This history of German bridges the gap between handbook level and the more specialized work available only in articles. It offers students and teachers a treatment of the subject that is up-to-date and comprehensive. After an initial discussion of problems of language change and theoretical approaches (structuralist, generative and sociolinguistic) the author proceeds to integrate internal and external linguistic history by using the technique of perspective shift: a different level of language is used to illustrate each period up to the 17th century. Thus the first chapter deals with the pre-German background while the second analyzes the phonology of this period. The third chapter treats sociolinguistic developments in later medieval German, and the fourth its morphology. The last two chapters, which concern the modern period, provide a synthesis of recent material. This is a book for students and teachers of German language and literature at first-degree level and above.