German Language

GERMAN LANGUAGE. Together with English and Frisian, the German language forms part of the West Germanic group of languages, to which belongs also Langobardian, a dialect which died out in the 9th or loth century.

Leaving English and Frisian aside, we understand by Deutsche Sprache the language of those remaining West Germanic tribes who, at their earliest appearance in history, spoke a Germanic tongue, and still speak it. The chief of these tribes are : the Saxons, the Franks, the Chatti (Hessians), Thuringians, Aleman nians and Bavarians. This definition naturally includes the lan guages spoken in the Low Countries, Flemish and Dutch, the offspring of the Low Franconian dialect, mixed with Frisian and Saxon elements ; but the Netherlands have built up an inde pendent literary language of their own, excluded from the present survey.

Phonetics.

An important feature is the "glottal stop" preced ing every initial vowel in simple words Eiche ('aica) and though not always in compounds Erinnerung (er'inarfin). Further characteristics are : the very full lip-articulation (rounding) in the pronunciation of u, o; 5; lingual and guttural r; the p, t, k are slightly aspirated and the b, d, g become voiceless in the off sound ; the ich sound (c) and the ach (x) are sharply distin guished. The German w is a bi-labial spirant. Quantity deter mines the quality of the vowels, so that long vowels which are never diphthongized are tense, short vowels lax, and their articula tion is always dorsal (upper surface of the tongue).

There are no nasalized vowels except in words borrowed from French (Entree, Paquin, urn, etc. ). The diphthongs (Teil, Main; Hauser, T eu f el; Haus, lau f en) are falling ; rising diphthongs occur only in words borrowed from Romance languages (Familie, Un ion, adieu, etc.) .

The difference between strong and weak stress (Silbendruck) is marked, the voice in general is loud, at least when compared with English.

Accidence.—Standard German retains four cases out of the six in Old High German, but the weakening of the final vowels has often levelled out the different forms (cf. declension of Leben and Mensch), so that it is now the article—not the noun itself— which shows the difference in the cases. Other Germanic lan guages (English, Dutch) as well as the German dialects have lessened the number of specific case-forms, with the latter the loss of the genitive is especially noticeable (cf. Es] dem Voter sein Haus, [2] das Haus von dem Voter).

The distinction of grammatical gender as masc., fem. and neu ter—a heritage from the Indo-European—is still retained. The declensions, when compared with older stages of the language, are much simplified and represent three types: strong (vocalic), weak (consonantal) and mixed declension. Many changes in gen der as well as in declension have taken place and the -er plurals masc. (Manner, Geister) in addition to neuters have greatly in creased in number. The qualifying adjectives (but not the predicative) all follow the strong and weak declension, but the strong shows pronominal forms (guter, -em, -en).

The verb—strong, weak (only one class as compared with three in Old High German) and some irregular (gehen, stehen, tan, sein, wollen)—has two tenses as in Germanic; viz., Present and Preterite (corresponding to the Indo-European Perfect), other tenses being formed, as in English, by combination of the auxiliary verbs haben, sein, werden with the past part., or, for the formation of the future, of werden with the inf. (the latter only since the late Middle High German period from an original werden plus pres. part. with future or present meaning.) The old vocalic distinction between sing. and plur. in the preterite of the strong verb (cf. ward, warden) has been levelled out. Sometimes the sing. prevails (schwamm, schwammen), some times the plur. (griff, griffen). Some forms have been influenced by the past participle (erlosch), others have arisen through the accordance of homophones due to phonetic processes ; e.g., Mid dle High German rise, rein, rizzen, gerizzen, which should nor mally give ich reisse, reiss, rissen, gerissen, but has substituted the preterite riss to avoid confusion of present and preterite (in English write

Word Formation.

Compounds of two or more independent words (Kirchtiurmspitze, Felddiebstahl, Altweibersommer) and derivations by means of affixes (prefixes and suffixes), some of which originally were independent words such as -lick (Engl. -ly), -tum (-dom), -heit (-hood), -schaft (-scape, -ship), -haft, have played an important part in enriching the vocabulary from the oldest period. The great modification in the original meaning of a word by these affixes which are mostly of Germanic but for a part also of Classical or Romance origin, may be shown by such examples as sitzen: ersitzen; Wetter: Gewitter; Eigenschaft: -turn: -keit; eigentlich; Weib: weibisch: weiblich; England: Eng lander: Englanderei. As an important feature for the growth of the vocabulary loan-translations (calques, tlbersetzungslehn worter) deserve mention. They occur throughout the whole period, cf. Old High German bigiht (confessio, Beichte), arm herzi (misericors, barmherzig), gifatero (compater, Gevatter) and Wasserflugzeug (hydroplane), Volkerbund (Societe des Na tions, League of Nations), the last examples showing very strik ingly the inherent power of forming compounds.

Vocabulary.

Besides loan-translations the German vocabu lary contains a very large number of foreign words (Frond- and Lehnworter). Latin contributes from the time of Rome's con tact with the Teutons, through the mediaeval church, humanism and the Renaissance, the rise of the grammar-schools and the study of medicine and science. French influence was strong in the period of knighthood, in the baroque period and the Thirty Years' War, then again under Frederick the Great and the Revo lution. Italian, Spanish and Eastern languages are also contribu tors and English supplies many loans, especially sporting terms. In the i 7th century German academies (Sprachgesellschaf ten) fought against this invasion, in the 19th century. J. H. Campe, H. Stephan and since 1885 the "Allgemeine Deutsche Sprachverein." That the battle still rages is shown by an article of H. Bojunga, "Werden and Wesen der deutschen Sprache in alter Zeit" in Ger manische Wiederersteliung, ed. by H. Nollan (Heidelberg, 1926).

Syntax.

In German the order of words in the sentence pre sents some difficulty. Its rigidity has gradually become more pronounced owing chiefly to the influence of the grammarians and schoolmasters. Examples taken from the great preacher Ber thold von Regensburg (about 125o) and from Martin Luther will prove this with regard to the rule of the final position of the verb in dependent clauses when introduced by a rel. pronoun or a conjunction.

B.v.R.: . . . daz ir immer erlost muget werden; . . . daz sie ir muoter ie getruoc an diese werlt.

Luther: . . . den Got selbst hat erkoren; . . . class wir uns yhe f ursehen mit grossem ernst.

Examples of this kind, however, may easily be paralleled from the writings of Goethe and Schiller and many others. Sprachge fUhl and other psychological factors must decide where and how far the rigid rule can be relaxed, but it would not be advisable to accept as a pattern K. Sternheim's sovereign disregard of the acknowledged rules of word-order. General usage puts an infini tive with zu behind the verb (. . . der mich bittet, ihm zu schreiben) and the same holds good with comparisons: . . . den ich holier lialte als meine anderen Freunde.

An inflexible rule, on the other hand, is the inversion of sub ject and predicate when an adverbial clause or dependent sen tence precedes : dann ham er, then he came ; als er kam, sagte ich, when he came I said. English alone among the Germanic languages lacks this feature. The inversion frequently met with, especially in business letters where principal clauses are joined by the conjunction and (ex.: ich danke Ihnen and wende ich . . .) is unnecessary and should be avoided.

Style.

German style has often been accused of intolerably long and intertwined periods, of excessive use of mere expletives and of overburdened adjectival (participial) clauses placed be tween the article and noun ; e.g., "der in dent von der Sonne gedorrten Grase liegende Knabe." There are, indeed, many learned publications, books and treatises on scientific, philosoph ical, historical or philological subjects which cause the reader to despair.

The long domination of Latin in the humanistic schools had certainly its influence on such execrable "Schachtel" sentences, but the predilection for periodic style corresponds to certain features of the national character. The successful use, therefore, depends on the author's personality. Few will complain of the harmonious, lucid and rhythmical periods in the writings of Goethe, Nietzsche and Thomas Mann. However, a preference for clear terse sentences under the influence of French and Eng lish style had repeatedly shown itself ; e.g., in the writings of the great literary historian, W. Scherer, based on Macaulay and in the historical writings of F. Ranke. In lyrics, novel and drama this is now the ruling tendency and is often carried to extremes in the works of the expressionists.