NJK42 Historical Development of German I

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Vlastimil Brom, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Dr. phil. Petr Kuthan (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Sylvie Stanovská, Dr. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Sylvie Stanovská, Dr.
Department of German, Scandinavian and Netherland Studies – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of German, Scandinavian and Netherland Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each even Friday 14:00–17:40 L42
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
An overview of historical linguistics and its methods (including the most important handbooks and lexica) is given; language development from the Proto-Indo-European to Old High German is presented; the most important changes in phonology and morphology as well as other aspects are thematised; based on selected texts the most topical language innovations in verbal and nominal morphology are discussed as well as the areas of syntax and lexicology. Further the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical changes between the Old-, Middle- and Early New High German are presented. Some questions of pragmatics and extra linguistic aspects are also discussed in relevant contexts as well as the context of social history and the main topics of literary history or general text production of the respective periods.
Learning outcomes
Upon completing the course the students will be able to outline the most characteristic tendencies in the early development of German and its predecessors; identify and use relevant handbooks, dictionaries or lexica for working with older texts; delimit the position of German among the Indo-European and Germanic languages; identify and characterise the older epochs of German and its predessors; analyse selected older texts while respecting the specificities in form and meaning.
Syllabus
  • languages in general, language development;principles of historical linguistics; main methods, handbooks, lexica, dictionaries;
  • classification of languages
  • main characteristics of the historical language-phases:
  • Proto-Indo-European
  • Germanic Languages
  • Old-High-German Language development between Old High German and Middle High German (phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Lexicology ...)
  • Language development between Middle High German and Early New High German(phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Lexicology ...)
  • Establishing of New High German as a (relatively uniform) literary language
  • German as a pluricentric language
  • Relations of German to other languages
  • political, social, cultural aspects of language history
Literature
  • dtv Atlas Deutsche Sprache: 12. Aufl. 1998. ISBN: 3-423-03025-9
  • BERGMANN, Rolf. Alt- und Mittelhochdeutsch. 4. vyd. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck+Ruprecht, 1993, 259 s. ISBN 3-525-20783-2. info
  • Geschichte der deutschen Sprache : mit Texten und Übersetzungshilfen. Edited by Wilhelm Schmidt. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Volk und Wissen Volkseigener Verlag, 1970, 428 s. info
  • Althochdeutsche Literatur. Ausgewählte Texte mit Übertragungen. Fischer Verlag: Frankfurt am Main 1970
  • MASAŘÍK, Zdeněk. Historische Entwicklung des Deutschen. Vyd. 1. Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1989, 165 s. ISBN 8021000457. info
  • STANOVSKÁ, Sylvie. Historische Entwicklung des Deutschen mit ausgewählten literarischen Texten (Historic Development of German Language with Selected Literary Texts). 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2014, 196 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-6898-8. Digitální knihovna FF MU info
  • MASAŘÍK, Zdeněk and Vlastimil BROM. Historische Entwicklung des Deutschen: Übersichtstabellen - Kommentare - Textproben (Historical Development of German - Tables - Comments - Texts). Brno: Masarykova univerzita v Brně, 2005, 129 pp. 1. Vyd. ISBN 80-210-3696-6. info
Teaching methods
The lecture exposition provides the students with the basic overview of the diachronic linguistics, its aims, methodology and terminology; the language development from Indo-European to Old German is presented. In the seminar work the students are practicing the theoretical information in the language analyses of Old German texts with main focus on phonematic and morphology specificities.
Assessment methods
final written test (terminology of diachronic linguistics, an overview of the language development Indo-European - Old German, a phonematic and morphematic analysis of a short Old German text)
Language of instruction
German
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught annually.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 14 hodin za semestr.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2023, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2023/NJK42