Sprachgeschichte: Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung. Vol. 2 (review)

Only two years have elapsed since the appearance of Volume 1 of the planned three-volume second, revised edition of Sprachgeschichte, this most impressive manual of the history of German (first edn. 1984–85; on Vol. 1 of the 2nd edn. see Language 76.464–5; not surprisingly, the strengths mentioned in that review are to be found in Vol. 2).

Appropriately, perhaps, this middle volume contains what might be characterized as the essential material of language history. Following a new and valuable Chapter 7, ‘Aspects of a European language history’ [translations mine], seven chapters follow, all under the heading ‘Results of language history research on the historical language stages’: Old High German, Old Low German (Old Saxon), Middle High German, Middle Low German, Early New High German, New High German (Seventeenth to mid-twentieth century), and German since the mid-twentieth century. Ranging from 54 (Old Low German) to nearly 250 pages (1700s to ca. 1950) in length, all of these chapters are of such high quality that they could have been published as linguistic monographs on the respective eras. With the exception of the most recent half-century, each period is described in articles treating sociocultural conditions and linguistic area, phonetics/phonology, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, and genres. Appropriate articles, such as Yiddish (Middle High), the Hansa (Middle Low), Humanists, Printing Press, and Luther (all Early New High), outline relevant individual phenomena that are generic to the respective historical linguistic periods. A new chapter, ‘Developmental tendencies of German since the mid-20th century’, includes articles on linguistic topics such as the official language of the GDR, feminism, phraseology, advertising, mass media, and electronic media, among others. This new chapter provides some of the most notable additions to the first edition while providing a record of linguistic research on German at the end of the twentieth century.

Ch. 7, mentioned above, provides new articles on language and nationhood in western Europe, the role of language in the Christianization of Europe, Latin, French, English, modern written languages, and commonalities among the western European languages with respect to vocabulary and grammatical structures.

The articles are clearly outlined, well-written, generally with sufficient examples, and close with impressively up-to-date bibliographies (of course with no attempt at exhaustive coverage). Again, the topicality of the literature listed attests to the superb organizational talents exploited to compile this collection. Minor irritations, and they are relatively scarce, are citations of editions that have since been superseded, surprisingly including references to the first edition of this work. These cases are far outweighed by the obviously meticulous editing throughout.

The price of Vol. 2 has escalated (from DM 698 for Vol. 1) to DM 950; while Vol. 3 should be eagerly awaited, the bill might not be! As for the designation ‘handbook’, one would dread trying to carry the tomes very far.

Co-editor Stefan Sonderegger, who penned three outstanding articles in Vol. 2, implicitly promises Vol. 3 by the year 2001 (1060); may the field of German historical linguistics be so fortunate as to see this prediction come true.