Vortrag: Prof. em. Dr. Glynn Custred (CSU East Bay, USA)

28.06.2018
Geschw.-Scholl-Pl. 1(A), A 017

Language spread is a part of the history of the German language (as it is of other many others). The formation of speech islands outside the core language area is one of its consequences. We will examine here two German speech islands in that context, their dialects and their histories - the Transylvanian Saxons, the southeastern most expansion of the medieval Ostsiedlung, and Pennsylvania German the westernmost extension of a second wave of language spread that occurred at the end of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth centuries in both Europe and North America. Mention will also be made of a third wave that took place worldwide during the course of the nineteenth century and how linguists are now studying those far flung German speech islands.