Historische Sprachwissenschaft des Deutschen

As the first introduction to the historical linguistics of German, this volume explains the basic concepts of historical linguistics and uses German language material to discuss the principles of linguistic change. Annotated text samples illustrate the differences between the chronological layers of German. The introduction contains a description of the phonological and morphological system of early medieval German and provides information on the special features of the dialects. A chronologically structured presentation of the most important innovations of later times makes the development of the language from Old High German to Modern German comprehensible. The volume is aimed at students of German studies and linguistics.