Course Description

This paper introduces students to the broad outlines of the historical development of the German language from the earliest times until the modern period. We will look at some of the key sound changes which make German different from English, Dutch and other related languages, and at the grammatical developments which give the modern language its distinctive features. The context for the development of the language is, of course, its history and culture, and we will examine the impact of important events, from Christianization to the Reformation, from courtly poetry to the invention of printing, in terms of their impact on the development of German. Students will learn to read short texts in the main historical forms of the language - Old High German, Middle High German and Early New High German.

The teaching for this paper will be delivered via four modules, each lasting four weeks, running through the Michaelmas and Lent terms. An introductory module (consisting of four lectures) will give an overview of the periodization and the major continuities and changes in the German language since its first attestation. Each of the subsequent three modules will be devoted to the three canonical periods of the history of the language (Old, Middle, and Early New High German). In addition to four lectures, they will contain two additional seminar hours, in which students will translate and comment on set texts. The paper will be delivered by twenty-two contact hours in total. It is expected that students will receive two supervisions per module, plus two revision supervisions in the Easter term, making a total of ten supervisions.

Set Texts

Old High German

Strasburg Oaths; Lorscher Bienensegen; Ludwigslied in: Wilhem Braune, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, Tübingen, Niemeyer 1994, pp. 56, 89-90 and 136-138

Middle High German

Hartmann von Aue: Iwein, ll. 1-802, in: M. O'C. Walshe, A Middle High German Reader, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1974, pp. 67-89

Early New High German

Martin Luther: 'Vorrede auff das Newe Testament; Luke 15', in: Das Neue Testament in der deutschen Übersetzung von Martin Luther nach dem Bibeldruck von 1545 mit sämtlichen Holzschnitten, Stuttgart: Reclam1989, pp. 5-9, 202-4

Examination

Preliminary Reading List

General

• Keller, R.E. 1978. The German Language. London: Faber and Faber
• König, Werner. 1978. dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache. Munich: dtv
• Lockwood, W.B. 1965. An Informal History of the German Language. London: Deutsch
• Robinson, Orrin W. 1994. Old English and its closest relatives. London: Routledge
• Schmidt, Wilhelm. 1993 (6th ed.). Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, Stuttgart and Leipzig: Hirzel
• Stedje, Astrid. 1989. Deutsche Sprache gestern und heute. Munich: Fink
• Wells, C.J. 1985. German. A linguistic history to 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Young, Christopher and Thomas Gloning. 2004. A History of the German Language through Texts. London: Routledge

Old High German

• Meineke, E and J. Schwerdt: Einführung in das Althochdeutsche. Paderborn 2001
• Sonderegger, S.: Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur. Berlin 2003

Middle High German

• Hennings, T.: Einführung in das Mittelhochdeutsch. Berlin 2003
• Weddige, H.: Mittelhochdeutsch. Eine Einführung. Munich 2003

Early New High German

• Bennewitz, I.: U. Müller (eds): Von der Handschrift zum Buchdruck: Spätmittelalter - Reformation - Humanismus. Reinbek 1991
• Ehrismann, O., I. Hardt: Der Weg zur Hochsprache. Mittelhochdeutsch / Frühneuhochdeutsch. Hohengehren 2007
• Gerhard, P.: Einführung ins Frühneuhochdeutsche. Sprachgeschichte, Grammatik, Texte. Heidelberg 1980

Course adviser