Table of Contents

1: Introduction
2: The Depths of Prehistory: Up to Indo-European
3: The Dawn of History: Germanic up to the earliest direct attestation
4: From Germanic to Old High German: Early textual evidence
5: Middle High German: The High Middle Ages
6: Early New High German: Richer evidence and context
7: New High German: Recent and ongoing change
8: Conclusion: The interpretation of the significance the past has for us
References
Index

About the Author

Joseph Salmons is the Lester W.J. "Smoky" Seifert Professor of Germanic Linguistics at University of Wisconsin, Madison. He holds a BA in Philosophy (UNC-Charlotte, 1978) and a PhD in Germanic Linguistics (University of Texas, 1984). His research, teaching and outreach work all focus on speech sounds and language change, drawing data particularly from Germanic languages, including current Wisconsin English.

Reviews

This textbook is better than any comparable introduction to the field currently available in German.
*Elisabeth Leiss, Studies in Language*

Joseph Salmons has produced a brilliant and challenging book that is already spurring fruitful discussion and collaboration. This project will give students a real sense of our dynamic field, with its lively debates and intriguing open questions. For many students, Salmons' book and website will be their first taste of Germanic historical linguistics and perhaps their first exposure to linguistics of any kind. It will not be long before many young colleagues start telling us that what first turned them on to the serious study of language was A History of German.
*David Fertig. Language*

an insightful, informative, and inspiring work of scholarship ... A History of German is a major contribution to the fields of historical Germanic linguistics and historical linguistics in general, and it will certainly be useful to readers for many years to come.
*John D. Sundquist, Journal of Germanic Linguistics*

The book had its origin in material prepared for university courses, and the authors enthusiasm for the subject, his estimable command of current research, and his desire to communicate it to students are evident throughout.
*Martin Durrell, The Modern Language Review*

I strongly recommend this book to everybody interested in learning and/or teaching the history of German.
*Barbara Schlücker, Morphology*

a most welcome addition to the existing literature on the history of the German language ... a joy to read ... an excellent volume.
*Tonya Kim Dewey, Beitraege zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur*