ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the history of the standard variety of German, which began in the fifteenth century and has continued to evolve ever since, and then consider the role of the standard variety in German sociolinguistics. It discusses the notion of a standard language variety in general and challenges some assumptions that are often made in relation to standard German in particular. The process of standardisation was not restricted to German, and it is a striking fact that most European languages have a standard variety, though to different degrees and with different usages. In the seventeenth century, the first grammars of German were published amidst an intense discussion on what a 'correct' German should look like. The codification of German orthography dates back to the late nineteenth century, when the spelling rules proposed by Konrad Duden, a school head teacher, were adopted for Prussian schools, and later, in 1903-1904, throughout Germany.
