Notes on the Language of J. G. Schottel

Abstract

In his collection of essays Von Luther bis Lessing,1 F. Kluge discusses at some length W. Scherer's proposition, that Luther marks but a transition period in the history of the German language, while the Modern High German period proper does not begin till the middle of the seventeenth century. I cannot find in Scherer's Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur anything so definite as to warrant Kluge's assertion that for Scherer “Schottel marks the beginning of the Modern High German period.”2 In the chronological tables, the Modern High German period begins with the Peace of Westphalia, and after various works by Spee, Gryphius, Lauremberg, Logan, Angelus Silesius and Scriver, Schottel's Ausführliche Arbeit von der deutschen Hauptsprache is mentioned, but it does not appear from this or from anything in the text of the volume, that Scherer intended to give Schottel anything like as prominent a place in this period as he had given Luther in the one immediately preceding. That the efforts of Schottel and other grammarians and purists of the seventeenth century contributed much to the wealth as well as the purity and regularity of the modem German language, there can be no doubt. It needs to be determined what Schottel's own share in this work was, what contributions he made to the vocabulary, what reforms he suggested, what position he took with reference to the reforms suggested by others, how far he understood the spirit of the language and the tendencies of its development. The present paper is intended as a step in this direction.