A HISTORY OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE THROUGH TEXTS

Finished up A History of the German Language Through Texts today. Somehow the book itself is so awesome it almost overshadows what it actually says: it's got diplomatic reprints of texts ranging from the oldest OHG fragments ("fater unseer/fater unser/fadar is usa/fadar ist usa"...) all the way to the Jugendsprache in internet chatrooms (book was published in 2003). Each excerpt is accompanied by a fairly thorough philological analysis -- in English? -- that contextualizes it and compares it with the preceding examples. Darn tootin'. Can't say that it's terribly well-written, but that's not really the point anyhoo.

Both the authors are interesting. Gloning is apparently a specialist in "German language cookery texts 1350-1896" or, if you prefer, Monumenta Culinaria et Diaetetica Historic. Going by his faculty page this book seems to be his sole foray into English, which perhaps explains the involvement of Christopher Young, who I'm guessing is currently buried in work on the new edition of the Kaiserchronik.