The present volume of the Journal of Germanic Linguistics is dedicated to Martin Durrell to mark both his retirement as Professor of German at Manchester University and the joint conference of the Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS) and its sister organization, the Society for Germanic Linguistics (SGL), in conjunction with the Studies in the History of the English Language (SHEL) conference in Banff 2009—a joint enterprise that he has inspired and prepared. Indeed, Germanic language studies in Britain and on the international scene would not be imaginable without Martin's exemplary contribution. Generations of students have learnt and practiced German Grammar through his textbooks; most postgraduates in German Linguistics in Britain and Ireland have benefited from his help—as supervisor, examiner, advisor and often, later, as a senior collaborator and friend. The fact that German and also Dutch Linguistics still has a strong research presence in the United Kingdom, despite the institutional pressures on Departments of German and of other Germanic Languages, is largely owed to his commitment—in founding the FGLS and in the establishment and cultivation of links with other research bodies: for example, the Society for Germanic Linguistics, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, the Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik, and the Institut für deutsche Sprache, to name but a few. His own research interests and initiatives have always represented “das Fach in seiner ganzen Breite,” ranging as they do from grammatical and lexicographical topics, over comparative and contrastive analyses, sociolinguistic, dialectological, historical and teaching-oriented studies to the current corpus-construction of the Database of German Newspapers 1650–1800 (“GerManC”).

The contributions in this volume reflect this wide research horizon; they comprise studies of German and Dutch grammar and grammar teaching, the relationship between language and national/regional identities, and the theory of sociolinguistics. In addition to the contributors, I am indebted to the editor of JGL, Robert Murray (Calgary), without whose enthusiasm and support this volume would not have come into existence, as well as to all colleagues who have helped in the planning and realization of it: Chris Beedham (St. Andrews), David Cowling (Durham), Ad Foolen (Nijmegen), Chris Hall (Joensuu), Verena Jung (Salford), Veronika Koller (Lancaster), Stephen Levey (Ottawa), David Lilley (Durham), Robert Mailhammer (Munich), Ljiljana Saric (Oslo), Melani Schröter (Reading), Peter-Rolf Lutzeier (Hull), Reinier Salverda (Leeuwarden), Eva Schumacher-Reid (Durham), Ton van der Wouden (Leiden), Sheila Watts (Cambridge), Martin Wengeler (Düsseldorf), Jan Wirrer (Bielefeld), and Jörg Zinken (Portsmouth). We all wish Martin a happy retirement and look forward to him continuing as one of the most eloquent and most trusted ambassadors German linguistics can have.