A history of the German language through texts

1. Introduction

2. Pre-textual German: from Indo-European to West Germanic

Part I Old High German (c750

c.1050) 3. The Lord's Prayer: major dialects of the OHG period and Old English

4. Heroic lay: Das Hildebrandslied

5. Legal code: Lex Salica

6. Political treaty: the Strasburg Oaths

7. Gospel harmony: Otfrid von Weissenburg's Evangelienbuch

8. Political praise poem: the Ludwigslied

9. Phrasebook: the Paris Conversations

10. History: Notker of St Gallen's prologue to his Boethius translation

Part II Middle High German (c1050

c1350)

11. Williram of Ebersberg: commentary to the Song of Songs

12. Courtly romance: Hartmann von Aue's Iwein

13. French influence: Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan

14. Legal documents: oath for Jews and Vienna Fief Transfer

15. Legal code: Der Sachsenspiegel

16. Mysticism: Mechthild von Magdeburg

Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit

17. Medicine: Breslauer Arzneibuch

Part III Early New High German (c1350

c1700)

18. Humanism and linguistic levelling: Niklas von Wyle's Translatzen

19. Low German and the language of business: the Hanseatic League

20. Language use for special purposes: cookery recipes 1350-1600

21. Language use in the early mass media: Reformation pamphlets

22. Bible translation: Martin Luther

23. Purism in the seventeenth century: Johann Rist

24. Dialect: Andreas Gryphius's Die Geliebte Dornrose

Part IV New High German (c1700

c1945)

25. 'Natural style': letters and moral weeklies

26. J.W. Goethe: literature, natural sciences and administration

27. Political pamphlets: Berlin 1848

28. Lexicography and nationalism: Jacob Grimm's Vorrede zum Deutschen Woerterbuch

29. Industrialization, technology and language: Die Marmorirkunst and Ferdinand Lassalle

30. Elements of everyday language use: letters and letter-writing manuals

31. Scientific prose in the nineteenth century: Rudolph Virchow

32. National Socialism: Fritz Lenz's Die Familie im Dienst der Rassenhygiene

Part V Contemporary German (c1945

c.2000)

33. The language of the GDR: texts on the erection and fall of the Berlin Wall

34. The public sphere: discourse strategies and lexical development

35. English influence: Jil Sander and the Verein Deutsche Sprache

36. Newspapers: language and text organization in the nineteenth century and twentieth century

37. Jugendsprache: Katz and Goldt and chatrooms