerman aus Böhmen, written in 1401, and Klopstock, the German Milton, author of Der Messias, 'greatest of Christian epics in the German tongue’. A few beautiful classical selections from Goethe well show why the Germans were considered the ‘Greeks of the modern world’ (in the 18th and 19th centuries).

Of course I have left out too many things of interest; I love this book and plan to read again someday, a fascinating historical account of one of the world's great languages.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting and easy-to-read book about the history and development of the German language. Anyone interested in Germanic linguistics or the history of German – even if just a bit – would benefit from reading this. I definitely found the first half more interesting than the latter part of this book: even though many new words have come into the language in the 20th century, the basic structure of the language is the same (I think the book stopped being interesting for me after the discussion of stage pronunciation). Also, I think this book is in need of a serious update though – the most recent edition contains a lot of pre-reunification discussions and no discussions regarding the most recent spelling reform. Still though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is heavy with technical Indo-European linguistics. That's not the problem. The problem is that the book is a bit scattered ... But that makes sense because the history of the German language itself is very difficult. German has always had (and still has) dozens of competing dialects. Perhaps it is not the fault of the author, but the fact is that this book is still rather confusing to follow, and at times not very interesting.

[Trishtator · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic! This book is intense, and sometimes you are swimming through linguistics jargon, but it gives context to the world in which we live.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I was pleased with this book. Having been burned by books that claimed to require no previous familiarity with linguistics only to do nothing else but go into excruciatingly detailed analysis of phonetics, I was pleased to find in this book a cohesive narrative I could grab on to in between the phonetic analysis of the different German dialects. Waterman manages to intersperse the linguistic heavy portions of the book with anthropological, historical, cultural and literary information that allow the reader to obtain an understanding of the development of the German language even if they can’t make head or tails of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Similarly, while a reader fluent in German will no doubt obtain a much clearer picture of this development, by being able to follow more closely the numerous excerpts of historical documents, the reader with no knowledge of the language will also be able to follow this changes through Waterman’s straight forward analysis. Overall I would definitely recommend this book to anyone curious about the development of the German language, whether they speak it fluently or not at all and whether they have any knowledge of linguistics or not.