The volume assembles 25 papers delivered at (and additional contributions to) the conference on -Historical Word Formation in German- held 10-14 October 2000 in Erlangen. The main headings are: I. General aspects of historical word formation, II. Word formation in various epochs of the history of German, III. Word formation and language contact."

These ten articles discuss language contacts between German and other Germanic languages and dialects: English, Frisian/Low German, Yiddish, the Scandinavian languages, and German dialects. As such it provides the first overview of its kind on this area of German and Germanic language history. In some of the articles, recent proposals for a theory of language contact are introduced, and there is also discussion of present-day issues in language policy.

The AHandbook of Frisian StudiesA is the first systematic overall description of Frisian studies from the early runes to Frisian as a European minority language. The central focus is on the West, East and North Frisian dialects in the Netherlands and Germany, standard West Frisian, the history of the Frisian languages and literatures and Old Frisian in the Middle Ages. Introductory articles give a detailed survey of the present-day institutions and main areas of research and language promotion. The AHandbookA with its 79 articles written by 45 authors aims at providing comprehensive information while at the same time fostering contacts to the neighbouring disciplines.

English summary: This handbook is aimed at students and scholars, as well as at dialectologists and dialect enthusiasts. It is meant to support the use of the eight volume "Sprachatlas von Mittelfranken (2003-2013)" (Linguistic Atlas of Middle Franconia) and its integration into academic teaching. In order to achieve this, it documents the origins and history of the project, the IT practices, the scholarly and student editorial team as well as the current archive of the project at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg. This evaluation provides a complete word index for all eight volumes, a dictionary on phonology and regional linguistics, a documentation of all sound change developments in the dialects of Central Franconia, a comprehensive dialectological geographical analysis including a description of the Central Franconian dialect regions and a perspective on the application of the atlas in school teaching. This handbook is designed to show in an exemplary way how the "Bayerische Sprachatlas" (Bavarian linguistic atlas) originated, what kind of information it provides and how it can be of use in the future. German description: Dieses Handbuch richtet sich an Studierende und an Wissenschaftler, an Dialektologen und Dialektfreunde. Es soll die Benutzung des achtbandigen 'Sprachatlas von Mittelfranken' (2003-2013) und seine Einbindung in den akademischen Unterricht unterstutzen. Dazu dokumentiert es Entstehung und Geschichte des Projekts, die EDV-Praxis, die wissenschaftlichen und studentischen Bearbeiter sowie das aktuelle Archiv des Projekts an der Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg. Die Auswertung bietet ein vollstandiges Wortregister aller acht Bande, ein sprachwissenschaftliches Lexikon zu Phonologie und Areallinguistik, eine Dokumentation aller Lautwandelprozesse in den Dialekten Mittelfrankens, eine umfassende dialektgeographische Auswertung mit einer Charakteristik der mittelfrankischen Dialektareale und einen Ausblick auf die Anwendung in der Schule. Mit dem Handbuch soll in exemplarischer Weise gezeigt werden, wie der 'Bayerische Sprachatlas' entstand, was er bietet und wie er kunftig genutzt werden kann.