Development
The German language, directly behind English is the second most popular
Germanic language spoken today. Along with its extensive use as a second
language, German has a total number of native speakers reaching approximately
98,000,000. Although Germanic languages branch from the Indo-European language
family the original words and names have been traced to Latin roots. The
first historical written document of the Germanic languages is the Gothic
Bible which is assumed to have been translated about AD 350. All Germanic
languages are believed to have stemmed from a parent language which we call
Proto-Germanic. The Proto-Germanic language is a branch of the Indo-European
language. The Proto-Germanic languages differ from the Indo-European languages
in subtle phonological and grammatical changes, one of which is called the
consonant shift, commonly referred to as Grimm's law. The German language
specifically, developed as its own language sometime in the late 19th-century.
The following diagram, composed by linguistic scholars in an attempt to
explain the phenomenon of different dialects of different geographical areas
nicely illustrates this development. Linguists continue to stress, however,
that a language tree as such may create very definite splits when in fact
language dialects tend to be better defined as blends. Back
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Proto-Germnic
/ I \
West Germanic North Germanic East Germanic
/ \ / \ I
Anglo-Frisian Netherlandic German W.Scandinavian E.Scandinavian
I Gothic
/ \ / \ / I \ / \
English Frisian Netherlandic German Icelandic Faroese Norwegian
Danish Swedish
Geography
German is used mainly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, although smaller
German speaking communities exist in North and South America, South Africa
and Australia. The written forms of German are fairly uniform with only
minor regional differences. The spoken form, however, has many more dialects
than all of the English language. The most popular of dialects is called
Hochdeutsch, translated "High German." This is the most formal
dialect used in any official setting including media, education and public
communication. Back to top
Historical Changes
In order for German to develop as its own -standing Germanic language
it had to pass through several stages. The first High German written documents
date back to the 8th century. It is assumed that for roughly four centuries
before that several middle, low and upper German dialects were beginning
to converge together to form what was between 740-1050 referred to as the
old period of Old High German. The German language is believed to have undergone
several lingusitical shifts thereafter which would explain the development
from Old High German to the more Modern High German. During this Old High
German period many of the words were still being borrowed from Latin and
the written documents showed what appeared to be monastery dialects.
The second wave of language change can be considered the middle period
which dates between 1050- 1350. There were three distinct features to this
stage; actual lingusitical changes themselves, geographical changes of the
speaking communities and finally the independence the written word was gaining
from the monasteries. This Middle High German was the beginning of a level
of sophistication the language would eventually reach. With the German geographical
borders changing constantly even up until WWII the amount of French and
Slavic overlapping which occurred brought with it certain linguistical influences.
Much of the written language at this time contains borrowed French and Slavic
words.
Finally in the early modern period from 1350-1650 the German language
underwent several dramatic and lasting linguistical changes. Several essential
events formed this period: the desire for trade, the invention of the printing
press and the Reformation. For successful trade a standardization of the
language was key. While dialects remained intact, High German was gaining
in popularity. Perhaps the most valuable technological advance to the German
language was the refined development of the printing press. Johannes Guttenberg
along with his two colleagues Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer designed means
of casting mental type and locking it onto wood. This invention spread wildly
throughout Europe and by 1467 had reached Italy, Poland, Hungry and Scandinavia.
By 1500 over 6 million books had been printed. Undoubtedly this form of
mass production of the written word helped to standardize all written language.
Shortly after this event Martin Luther produced perhaps the most powerful
single piece of German literature. While concealed in the castle of Wartburg
he began working on his translation of the New Testament from Greek into
powerful High German. Upon his completion of this text in 1534 High German
was well on its way to becoming the dominant and permanent language of the
German community. Back to top
Reforms
The German language has since been shaped and organized through several
grammatical reforms. The first being the establishment of the first German
grammar by Jacob Grimm in the early 1800's and the later being the most
current reform to the modern language which was started in the 1990's and
has yet to be fully implemented. Jacob Grimm explored the natural sound
changes, etymologies in this case the relationships between language development
and meaning and established a set of natural laws. These are still referred
to as Grimms Law. The latest Rechtschreibreform is an attempt to simplify
the German language, bring more regularity into the grammatical rules and
reduce what scholars are arguing to be linguistical challenges. This reform
is currently being enforced in only some regions of Germany and has not
yet been fully accepted by the academic or political driving forces. Back to top
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