Many university students first exposed to the linguistic study of German are often faced with a choice. As regards the option of choosing a history of German, there is an argument that students who today are often not sufficiently competent in Modern German when they enter Higher Education should not be exposed to varieties that are far removed from Modern German, at least in the initial stages. In effect this means that one should refrain from using e.g. Old High German texts from a history of German as the starting texts to teach introductory German Linguistics. History of English might serve as an example. A different solution is provided by Roelcke's Sprachtypologie which crucially uses Modern German as a starting point to explore the language systematically with all its functional, regional and historical variations.
Variation features as an important issue in the book.
He does succeed, instead, in producing a neat overview of and introduction to the linguistic foundations of German. This and his comprehensible written style result in a book of examplary clarity, in which even simpler technical terms are explained and illustrated with examples. There are some inconsistencies, however. An overall glossary at the end of the book would both resolve these minor irritations and be more appropriate to a student readership. A similar criticism holds for the use of examples which were thin on the ground.