German 8600 • Early Modern Nuremberg - Seminar in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

This seminar has several goals: 

1. to provide a general overview of the post-medieval history of the German language and the emergence of a modern standard language (with some discussion of the structure of German today and language practice); 
2. to learn to read a dialect of Early New High German and to discuss its structure and lexicon; 
3. to learn more about the history and culture of Early Modern Germany in general; and 
4. to gain practice in archival research, paleography and codicology. 

The basis for our investigation will be readings from a fascinating, handwritten sixteenth-century chronicle of the free imperial city of Nuremberg, the unique copy of which is held by OSU’s Special Collections in MS MR 15. In addition to providing a wealth of raw linguistic evidence, the text is also particularly interesting from the perspective of social history and includes rich descriptions of guild life, festivals, gender inequity, natural disasters, illness, religious movements and discrimination, crime and punishment as well as contemporary political events.

Students may choose to write a seminar paper or to take a written exam at the end of the course. 

A good reading knowledge of German is required (although we will be translating into English). Lectures can be held either in English or German, according to students’ preference.

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.