Origins and Development of the Modern German Periphrastic Future Tense

What is it about?

This article examines the origins of the Modern German periphrastic future tense, also known as the "werden future" (werden + infinitive). It challenges a widely-discussed hypothesis that this tense developed from the combination of werden and the present participle in the 13th century. Through an extensive analysis of historical German texts, the author shows that the werden future did not evolve from the werden + present participle construction. Instead, evidence from Old High German texts indicates that the werden + infinitive construction was already prevalent in the early Middle High German period, refuting the idea of its development in the 13th century. The study also explores the grammaticalization process of this tense during the Early New High German period, proposing that its final development occurred in the 16th century.

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Photo by Natalia Y. on Unsplash

Photo by Natalia Y. on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article is important because it helps us understand the history of the German language, specifically how a common way of talking about future events (using 'werden' + infinitive) came to be. It corrects a long-standing belief about when and how this way of speaking developed. By looking at old German texts, the author shows that this future tense was already being used much earlier than previously thought, not starting in the 13th century but in an even older period. This finding is crucial for linguists and historians because it changes our understanding of the evolution of the German language and helps us better understand how languages change over time.

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