TITLE: German: Biography of a Language

AUTHOR:  Ruth H. Sanders

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DESCRIPTION:

"Thousands of years ago, seafront clans in Denmark began speaking the earliest form of Germanic language--the first of six "signal events" that Ruth Sanders highlights in this marvelous history 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 bloody three-day Battle of Kalkriese, which permanently halted the incursion of both the Romans and the Latin language into northern Europe, and the publication of Martin Luther's German Bible translation, a "People's" Bible which in effect forged from a dozen spoken dialects a single German language. The narrative ranges through the turbulent Middle Ages, the spread of the printing press, the formation of the nineteenth-century German Empire which united the German-speaking territories north of the Alps, and Germany's twentieth-century military and cultural horrors. The book also covers topics such as the Gothic language (now extinct), the vast expansion of Germanic tribes during the Roman era, the role of the Vikings in spreading the Norse language, the branching off of Yiddish, the lasting impact of the Thirty Years War on the German psyche, the revolution of 1848, and much more.

Ranging from prehistoric times to modern, post-war Germany, this engaging volume offers a fascinating account of the evolution of a major European language as well as a unique look at the history of the German people. It will appeal to everyone interested in German language, culture, or history."

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REVIEW:

Interesting and informative, but too repetitive.

This forgotten classic from Germany was a best-selling novel in 1905 and translated into many languages.

It was also widely read for nearly three decades – until the story of a fallen girl from a bourgeois family who sees no other way to survive but prostitution was pushed into the abyss of oblivion because it didn’t fit into the ideal and virtuous image of Germans that Nazi propaganda created. Mute films made of it had the same fate although the 1929 film of G. W. Pabst starring Louise Brooks is much appreciated by enthusiasts like the editor of the again available English edition of the book.

Please click here to read the full review on my main book blog Edith’s Miscellany!

Since my phone broke down last week, I thought I would give you all a short overview of some of the weirder ways to express this in German, complete with their literal translations. Just for fun, you know, since German is such a fun language. ;)

In German, cell phones/smartphones are called "Handy", so:

Mein Handy ist/hat... - My phone is/has..

• kaputt - yes, that's a German word, so no translation required
• den Geist aufgegeben - given up its spirit
• über den Jordan gegangen - went over the (river) Jordan; also: über die Wupper gegangen, where Wupper is a river in western Germany
• in die ewigen Jagdgründe eingegangen - gone to the happy hunting grounds
• im Eimer - in the bucket
• im Arsch - in the ass

Some of the above can also be used to express that somebody is completely exhausted.

Considering the stress of the last two and a half weeks, the fun of trying to save my data from a phone that continuously switches itself on and off every two minutes, and the fact that I managed to drop a metal bucket on my left foot yesterday and now have two blue and swollen toes, I think it is safe to say that I am completely in the ass.

No sympathy, please. I just needed to vent.

Okay, with all due respect to Mark Twain, but as a native speaker of German, this text is a superficial and highly arrogant comment to the whole language. As a linguist mainly concerned with Slavic languages, I am regularly confronted with people complaining about how hard it is to learn German and I am pretty much used to that sort of moaning by now. And I do agree - the language is really hard to learn, it is confusing and it consists of more exceptions than rules. But seriously, I expected a less presumptuous examination from Mark Twain.

I am fully aware, that for native speakers of English it is hard to learn any foreign language. Basically because in comparison, English is a fairly simple language.. Twain claims that a gifted person ought to learn English in 30 hours, French in 30 days and German in 30 years and that therefore, you should reform the language in order to reduce the degree of complexity.

Twain says, that after the “nine full weeks“ of study he devoted to the German language, he feels that he has acquired enough knowledge to make suggestions of how to reform it and improve it. His ridiculous suggestions involve basically the destruction of the whole German syntax and getting rid of everything he doesn‘t understand about the grammar, including parentheses. I tried to read the text in an ironic and satirical way, but I simply couldn't.

I mean, come on, Mr. Twain! From a writer I really expected more linguistic susceptibility, because it definitely is possible to make fun of or criticise a language in a funny and pleasant way, but something like that would actually require a deeper understanding of that language and therefore a lot more devotion to acquire it than a study of nine weeks.

This important work of Austrian literature has first been published in 1974 and is on many school reading lists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland today. The English translation, however, seems to have seen only one edition before going out of print again – unlike its French and Spansh translations.

The story basically is the fictionalised account of the author's own horrible childhood on a mountain farm in the Alpine regions of Salzburg during the 1950s. In shocking detail he evokes his love-less, even cruel biological father, who took him into house and family much rather as a free farm hand than as his son. His has to work hard for his living and he is only allowed to go to school when it suits the father or the teacher starts pestering. Beatings and abuse are an almost daily occurence and weigh terribly on the sensitive as well as intelligent boy who as he grows older begins to consider suicide as an acceptable way out. But then he turns into a teenager. Seeing that is stronger than his father he forces open his way into a better life.

If you'd like to learn more about this sad and shattering book that is definitely worth reading, be invited to click here to read my long review on Edith's Miscellany.