Reconstructing the Linguistic Awareness of Past Peoples from Their Words

2023/02/03

My field of specialization is the history of the German language. Just as "history" and "story" share the same origin in English, I want to depict the "history" of the German language as a "story" that brings the people of the past to life. Throughout history, there have been many composers whose native language was German. Thanks to meticulous research in music history on their daily lives, we can vividly and clearly understand the circumstances under which the German texts left in their letters and other documents were written. By linking linguistic history research with music history research, it seems possible to create a narrative history of the German language that delves into the subtle nuances of the speakers' psychology.

I studied abroad in Salzburg, Austria, Mozart's hometown, where I wrote my doctoral dissertation (published by Carl Winter, Heidelberg, in December 2022). The German spoken in Salzburg, both then and now, is quite different from Standard German. However, when we look at the letters Mozart wrote to his family and acquaintances in the late 18th century, we find that they are written in very standard German, despite his reputation for a dissolute character. In fact, he was strongly influenced by his father, Leopold, who was an intellectual. Incidentally, the German written by his mother, Anna, was strongly dialectal.

In his later years (early 19th century), after losing his hearing, Beethoven, who had settled in Vienna, used conversation books to communicate with a wide range of people, from family and friends to his housekeeper. For example, the German preposition *wegen* ("because of") has a standard form (which takes the genitive case) and a dialectal form (which takes the dative case). Beethoven's nephew Karl (then aged 12–20) usually used the dialectal form, but when communicating with Beethoven, he almost always used the standard form. It is as if the nephew were speaking to his uncle in a formal style. This can be interpreted as a sign of reverence for Beethoven. However, considering the historical fact that Karl attempted suicide at the age of 19, troubled by the over-interference from Beethoven, who became his adoptive father after Karl's own father's death, another interpretation is possible: that it sadly reflects the emotional distance between Karl and Beethoven.

Reconstructing the linguistic awareness of people of a certain historical period from the actual state of the language is a difficult endeavor. However, by observing their words, I hope to uncover aspects of the writers' personalities and surprising true faces that have not been told in biographies and other accounts.

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of the interview.