Linguistic Change

The fact that language changes is a natural phenomenon. Languages show signs of wear and tear. But does the feeling that the language is being reduced and simplified correspond to reality?More ...

The Duden is the German dictionary that has set the tone for 130 years. What is in the Duden is good German. But who decides? And according to what criteria?More ...

For years there have been heated discussions about the diminishing importance of German in the science world. But what are the disadvantages being debated?More ...

Googeln, flexen, skypen. Verbs derived from brand names have become an integral part of the German language. The intriguing thing about them is that there are not as many of them as one might imagine.More ...

What is it that makes language polite? And which German expressions engage peoples’ sympathies the most? And how can polite expressions be translated from one language into another?More ...

Players launch it over the bar. Not many people other than football (soccer) fans would know what you were talking about here, but the “Dictionary of Football Language” could be of help.More ...

Why is “I don’t even think about it anymore” such a standard sentence among Germans? And is German really being supplanted by English?More ...

Service-Point and Mainstream – it is quite obvious that these German words come from English, or they seem to, anyway. But many traces of English are not as easy to recognise.More ...

In debates on linguistic integration the ability of highly-qualified people to integrate is taken for granted. Yet in academic circles in particular, people manage surprisingly well without the German language.More ...

Hip-hop culture is prompting many young people to engage intensively with language. From the Old School and "middle-class rap" to contemporary street rap, German-language rap shows a great zest for form and content-related wordplay.More ...

“Geiz ist geil” (Being stingy is cool) and “So billig, so gut, so geil” (So cheap, so good, so cool) advertising slogans promise. Many people feel uncomfortable when they hear such things, however, because the adjective “geil” is really a sexual taboo word. Nevertheless, young people in particular now use “geil” with a quite different meaning to refer to something positive.More ...

BahnCard, InterRail – travellers may be amazed by the words coined by marketing agents. English is not the only linguistic influence to pervade German. Monstrous words with medial capitals not only look odd, but also break the spelling rules.More ...

Did you get into a bit of “rocken” at a “Gammelfleischparty” at the weekend? And that is why you maybe got a lot of “beef” from your “Ische”? No? Or maybe you simply have no idea what we are talking about? If that is the case, then you are probably over 20 and obviously too old – too old to understand teenage slang.More ...

Anyone travelling through Germany and talking to people soon notices that many different variant forms of German are spoken. One might even think that every German region has its own language. Dialects or vernaculars, as these variations of spoken High German are called, are undergoing constant change. But much is being done to prevent them being lost as cultural and everyday languages.More ...

According to a recent poll, most Germans think it is perfectly all right to congratulate someone on their birthday in an SMS message. And then they write “Happy B-Day 2U” instead of “Happy birthday”. Is the language of SMS messages ruining they way in which we express ourselves?More ...

Dr. Bernd Meyer, a linguist at the University of Hamburg, was commissioned by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to identify occupational fields in which immigrant languages may be of use.More ...

Whereas the Westerner trudges home with his Plastiktüte (plastic bag) from the Supermarkt (supermarket), the Easterner carries his shopping in a Plastetüte (plastic bag) from the Kaufhalle (supermarket). And when the Westerner gets hungry after the shopping, he buys himself some Brathähnchen (fried chicken). The Easterner – yeah right, eats Goldbroiler (fried chicken) instead. Were and are there – besides these few examples that are quoted over and over again – in fact substantial language differences between the east and west? Does the Berlin wall still exist in form of a language barrier?More ...

Linguist Heike Wiese conducts research into “Kiezdeutsch”, the language spoken by young people living in multiethnic communities in Germany. She battles against the widely held preconception that this is a deformed, primitive variant of German, and that its speakers simply can’t speak “proper” German. “Bavarian, after all, isn’t seen as a failed attempt to speak high German either”, says Heike Wiese in an interview with goethe.de.More ...

Science is heavy going for many non-experts. They struggle with technical terminology and long-winded explanations. Yet “communication problems” of this nature are not necessary. If scientists want to be understood and move away from their specialist jargon, if interested amateurs listen carefully or read attentively, then it is possible to bridge the gap – to the benefit of society.More ...

The controversial and occasionally emotionally charged debate on the German spelling system, which raged for over a decade, is over. Following several amendments, it finally came into force on August 1, 2007.More ...