This book was a required textbook for a Germanic linguistics class I had just recently. Forget about any sort of enjoyable reading, like some textbooks. No, this one does not qualify as "engrossing." Rather, though chock-full of linguistical information including an interesting chapter on German spelling reforms, the book is written in a scientific, flat, shall I say "boring?" and distincly British fashion. It has the feeling it was written in the 1940s or 1950s, and I was surprised to find it was written in 1994.If you have a short, or even medium-length, attention span, I'd recommend finding backup tutoring, because you will have trouble reading this one cover-to-cover. Its unfortunate, because the information contained therein has potential to fascinate, but written about in such style has little potential to motivate one to puruse further into the world of linguistics. In a word: awful!