Exploring the German Language

Why are the German words Vater and Mutter so like the English "father" and "mother"? Is it true that word order is more flexible in English than in German. In what ways does the use of German differ in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This book explores questions such as these with the help of a systematic approach to the study of the language. It introduces students to the following core topics: the history of the language, the German speech area, phonetics/phonology, connected speech, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, text analysis, dialectology, and sociolinguistics. No previous knowledge of linguistics is assumed, and each chapter is accompanied by a series of practical exercises.