GERMAN HOMEPAGE
EVENTS
Christmas Lecture 2011
The Awful German Language
Professor Martin Durrell (University of Manchester)
6 December 2011
A podcast (MP3 file) of the lecture and its accompanying presentation (Powerpoint) is available.
The Christmas lectures in the German department are always something to look forward to. With the end of term painfully drawing to a close, the thought of an inspiring talk from a specialist in German studies followed by some heart-warming Gluhwein and Lebkuchen entices a great number of people. This year was no different. With the honour of Professor Martin Durrell (University of Manchester) giving the lecture, the theatre was full to bursting with eager undergraduates from all year groups, lecturers, and school teachers from around Bristol.
Martin Durrell is best known for his Hammer German Grammar which no student of German would be without. He is, however, also an expert in the fields of German Sociolinguistics and dialectology, historical phonology and morphology of the German language. Recently retired but still very active in his research on the history of the language, his track record in the field has led people refer to him - in Nils Langer's always reliable words, the 'Godfather' of the German linguistics in the UK and he boasts membership of the International Academic Council of the national Institut fuer Deutsche Sprache, which is a rarely bestowed honour for non-Germans and Germans alike.
Personally I feel Martin Durrell and I have quite a lot in common, a great sense of humour, an interest and competence in the German language and the flat Norfolk countryside as our home. Durrell took it upon himself to defend the German language from the common accusation of it being practically impossible to learn. His focus was on Mark Twain's booklet on 'The Awful German Language' which he wrote based on his 9 week long stay in Heidelberg during which Twain (foolishly) attempted to pick up the language. He makes such outrageous remarks (with which as students of German we can all empathise) as 'after the verb -- merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out -- the writer shovels in "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein," or words to that effect' and gives us anecdotes like this: 'I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective.' - obviously not a Bristol student.
What Durrell very successfully showed us is that German is of course by no means the most difficult language to learn in terms of grammar, orthography or phonology. We should in fact sleep easy at night knowing that we study such a challenging yet worthwhile language. Contrary to Twains's allegation that only the dead have time to learn German, it seems German at Bristol is clearly still very much alive and kicking.
Jennifer Roberts
Year 4, German & Russian