A History of German in 101 Words

Name: A History of German in 101 Words
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Author: Charles V. J. Russ
ISBN: 978-1-80584-051-0

Russ, Charles V. J.

A History of German in 101 Words

by Charles V. J. Russ (Author)

Linguistics

Series: Studies in Historical Linguistics, Volume 10

Summary

This book traces the development of the vocabulary of the German language, exemplified by 101 words, ending with Gabenzaun, from the days of Covid. The words featured in the volume are typical examples of morphological and semantic change: borrowing from other languages (Kaiser), including pseudo-loans (Blamage) loan translation (‘floodlight’ to Flutlicht), creation of new words through compounding (Schwiegermutter), derivation with affixes (kleingläubig), and clipping and blending (Denglisch). The book is unique in concept and scope and offers English-speaking readers an engaging way of tracing the history of the German vocabulary.

Excerpt

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. General Remarks
2. The Structure of the Book
3. To Whet your Appetite
4. Final Remarks
CHAPTER 1 deutsch ‘The language of the people’
CHAPTER 2 Samstag ‘The last day of the week’
CHAPTER 3 Maut ‘Road pricing’
CHAPTER 4 Dult ‘The people’s pleasure’
CHAPTER 5 Jänner ‘January brings the snow’
CHAPTER 6 Heurige ‘Prost!’
CHAPTER 7 Kren ‘For added spice’
CHAPTER 8 fesch ‘An English attraction’
CHAPTER 9 Heimweh ‘Home, sweet home’
CHAPTER 10 Putsch ‘An explosive Swiss German word’
CHAPTER 11 Plattdeutsch ‘The case of the unshifted consonants’
CHAPTER 12 schnacken ‘It’s good to talk’
CHAPTER 13 dufte ‘Beyond compare’
CHAPTER 14 Gaul ‘An American tale’
CHAPTER 15 Kaiser ‘The Boss’
CHAPTER 16 Demut ‘Humble beginnings’
CHAPTER 17 Mauer ‘To separate or protect?’
CHAPTER 18 barmherzig ‘The quality of the Good Samaritan’
CHAPTER 19 Herr ‘Titled people’
CHAPTER 20 Mönch ‘Life in seclusion’
CHAPTER 21 Geist ‘The spirit gives life’
CHAPTER 22 werden ‘A versatile verb’
CHAPTER 23 Küche ‘The centre of everything’
CHAPTER 24 Gewissen ‘Faith and a good conscience’
CHAPTER 25 Wurst ‘The core of German cuisine’
CHAPTER 26 Minne ‘All you need is love!’
CHAPTER 27 Preis ‘The French connection’
CHAPTER 28 Haupt ‘The chief’
CHAPTER 29 wegen ‘A shift of word class’
CHAPTER 30 desto ‘An antique’
CHAPTER 31 Einfluss ‘Influence from above’
CHAPTER 32 Grenze ‘The importance of boundaries’
CHAPTER 33 Dietrich ‘The name that opens every door’
CHAPTER 34 drucken ‘The importance of the printed word’
CHAPTER 35 Lippe ‘O Lord, Open my lips!’
CHAPTER 36 kleingläubig ‘Blue-sky thinking needed!’
CHAPTER 37 Konto ‘The Italian connection’
CHAPTER 38 Lärm ‘A storm in a teacup’
CHAPTER 39 See ‘The difference grammatical genders can make!’
CHAPTER 40 Schwiegermutter ‘A successful compound’
CHAPTER 41 Hängematte ‘Rebranded’
CHAPTER 42 dass ‘Spelling and syntactic structure’
CHAPTER 43 Tageleuchter ‘An elusive word’
CHAPTER 44 siezen ‘Respect!’
CHAPTER 45 Bett, Beet ‘Two words for the price of one’
CHAPTER 46 Tante ‘Oh, my giddy aunt!’
CHAPTER 47 während ‘Providing syntactic variety’
CHAPTER 48 obgleich ‘A good merger’
CHAPTER 49 Kartoffel ‘The king of vegetables’
CHAPTER 50 sentimental ‘Made in Yorkshire’
CHAPTER 51 Schriftsprache ‘Developing standards’
CHAPTER 52 Gedankenfreiheit ‘A penny for your thoughts!’
CHAPTER 53 Weltliteratur ‘To the ends of the earth’
CHAPTER 54 Pfiffikus ‘Academic freedom’
CHAPTER 55 Blamage ‘Appearances can be deceptive’
CHAPTER 56 Ismus ‘A productive suffix that becomes a word’
CHAPTER 57 Umlaut ‘More than just two dots’
CHAPTER 58 Frucht ‘Bringing to fruition’
CHAPTER 59 Märchen ‘A fantasy world’
CHAPTER 60 turnen ‘Exercising the lexical muscles’
CHAPTER 61 Tschüss! ‘So long, fare thee well, pip-pip, cheerio!’
CHAPTER 62 Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän ‘How far can compounding go?’
CHAPTER 63 Fahrkarte ‘A ticket to ride’
CHAPTER 64 Unserdeutsch ‘Voices from the past’
CHAPTER 65 Bühnenaussprache ‘Please speak clearly!’
CHAPTER 66 Weckglas ‘A jar with a name’
CHAPTER 67 U-Boot ‘Deep down under the sea’
CHAPTER 68 röntgen ‘Seeing through things’
CHAPTER 69 Duden ‘The man who became a book’
CHAPTER 70 zwo ‘Making a clear distinction’
CHAPTER 71 Ampel ‘A revived and relit word’
CHAPTER 72 Autobahn ‘The fast lane’
CHAPTER 73 Gestapo ‘Three words for brutality’
CHAPTER 74 Pimpf ‘Gone with the wind!’
CHAPTER 75 mies ‘A hidden origin’
CHAPTER 76 Fernsehen ‘Lexical creativity’
CHAPTER 77 D-Mark ‘A powerful currency’
CHAPTER 78 Computer ‘The importance of English’
CHAPTER 79 Flutlicht ‘Shine the spotlight on’
CHAPTER 80 Heimatvertriebene ‘A heavy heritage’
CHAPTER 81 Supermarkt ‘Morphological creativity’
CHAPTER 82 Gastarbeiter ‘The foundation of the economic miracle’
CHAPTER 83 pingelig ‘Eau de Cologne’
CHAPTER 84 Volkskammer ‘Parliamentary democracy East German style’
CHAPTER 85 Kernkraft ‘Controversial power’
CHAPTER 86 Umwelt ‘The world around us’
CHAPTER 87 Bio-Welle ‘A healthy development’
CHAPTER 88 entsorgen ‘A cover-up?’
CHAPTER 89 Internationalismus ‘The world as a linguistic global village’
CHAPTER 90 mailen ‘Written communication in a digital world’
CHAPTER 91 Handy ‘A handy invention’
CHAPTER 92 Trab(b)i ‘An iconic car’
CHAPTER 93 Besserwessi ‘West is best?’
CHAPTER 94 Euro ‘A word is born’
CHAPTER 95 Denglisch ‘Good or bad?’
CHAPTER 96 geil ‘A semantic turn around’
CHAPTER 97 twittern ‘An ornithological word in the digital world’
CHAPTER 98 Kiezdeutsch ‘Almost anything goes’
CHAPTER 99 krass ‘What goes around, comes around’
CHAPTER 100 Bundeskanzlerin ‘First Lady Chancellor of Germany’
CHAPTER 101 Gabenzaun ‘The German language and the Covid pandemic’
Linguistic Glossary
Examples are from NHG unless otherwise stated
Bibliography
Index

Abbreviations

acc. Accusative

AdA Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache (2003ff). Elspass, Stephan and Robert Möller (eds), <http://www.atlas.alltagssprache.de>

ASG Austrian Standard German

AV Authorised Version of the Bible (1611)

CG Central German

dat. dative

DFWB Strauß, Gerhard et al. (eds) (1995ff.). Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 2^nd edn., 8 vols, a-Präfixe – inaktiv (Berlin: de Gruyter.

DGrWb³ Scholze-Stubenrecht, Werner (ed.) (1999). Duden Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 3^rd edn., 10 vols. Mannheim: Dudenverlag.

DR Deutsche Rechtschreibung, from DR⁸, 1914 to DR²⁸, 2020.

DRW Duden 11. Redewendungen und sprichwörtliche Redensarten (2020). 5^th edn., Berlin: Dudenverlag.

dwds Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache <http://www.dwds.de>

DZA Duden 12. Zitate und Aussprüche (2019), 5^th edn. Berlin: Dudenverlag.

DUW Duden Deutsches Universalwörterbuch, 9^th, edn. Berlin: Dudenverlag.

DWB Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1854–1971), 33 volumes. Reprinted Munich 1984.

DWB² Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm. Revised by Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin and Göttingen (1965ff.). Leipzig: Hirzel

ECG East Central German

ELG East Low German

fem./f. feminine

gen. genitive

Gmc. Germanic

GSG German Standard German

HG High German

IPA International Phonetic Alphabet

LG Low German

masc./m. masculine

MHG Middle High German

MLG Middle Low German

NHG New High German

NIV New International Version of the Bible (2011)

OE Old English

OHG Old High German

OLG Old Low German

OSL Open Syllable Lengthening

PD Pennsylvania German or Dutch

pers. person

pl. plural

sg. singular

UG Upper German

VDS Verein Deutsche Sprache

WCG West Central German

WDU Wortatlas der deutschen Umgangssprachen, 1–4, Eichhoff, Jürgen (ed.) (1977–93). Saur. Reprinted Berlin: de Gruyter (2011).

WLG West Low German

[ ] encloses phonetic transcription

/ / encloses phonemic transcription

< > encloses graphemic transcription

[:] signifies a long vowel in IPA

V short vowel

VV long vowel

C Single consonant

CC Double consonant

v unstressed vowel such as -e in bitte

> becomes

< derives from

Introduction

1. General Remarks

The purpose of this book is to show both the geographical and historical variety that exists in the vocabulary of German, and to trace its development as a language using 101 words. My original thought was to have 100 words, but since much of this book was written during the Covid-19 pandemic, it seemed appropriate to include a word, Gabenzaun, that reflected this unprecedented time. Hence there are 101 words. Although they are the personal choice of the author and other people might have chosen different ones, they do exemplify certain typical cases of morphological and semantic change. My choice of words stems from over half a century of learning, researching and teaching German.

Altogether the 101 words comprise:

seventy-four nouns,
nine adjectives,
nine verbs,
two adjectival nouns, Heimatvertriebene and Heurige,
two conjunctions, dass and obgleich,
one preposition, wegen,
one word that functions both as a conjunction and a preposition, während,
one greeting, Tschüss,
one numeral, zwo,
one particle, desto.

2. The Structure of the Book

The first word in the book deals with the designation of the language itself, (1) deutsch. Words (2), Samstag, through to (14) Gaul show how German has varied and still varies, not only in Europe but also in North America. Then words such as (15) Kaiser, probably the oldest loan word in the German language, take us on a chronological journey, starting with the first writings in German in the eighth century to the effect on the language of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020–21, represented by word (101) Gabenzaun. This narrative includes social, intellectual and linguistic changes on the way. The reader does not have to stick rigidly to the order of words but can select any word as they choose.

General accounts of the development of vocabulary are to be found within traditional accounts of the history of German: Keller (1978), Wells (1985) and Salmons (2018), and there are histories focusing on German words such as Schwarz (1967), Schirmer/Mitzka (1969), Folz (1987) and Fritz (1998). There are also more detailed accounts of specialist areas, for example, French borrowings (Telling 1988), Slavonic borrowings (Müller 1995) and Martin Luther (Besch 2014, Günther 2017). Etymological dictionaries such as the revised editions of Kluge (1960) and (2002) as well as Paul/Henne (2002) provide information on individual words. For those who wish to pursue these matters in more depth, DWB and the volumes of the revised edition are a mine of information.

The goal of this book is to try and illustrate some of the changes that have taken place in the vocabulary of German since the eighth century and also to show some of the trends emerging in twenty-first century German.

The linguistic glossary at the end of the book will help you with any unfamiliar terminology.

3. To Whet your Appetite

The reader might want to consider the following questions as they engage with the book and seek to find answers.

Why does German have lots of long compounds, for example (62) Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän? Many compounds, however, just have two components. Has this changed over time?
In what ways can words be formed that are not compounds but derived forms? What are their component parts called?
What is the connection between (94) Euro, (56) Ismus and prefixes and suffixes?
Words have changed their meaning over the centuries. What has been the most dramatic change of meaning and which words have not really changed their meaning at all?
Borrowings have always featured in the expansion of German vocabulary over the centuries. Which languages do you think have provided the most borrowings and during which periods?
Austrian German, Bavarian, Low German, Swiss German and Yiddish have provided the German language with a number of words. You could make a list of these as you work through the book.
Words cannot only be lengthened by adding prefixes or suffixes but can also be shortened. Can you guess what was the original long English word that became shortened to (8) fesch?
What two words were involved in the creation of (98) Denglisch? How might one describe this process?
If foreign words are compounds or derived words each part can be ‘translated’ into German when they are borrowed. This has been a fruitful process throughout the history of German. What English word could (79) Flutlicht be a loan translation of?
The words (55) Blamage and (54) Pfiffikus are enigmas? How far could they be considered to be borrowings and which languages are involved in their formation?
Prepositions and conjunctions are often historically derived from nominal or verbal forms. What parts of speech do (29) wegen and (47) während come from?
Sometimes two separate words have resulted historically from the split of one word, (45) Beet/Bett. How could this have come about?
How far do the two parts of (63) Fahrkarte explain what the word means? How about the connection between form and meaning in the parts of (41) Hängematte and (9) Heimweh?
What have proper nouns or names to do with ordinary nouns? We may make the connection with the verb (68) röntgen ‘to x-ray’ and its inventor Wilhelm Röntgen, but what about (69) Duden? And what does the perfectly good German name (33) Dietrich mean in everyday usage?

4. Final Remarks

German has always had the reputation of being a difficult language to learn and speak. There are so many irregular forms to be mastered and stored in the memory. The American satirist and writer Mark Twain fumed against ‘The Awful German Language’ in 1880. In Act 2: Scene 1 of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ (1895) Miss Prism, the governess of Mr Ernest Worthing’s ward, Cecily Cardew, urges her to get on with her German, however, Cecily replies: ‘But I don’t like German. It isn’t at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look plain after my German lesson … Horrid, horrid German!’ On the other hand, Sherlock Holmes took a much more positive view: ‘Though unmusical German is the most expressive of all languages’ (from the story ‘His Last Bow’, published in 1917) and John Le Carré has one of his characters in A Perfect Spy (1986: 149) say ‘German … a fine language … a lovely tongue in the right hands’.

In the light of these evocative and provocative comments we need not be too shy in investigating these 101 German words that will illuminate the historical development of the language. We will primarily be concerned with individual words and their interesting, and sometimes even eccentric, stories. Those of a nervous grammatical disposition do not need to worry about adjective endings, noun plurals and word–order but can go straight to the first word.

GUTE REISE!

Details

Pages: XVI, 266
Publication Year: 2026
ISBN (PDF): 9781805840503
ISBN (ePUB): 9781805840510
ISBN (Softcover): 9781805840497
DOI: 10.3726/b22952
Language: English
Publication date: 2026 (February)
Keywords: A History of German in 101 Words Charles Russ development of new affixes Martin Luther’s influence semantic change pseudo-loans loan translations loan words Regional and social variation in vocabulary
Published: Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2026. xvi, 266 pp., 1 tables.
Product Safety: Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Charles V. J. Russ (Author)

Charles V. J. Russ is a retired Lecturer/Reader in German Linguistics at the University of York, where he taught from 1972 to 2007. He holds a PhD from the University of Southampton and is the author of Historical German Phonology and Morphology (1978) and The Sounds of German (2010).

A History of German in 101 Words

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. General Remarks

2. The Structure of the Book

3. To Whet your Appetite

4. Final Remarks

Details

Biographical notes

Key Subject Areas