People and Politics | Resisting English -- Why the German Language Needs Rescuing
Published May 14, 2023, 6:20 p.m. by Courtney
Why the German language needs rescuing
The German language is in danger of being overwhelmed by English, according to a new study.
The study, by the German language Society (Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache), found that English words are increasingly creeping into everyday German conversation, to the point where the two languages are starting to merge.
The society's president, Walter Krämer, warned that the trend could lead to the German language becoming "a kind of pidgin English".
"The English language is exerting an irresistible attractive force on German," Krämer said.
He added that the trend was particularly evident among young people, who are more likely to use English words and phrases in everyday conversation.
The study found that English words are often used to replace German words that are perceived to be more difficult or complicated.
For example, the English word "cool" is commonly used instead of the German word "geil".
Other common English words used in German include "handy" (mobile phone), "chat" (chatting) and "kid" (child).
The study also found that many Germans are unaware of the meaning of some English words that they use.
For example, the English word "blog" is often used by Germans to mean "online diary", even though the word actually refers to a specific type of website.
The trend is not restricted to Germany.
A similar phenomenon is occurring in other German-speaking countries, such as Austria and Switzerland.
It is also happening in other languages, such as French and Spanish.
The German language Society is calling for more efforts to be made to promote the German language, both in Germany and abroad.
It is also calling on the German government to do more to protect the German language from the encroachment of English.
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on Berlin's busy shopping mile decor
pastand on there's English everywhere
you look
Germans who don't speak English must be
feeling pretty confused and according to
statistics they're 1/3 of the population
the advertising industry doesn't seem to
care the assumption is that the
important target audiences can speak
English and they're not too worried
about everyone else the German ad
campaign for smart cars for example uses
the same slogan as the US campaign open
your mind similar for slogan is open
your mind it's always a moot point
whether the target audience actually
understands the message the company's
trying to convey in this respect it's up
to the companies to decide how they
structure their advertising campaigns
which language they use in what form it
takes this is the prerogative of the
companies but many German politicians
like Wolfgang Bernsen disagree they
don't want to see large sections of the
population simply excluded he's a big
fan of the German language and thinks
it's time for Germany to start resisting
the spread of English throughout every
sector of society to put it mildly
I think it's arrogant to concentrate on
just a few target groups the business
community needs to cultivate certain
linguistic standards it's part of its
responsibility to ensure the public is
informed and understands what's going on
in their own country Alf Josh Lawson
Beyond and to simply ignore this is
unfair any classic contravenes the
Constitution
many major companies accept the
criticism Porsche for example was named
guardian of the German language 2008
because the company supposedly sticks to
German only but a quick look at the
Porsche website tells a different story
it's riddled with English from
references to investor relations and
corporate governance and even a Porsche
Travel Club no wonder many Germans are
confused
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the Chancellor experienced the problem
firsthand at a recent school visit I
recently paid a visit to school in
Westphalia and the teachers proudly
presented me with what they called the
assessment reports for the students it
was quite a surprise so we sat down and
tried to figure out what the German
equivalent would be needless to say
there is a perfectly acceptable German
equivalent Merkel told her audience the
English invasion needs to be stopped if
we want her language to remain robust in
the 21st century then we should tell the
business community that it's good to use
German in their dealings otherwise
students of the German language will
think it consists largely of anglicisms
and there'll be a serious danger that
they simply won't bother continuing with
their studies of course politicians are
especially annoyed when state-owned
companies such as Deutsche Bahn start
using anglicisms
the German rail network still belongs to
the state and receives taxpayers money
so the least it can do is speak their
language if it's outside right now we're
talking with Deutsche Bahn and we hope
to reach agreement otherwise German
consumers will continue to be confused
they don't know that MacLean means
toilet and if nothing is done it we will
have to introduce new legislations in
fact German is the most widely spoken
language in the EU 100 million people in
Europe speak German and there are 120
million German native speakers around
the world starts this a bit of pride and
tradition would do us all good and scoot
language is what we use to communicate
language is what we use to navigate the
world and we are better off doing this
by using our own language than a foreign
language
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for now Germans have little choice but
to keep guessing they may be relieved to
know that some anglicisms are confusing
even to native speakers what on earth is
a divided dissection
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