Deutsche Sprache: Gestern und Heute

by astrid-stedje

Astrid Stedjes Einführung in die deutsche Sprachgeschichte und Sprachkunde hat sich seit langem als Einsteigerlehrbuch bewährt. Die Darstellung zeigt einerseits, dass Sprachgeschichte ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Kulturgeschichte ist und wie der Wortschatz Veränderungen der materiellen und mentalen Kultur spiegelt. Andererseits veranschaulicht sie den Wandel im sprachlichen System von ältester Zeit bis heute. Anhand von wichtigen Laut- und Formenveränderungen und syntaktischen Beispielen macht das Buch die Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen nahe verwandten Sprachen wie Deutsch, Niederländisch, Englisch und Schwedisch verständlich. Die didaktische Aufbereitung des Stoffes sowie zahlreiche Abbildungen und Grafiken machen den Band besonders für die neuen BA-Studiengänge geeignet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Linguistics, German Literature, Read For School

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

This is one of the joyful, happy books that I have come across in my short and uneventful life. I bought it, in complete ignorance of how much happiness it would give me, in a glass fronted bookshop in Leipzig. The fun begins on page thirteen. There is a drawing of a medieval looking cloak with a hood. A caption tells that this garment in Middle high German was called a Kappe remember this when you go time travelling in medieval Germany, arrows pointing to cartoonish scribblings shows me that in modern Swedish a kappa is an overcoat while in German a Kappe is a flattish cap. While in English we end up with cape and cap. For me there is a delightful sense of two road diverging in a yellow wood, giving rise to deer and tier or queen and Kvinde. very different leaves coming from a common root.

This is a book that demonstrates that fun, thoughtfulness and play can come to together to share knowledge with the reader. Astrid Stedje's inventiveness, which may well have driven the printers wild is deeply pleasing. There is for instance a handy map showing you where in Germany people reden, brachten, plaudern, praten, sprechen, schanacken, and schwatzen (amongst others) from which you can see what a chatty bunch of prattlers they are.

Naturally there are tables, maps, graphs and medieval illustrations from which we learn that we can always recognise a Wend because of their habit of wearing stripey stockings. If you enjoy wearing stockings with broad stripes then it is my duty to inform you that you are in all probability a Wend, I'll get out my copy of the Sachsenspiegal and inform you of your rights later.

It is a 2001 book so runs from the Gothic beginnings (with a nod to the Indo-European origins) down to the linguistic divergences between the two Germany's via Yiddish, low and high German, the varieties of historical and modern German because you don't want to try and snack with some one who can only reden - this ends in much confusion, you have to mind the linguistic boundaries between those who sensibly enough eat an Apfelsine and those who'd peel an Orange.

The downside, understandably in a book that tries to pack so much in, is that the print is a bit small. But in any case, it cheers me up when I flick through it.

[August · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interessant & gut erklärt