This work is the first comprehensive analysis of the German orthographic system of writing words together or apart. The study is carried out separately for the system before and after the spelling reform. Comparison of the variants shows that the reformed system is more complex than the old system, and that it also violates the basic principles of the German system of writing words together or apart.

Joachim Jacobs ist Professor für Germanistische Linguistik an der Universität Wuppertal.