Language Aud Literature Of Germany. The formation, the history, and the philological affinities of the German tongue have been treated at length in the article Germanic Races and Languages, and we shall therefore restrict our remarks in this article to a brief sketch of the inodern High German language as now spoken and written. In this the five vowels, a, e, i (y), o, and u, sound as in Italian, the sound being lengthened by doubling the vowels: a (or ae), when long, is like a in mate, when short almost like e in met; o (oe), long, is like but somewhat duller than the French eu in feu, when short it resembles the English u in tub; u (ue) is also duller than the French u in sur and turc. C before e and i (y), and z always, stands for tz or ts, as in English pets; ch for kk, as in English peck, suck; g is always hard, generally as in (jet, give, but sometimes almost like German ch, as in ewig, weg; h before a vowel has the same sound as in our has, hen; ch is harsher than h, and like the Greek x or the Spanish jota; j sounds like y in yes; r is always whirring; v, in German words, has the sound of f', and in foreign of the English v; w sounds like English v.

S has a threefold sound: 1, like the Latin s, in the combination st, at the end of a syllable, as fest, F'urst, and in forms derived therefrom, festest, Fursten, etc, at the end of words, as in das, gutes, etc, and when double, as in nass, Werner, etc.; 2, much like the English z, at the beginning of words, before vowels, and between vowels, as in Sonne, dieser, etc.; 3, like the English sh in shell, at the beginning of words before some consonants, as Scandal (Latin), spat, still, etc, though in a part of Germany it is pronounced like the English s in sea. Sch is like the English sh in shell. Sz stands for ss after long vowels or at the end of words, and is thus written also in derivative forms, as masz and misz from messen. Ai is pronounced like the English ay (yes); au like ou in our; ei (or ey) like i in mine. Eu has a very peculiar sound, approaching the English oi, and au is somewhat heavier. E, the weakest sound, is most frequently employed: 1, for filling up the transition between consonants, thus, er liebet for licbt (the latter form is now more common); hence it is often elided, as nah'n for nahen, as in English pow'r for power, heav'n for heaven; 2, for lengthening i when that letter precedes it. as in wieder, again, distinguishing it from wider, against, counter; 3, as a mark of the plural, as Steine, stones, from Stein. IF. the weakest consonant, is also used for lengthening a preceding vowel, as in sehr, wohl, etc.

Besides e, three dentals and three liquids serve for all grammatical inflections. They are d, s, t, and m, n, r; s, m, n, r are employed with nouns, d, s, t, n with verbs. The following is a synopsis of all grammatical endings attached to words: nominative (of the definite article) der, die, das, plural die for all genders; genit. des, der, des, plur. der; dat. dem, dor, dew, plur. dew; accus. den, die, das, plur. die. These are the endings of adjectives, nouns, and adjective pronouns. Comparative dicker, superl. dicker; receiving the preceding endings when declined. Endings of substantive nouns: singular genit. es or s, as JDorf-es, or like the nominative; dat. e, or like the nominative; plur. e, dat. en-new declension everywhere en or n (des Falken, &c). Some substantives take r after e in the plural, and undergo metaphony, as in Bad, Bader, Volk, Volker, Tuch, Tiichcr. The verbal endings are as follows: 1. Strong verbs (commonly called old conjugation): indicative present, e, est or st, et or t; plural, en or n, et or t, en or n; past, first and third persons have no ending, second est, or st; plural, en, et, en; imperative singular, first person wanting, second end third e; plural, en, et or t, en; participle past, prefix ge, suffix en. 2.Weak verbs (improperly called regular, really inorganic conjugation) have the same terminations as the preceding, except in the past tense, where et or t is inserted between the stem and the ending; participle past, prefix ge, suffix et or t.

In both the ending of the participle present is end, infinitive en. The subjunctive of both has the endings always preceded by e, and the past of the strong verbs undergoes metaphony, as ich gal), I gave; ich gabe, I might give. The strong verbs, whose conjugation is called irregular, exhibit the phonetic vicissitudes of words, and are therefore to be regarded as organic and containing the rules of the language; while the so-called regular verbs are weak, undergo no change, and only admit of mechanical additions.-All words of Teutonic physiognomy have the accent on the radical syllable; those taken from or resembling French, gen-erally on the last efFective syllable; and those from other languages on that syllable which to the German ear seems to be the radical; thus: Empfind'lichlceit, sensibility; unzurer-lass'lich, untrustworthy, etc.; but Regiment', Solidaritat', Kapitan', etc. The German language has in a very high degree three qualities which render it both very plastic in its material and very flexible in its adaptability to all forms and categories of thought.

These qualities are: 1, intuitiveness of expression, owing to the organic etyma of the Indo-European family of languages, which are clearest in the Latin (see Language); 2, facility of composition of simple words into double or manifold agglomerates, requiring long paraphrases in other languages; 3. power of polysyllabic derivatives from radical words. These latter qualities do not impair the first.-Among the most eminent of the founders of German philology are Benecke, J. and W. Grimm, and Lachmann. See J. Grimm, Deutsche Grammatil', comprising also the Scandinavian branch (Gottingen, 1819-'37); Hoffmann von Fallers-leben, Deutsche Philologie im Grundrm (Berlin, 183(3), with a bibliography of dialects; Pi-schon, Denkmalerder deutschen Sprache(6 vols., Berlin, 1838-51); Wackernagel,Deutsches Lese-buch (3 vols., Basel, 1839-'43); J. Grimm, Ge-schichte der deutschen Sprache (Leipsic, 1848). For grammars of new High German, see Ick-elsamer (about 1525); Albertus (1573); Oelin-ger, Unterricht der hochdeutschen Sprache (1574); Clajus, Grammatica Germanicae Lingua (1578); Martin Opitz, on German prosody (1624); Schottel, Deutsche Sprachkunst (1641); Morhof, Unterricht von der deutschen Sprache und Poesie (1682); Bodiker, Grund-sdtze der deutschen Spraclie (1690); Braun (1765); Heynatz (1770); Basedow (1759); Bodmer (1775); Fulda, Grundregeln der deutschen Sprache (1778); Adelung (1781-2); Heinsius (1798); J. Ch. A. Heyse (1814); K. F. Becker (1829). For dictionaries, see Frisch, Teutsch-Iateinisches Wortei'buch (1741); Adelung (1774-'86); Moritz, Grammatisches War-terbuch der deutschen Sprache (1793); Campe, Versuche deutscher Sptrachbereicherung (1791-'4), and Worterbuch zur Aufklilrung und Ver-deutschung der unserer Sprache aufgedrun-genenfremden Ausdrucke (1801; modified by Brandt, 1807-'13); Heyse, AUgemeines 'Worterbuch zur Yerdeutschung, etc. (1804); Heinsius, Volksthumliches Worterbuch (1818-132); Adler, German and English (New York, 1848); K. W. L. Heyse (1833-'49); J. and W. Grimm, a gigantic work, begun half a century ago, and not yet completed.