The subject of this volume is the far-reaching phonological change which the German language has gone through during its history and which has led to a fundamental typological reorientation of the language. Whereas Old High German was clearly assigned to the typological pole of syllable languages, Modern German has developed into a pronouncedword language that disregards the syllable. With the help of this typological model, all phonological changes can be described far more adequately than ever before. After introducing the concepts of syllable andword language, the volume moves on to describe the phonological-typological changes which have taken place in the history of the German language. Distinguishing features of this volume are its comprehensibility and numerous examples.