History of German in 101 Words

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).

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