The German Language Today

The German Langauge Todaypresents the linguistic variety of the German speaking community as well as describing the main systematic features of the language. The volume covers most of the factors which produce competing forms in German as well as describing the sounds, inflectional processes, syntactic structures and different layers of words in the language. Using illustrative texts and examples, Charles Russ combines the recognition of the great breadth of variety throughout the German speech community with an introduction to the use of basic linguistic terms and the description of language structures. In addition, he also gives recognition to the fact that languages are constantly changing, always accumulating new words and meanings. The book provides the first analysis of the implications of German unification upon the German language and its speaking community--East and West alike--proving to be important reading for linguists and German speakers.