MANUAL OF MILITARY GERMAN BY FREDERICK W. C. LIEDER, PH.D. AND RAY WALDRO1ST PETTENGILL, PH.D. Instructors in German in Harvard University CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS I9l8 COPYRIGHT, 1918 HARVAHD UNIVERSITY PRESS PREFACE the War Department, through the Com- WHENmittee on Education and Special Training, issued its circular on the teaching of German, it added the statement that at the present time there were almost no books adapted to the teaching of military German. To fill the gap, this Manual of Military German has been prepared, but the future needs of classes in his- torical, journalistic, and scientific German have con- stantly been kept in mind. Not only have the require- ments of the committee been complied with in the grammatical outline, word lists, tables, and reading material but topics of more general interest, varying in style and in subject matter, have been treated. Special attention has been paid to official reports, ab- breviations, orders, and proclamations. In the accounts of naval engagements, British as well as German reports are given. A number of the selections deal with the operations of the American forces in France. Roman and Gothic type have both been used, and specimens of German script have been reproduced. The vocabulary is planned to give a definition for every word occurring in the reading selections. Although a telegram from Washington announced that official censorship of the book was not necessary, it was thought advisable nevertheless to have the proof sheets gone over by some one not connected with our IV PREFACE own department. Professor Kittredge, one of the syndics of the Harvard University Press, was kind enough to undertake the task. For aid and advice we are greatly indebted to Presi- dent A. L. Lowell, Professors H. S. White, H. C. G. von Jagemann, G. L. Kittredge, T. W. Richards, J. H. Ropes, J. A. Walz, and A. J. Inglis of Harvard Univer- sity, and to Mr. A. K. Wilson, University Printer. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, December 15, 1918. CONTENTS PAGE OUTLINE OF GERMAN GRAMMAR 1 The Alphabet 3 Pronunciation 6 Declension 7 Nouns 8 Adjectives 10 Pronouns 12 Prepositions 13 Adverbs 14 Verbs 14 Word Order 19 Principal Uses of Cases 20 Principal Uses of the Subjunctive 21 Participles Used Attributively 21 Numerals 22 Principal Parts of Strong Verbs 23 Irregular Weak Verbs 28 WORD LISTS 29 1. Time 31 2. Family 32 3. Human Body 33 4. Food and Drink 35 5. Sickness 36 6. Hospital and Drugs 38 7. General Military Terms 39 8. Commands 42 9. Clothing 42 10. Kit and Tools 43 11. Camp and Trench 44 12. Campaign and Battle 45 vi CONTENTS 13. Small Arms 46 14. Cavalry and the Horse 47 15. Artillery 48 16. Aviation 50 17. Motor and Cycle 51 18. Post, Telegraph, and Telephone 53 19. Newspaper 54 20. Railroad '..... 55 21. Ships and War Ships 56 22.' Countries 58 23. Mathematics 59 24. Land, Water, and Landscape 60 25. Buildings . 61 26. Materials 62 27. Astronomy, Climate, and Meteorology 62 28." Government and Officials 64 29.' Vocations 66 30. Financial, Commercial, and Industrial 68 31.' Important Adjectives 70 TABLES '.'.*..'.* 73 1. Deutsche Bundesstaaten 75 2.' Preussische Provinzeii '.'...' 76 3." Divisions of German States 77 4.' Army Units 77 5. Army Ranks 78 6. Naval Ranks 79 7. Medical Ranks in the Navy 80 8. Rapks of Engineers in the German Navy 80 9., Sitze der General Kommandos der Armee Korps . 82 10., German Army Insignia 83 11.. German Navy Insignia 84 12. Metric System 85 13. Conversion Tables 85 14.. The Thermometer 88 15.. Chemical Terms . 88 16S Morse-Signale .- 90 17, Deutscfces. Geld 91 CONTENTS vii READING SELECTIONS 93 I. Infantry 95 II. Trench Warfare 117 III. Artillery 124 IV. Fortified Positions 131 V. Aviation 145 VI. Hospital and Health 169 VII. Railroad 183 VIII. Automobile 192 IX. Miscellaneous Army 199 X. Miscellaneous Navy 219 XI. Submarine 224 XII. Naval Engagements 231 XIII. Status of Merchant Vessels in War 237 XIV. Selections in Gothic Type 243 XV. Specimens of German Script 251 ABBREVIATIONS 254 VOCABULARY . 257 OUTLINE OF GERMAN GRAMMAR OUTLINE OF GERMAN GRAMMAR THE ALPHABET The German alphabet, like the English, has twenty-six " letters. The type is the so-called Gothic," although the " " Roman type (as in English) is also used. Likewise, German can be written in German or in Roman script. The s of Roman type is represented in German by or f; the former is used at the end of a word or a component of a word. Likewise, fj (= ss or sz) is used after a long vowel, before t, and at the end of a word or component; ff is used between two short vowels. A capital begins every noun or word used as a noun, also the pronoun Sie, you. The pronoun ich, /, and proper adjec- tives which can be inflected are not capitalized. A vowel is usually long if doubled, if followed by h, if accented and followed by one consonant; it is usually short if followed by two consonants. When a word is divided into syllables, the last of two or more consonants goes with the following vowel. A compound word is divided into its logical components; the combina- tions ch, ph, sch, ss OS), st, th, and in foreign words the combinations W, br, dl, dr, gl, gr, kl, [kr, pi, pr, tl, tr, are not divided. Punctuation marks in Gothic type are like the English, except that the first quotation mark is on the line instead of above. The rules for the use of punctuation are much the same in both languages. In German the exclamation point (instead of the comma or dash) is used after the ad- dress in formal letters; all dependent clauses in German are set off by commas. THE ALPHABET Gcrm0n ~& sf IO /""j/ </ W ^ * ^ 6 OUTLINE OF GERMAN GRAMMAR PRONUNCIATION Vowels a long = am father. o short = u in but. a short = first a in bazaar. u long = oo in moon, e long = e in they (or a in u short = oo in aood. /uzte). y in accented syllable = u (see e short = e in se. below). i = = long i in machine. y short i/ in syllable, i short = i in si. (Note that for o and w the = lips o long o in 0oZd. must be well rounded.) Umlaut (Modified Vowels) = a long . a in care. a short = e in sei. o long. Round the lips as if to pronounce o in gold, and then, without changing the position of the lips, pronounce a as in hate. o short. Round the lips as before and pronounce e as in set. u long. Round the lips as if to pronounce oo in moon, then pronounce ee as in. feet. The sound is like u in the French une. u short. Round lips as before, and pronounce i as in sit. Diphthongs ai = i in mine. ei = ei in height or i in Wte. au = ou in mouse, eu = oy in 6oi/. = = aw o?/ in 6oy. ie ie in believe or i in machine. Consonants = = c k before a, o, w, aw or a p/ p -f / (as in top floor). consonant. - r =*= r (trilled more than in = ts elsewhere. English), ch = ch in Scotch loch or s = z (in zone) before nicR (Like A pro- vowels. nounced with more = s in sit elsewhere. force than ordinarily), sch = sh in ship. DECLENSION 7 chs = x sp = usually shp, if initial. = = ck k st usually sht, if initial. dt = t th = t g = g in get (never as in tz = ts in cats, gesture). v = fmfun. j = y in yes. w = v in vat. ng ng in singer (never as in z = te in cats. finger). It is to be kept in mind that English letters in the above tables indicate approximately the German sound. Letters not in the above tables are pronounced approximately the same in both languages, but final b and d are often like p and t. DECLENSION In German, as in English, there are two numbers (singular and plural) and three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). German has four cases: Nominative, used as subject of the verb and as a predi- cate after the verb to be. Genitive, to denote possession. Dative, indirect object. Accusative, direct object. These are the principal uses of the various cases. Definite Article, der, die, das, the masc. fern. neut. plur. N. der die das die G. des der des der D. dem der dem den A. den die das die Declension of dieser, this 8 OUTLINE OF GERMAN GRAMMAR Like dieser are declined jeder, each, every, jener, that, mancher, many, many a, solcher, such, welcher, which. These words, along with the article der, we shall refer to as the der-words. Declension of the indefinite article ein, a, an, one masc. fern. neut. N. ein eine ein G. eines einer eines D. einem einer einem A. einen eine ein Note that ein has no ending in the masculine nominative and in the neuter nominative and accusative. It has no plural; other words in this class have plurals like dieser. Like ein are declined kein, no, not a, and the possessive adjectives mein, my, dein, thy, sein, his, its, unser, our, euer, your, ihr, her, their, Ihr, your. We shall refer to these words as the em-words. NOUNS 1. In this book, the definite article (indicating the gender) and the ending of the plural will be given. 2. Feminine nouns are unchanged hi the singular. 3.