Product Description

Authored by a well-respected authority in German linguistics, this book offers intensive scholarly analysis, recent discoveries, new methodologies, and important reinterpretations with regard to the emergence of Germanic features. It presents a much-needed scholarly discussion of the phonological and morphological history of early German from Indo-European to 800 A.D. Each chapter presents text samples as well as a discussion of the models and theories proposed regarding the emergence of many features of Germanic.

Clearly identifies the problem areas of comparative Germanic with resolutions of many outstanding questions
Includes prototypical text examples for each dialect

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1396901 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 302 pages

Customer Reviews

Derivational grammar of the various Germanic languages
This book is thorough in its coverage of the derivational laws that turned Indo-European words into the Indo-European vocabulary of the Germanic languages. To find interest here, you will not only have to have a fairly solid background in Indo-European linguistics; you will also need to be familiar with the abstract shorthand used by historical linguists, as it is omnipresent in this book.

As a treatment of these topics, it is thorough and comprehensive. It is silent, though, on the question of whether there is a substantial non-Indo-European element in the Germanic languages, and the relationship of any "substrate," if it in fact exists, to the sound changes it records. There is also minimal attempt made here to analyse relationships between the various Germanic languages, even though the book records similar sound changes appearing independently among the different languages of the family. Some nod to the existence of these subjects for debate would have made this a better book.

A unique reference work unlike others out there
No other academic volume covers the different eras of Germanic grammar more completely nor more succinctly than Professor Voyles'. He comprehensively treats nominal/adjectival declension, pronominal declension, and verb conjugation and addresses some long-standing controversies. He does not believe for instance, that there were two long-e vowels in Germanic (e1 and e2); rather, he demonstrates how they are both derivative of the same long-e in Indo-European and how they were pronounced identically in Germanic times. Any historical linguist would do well to start with this singular volume.