German

Nearly six thousand years ago, seafront clans in Denmark likely began speaking the earliest form of Germanic language—the first of six "signal events" that Ruth Sanders highlights in this marvelous tour of the German language. Blending linguistic, anthropological, and historical research, Sanders presents a brilliant biography of the language as it evolved across the millennia. She sheds light on the influence of such events as the Battle of Kalkriese, whichpermanently halted the incursion of both the Romans and the Latin language into northern Europe, and the publication of Martin Luther's German Bible translation, which in effect forged from many regional dialects a single German language. The narrative ranges through the turbulent Middle Ages, the spread ofthe printing press, the formation of the nineteenth-century German Empire, and Germany's twentieth-century military and cultural horrors. The book includes fascinating sidebars on topics such as the Gothic language (now extinct), the branching off of Yiddish, and the revolution of 1848. The first book on this topic for general readers, this engaging volume will appeal to everyone interested in German language, culture, or history.

German provides an apt starting point for anybody seeking an accessible book on the history of German, Like a good biography, it provides a tantalising taste of its subject., For any scholar of linguistics, this book offers rich material., an ingenious telling of just how German emerged from the primordial Germanic soup...this is an enjoyable yet still-scholarly read for the historian, linguist and Germanophile alike. It would be a fine thing to have more such brief histories, made easily readable to the non-specialist, of the major world languages.

Ruth H. Sanders is Professor of German at Miami University of Ohio.