Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, mit Texten und Übersetzungshilfen By Wilhelm Schmidt et al (review)

174LANGUAGE, VOLUME 62, NUMBER 1 (1986) Guierre, Lionel. 1979. Essai sur l'accentuation en anglais contemporain. Paris: Universit é de Paris VII. Jespersen, Otto. 1909. A Modern English grammar on historical principles. London: Allen & Unwin. Kingdon, Roger. 1958. The groundwork of English stress. London: Longman. Kiparsky, Paul. 1979. Metrical structure assignment is cyclic. LI 10.521-41. Ladd, D. Robert. 1980a. English compound stress. NELS 11.173-89. ------. 1980b. The structure of intonational meaning: Evidence from English. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. Liberman, Mark, and Alan Prince. 1977. On stress and linguistic rhythm. LI 8.249336 . [Received 9 May 1985.] Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, mit Texten und Übersetzungshilfen. By Wilhelm Schmidt et al. 5th edn. Berlin: Verlag Volk und Wissen, 1984. Pp. 412. Reviewed by Herbert Penzl, University of California, Berkeley The authors of this very detailed history of the German language from IndoEuropean to modern times are identified as an East German 'Autorenkollektiv' under the direction of Wilhelm Schmidt: The list includes R. Bentzinger and H. Langner. In the numbered 'Literaturverzeichnis' (395-408), we encounter the familiar names of R. Grosse, W. Fleischer, H. Mettke, D. Nerius, and G. Lerchner—but no M. Bierwisch, W. Motsch, or W. U. Wurzel. The Einführung (19-29) by Schmidt & Langner discusses periodization (29) very briefly; it contains only a single reference to the 'von Marx und Engels begründeten dialektischen Entwicklungsbegriff concerning language development (26). A general account by Schmidt of the external and internal history of German ('Sprachgeschichte', 30-150) is followed by chapters on the phonology, morphology , and syntax ofOld High German (151-208), Middle High German (20964 ), and Early New High German (265-341). Then texts from the various periods are provided (342-94), with translations, detailed glossaries, and useful 'Interpretationsmuster'—but without references to the preceding sections. The periodization used (i.e. OHG, 6th century to 1050; MHG, 1050-1350; and ENHG, 1350-1650) agrees with that found in most modern treatments (cf. Penzl 1984a:9-13) and is based on linguistic criteria. A different division found in the general account—including, e.g., a 'Deutsch des Spätmittelalters' (1250— 1500)—is said to follow a historical point of view (29). The chapter dealing with the earliest prehistory of German contains, generally speaking, most of the information found in other handbooks. Features of the IE proto-language are characterized, but there is hardly any discussion of methods of reconstruction. For the development of the individual IE languages from the proto-language, 'Stammbaumtheorie' and 'Wellentheorie' (34-5) are mentioned, as well as H. Hirt's 'Substrattheorie' and the method of dialectal geography (but not O. Holler's 'Entfaltungstheorie'). The inscription on the helmet of Negau (41, fn. 2) ofthe first decade A.D. is unfortunately not Germanic: HARIXASTI contains the Latin genitive morpheme ?—a fact not welcomed, e.g., by Keller (1978:66-8). No linguistic evidence is presented for the areal distribution of three alleged divisions of the western Germanic tribes on two maps labeled with the terms of Tacitus, 'Ingväonen', 'Istväonen', and 'Herminonen'—one (50) marked 'Ver- REVIEWS175 breitung der Germanen gegen 300 v. u. Z.', the other (52) 'Verbreitung der Germanen gegen 250 u. Z.' The maps are identical with those given in Frings (1957:146) as Karte 56a ('300 v. Chr. nach Tackenberg') and Karte 56b ('250 ?. Chr. nach Tackenberg'). Frings offered no comments on these maps either; but on a different map (Karte 60), he presented four isoglosses allegedly dividing Ingväonisch, Istväonisch, and Herminonisch. Schmidt does not mention the Frings maps. No reference is made to a Nordic/West-Germanic linguistic unity (Penzl 1975:69 ff.), although the inscription on one ofthe horns ofGallehus (400 A.D.) actually offers an entire immaculate sentence in this natural proto-language. For the OHG period, the description of phonology is rather unsatisfactory, primarily because of its mixture ofsynchronic with diachronic (or prehistoric) data. The Proto-Germanic change from *e to */ before nasal plus consonant (OHG bintan), /-sounds (gibit 'gives'), and u (filu 'much') can be linked typologically to the OHG i-umlaut (gast, pi. gesti) of perhaps a thousand years later; but to list umlaut next to this prehistoric 'Vokalharmonie' (160 ff.), without further discussion...