Standard German (Standard High German)

Language variety and standard variety

Language variety

Languages have many different forms and shapes. The linguist Ulrich Ammon refers to these with the term, technical term language varieties, for his colleague Norbert Dittmar, on the other hand, varieties are the set of language structures.

Standardisation

Standards bodies have the task, in the case of language, of establishing standards for it. For this purpose, the unification of language structures, standardization, as well as the inclusion in reference works, codification.

Standard variety

For a language variety to be considered codified and standardized, it should (according to Alexander Issachenko and Werner Besch, respectively):

·         be generally binding, e.g. an official language,

·         be standardised, i.e. there is a codification of language structures such as vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and orthography,

·         be polyvalent, i.e. linguistically usable for all important areas of life and

·         be distinguishable in terms of linguistic style.

Assignments or affiliations

In linguistics, several models exist to represent assignments or affiliations to languages.

Standard German and pluricentric language

Standard German is firstly a standard language, since it fulfils the condition that for all its subordinate varieties (e.g. for those mentioned as minor or subordinate elements in the introduction) there is also at least one standard variety.

Secondly, it is considered a poly-, multi- or pluricentric language because, in addition to the previously described condition of the existence of a standard variety, it fulfils a further criterion that several standard varieties are assigned to it. Cf. U. Ammon (2015).

However, there is not only one explanation on the subject of language with multiple centers. It first developed with the definition criterion multiple standard varieties. The sociolinguist William Alexander Stewart was the first to speak of a polycentric standard language in 1968, the counterpart for him was called monocentric standard language. Heinz Kloss used the term multicentric standard language from 1976 on, when three standard varieties exist. In 1984, Michael Clyne followed with the term pluricentric standard language and understood it to mean the existence of several national varieties (in Clyne's sense, standard varieties are meant), with one national variety for each centre.

The authors of the Variantenwörtenbuch des Deutschen (VWB), compiled in 2004 under the direction of Ulrich Ammon, do not focus on pluricentricity in the Stewart/Kloss/Clyne line, where the presence of several standard varieties was considered the sole criterion. The VWB authors considered other criteria to be necessary: For them, the language in question should be the national or regional official language in more than one country. In addition, the official language status was the cause of the development of standard language differences in this country or region.

Full, half, quarter and eighth centres

Another model of linguistics is the division into centres. We speak of so-called full centres when the peculiarities of the respective national variety are summarised and authorised in reference works, especially dictionaries, and official guidelines.

German as a pluricentric language also knows full centres. Here, this applies to Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland.

Semicenters, on the other hand, are states or regions where authorized reference works for the varieties are lacking. From the perspective of the German language, these are Belgium (with the constituent state German-speaking Community), Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Italy (with South Tyrol).

Quarter centres are centres in which neither use as an official language nor codification occurs. With regard to the German language, this applies to Namibia, for example. The background to possible eighth centres has not yet been researched.

Up to now, the linguistic landscape of German has only been insufficiently mapped with regard to pluricentricity. The aim of the Variantenwörterbuch des Deutschen (Variant Dictionary of German), published in 2004, is to present the variants of standard language features, especially in the area of vocabulary, but also of pronunciation and word grammar, in one work. Since 2011, a project based at the universities of Graz, Salzburg (originally Augsburg) and Zurich has also been dedicated to the variant grammar of standard German.

History

Martin Luther's translation of the New Testament, which he finished in September 1522, was an important step toward an early written German language that functioned as a balancing language. Luther preferred to use lexemes of East Middle German and East Upper German, which were well understood in written form in many German-speaking areas, rather than those of Western and Low German origin. The former also indicate the use of the Meissen or Saxon chancery language.

Standardization approaches in the 17th-18th centuries

From the middle of the 17th century onwards, several works appeared that revealed a desire for codification and standardization, first of all of written language. These include Teutsche Sprachkunst (1641 Justus-Georgius Schottelius) and Grund-Sätze der Deutschen Sprachen im Reden und Schreiben (1690 Johann Bödiker). This was followed, as a contribution to grammatical codification, by Johann Christoph Gottsched's Grundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst of 1748, a guide to correct German. Gottsched used the Upper Saxon language of Meissen as a model, not only for cultural reasons, but also for economic and political reasons. This common language, based primarily on East Middle German and East Franconian, replaced between the 16th and early 19th centuries - mainly in the 17th century - the chancery languages of other regions of the German-speaking world, such as the Upper German writing language, the Confederate country language, the Viennese chancery language and the Lübish chancery language of the Hanseatic League (Hansa language).

Thus, manuals by individual scholars or groups of scholars set standards. However, these have never remained uncontroversial, since their authors, even if based on linguistic observation, have decided according to their own criteria what should be considered standard and what should not. Works that set a standard have therefore undergone numerous revisions over time, in which what was previously considered non-standard is now recognized. For pronunciation, an example is Theodor Siebs' Deutsche Aussprache, whose original title of 1898, "Deutsche Bühnenaussprache" (German Stage Pronunciation), shows that no general standard was initially intended.

The increasing generalisation of the common language had the implicit consequence that, from the 18th century onwards, a new language consciousness emerged in the individual regions, which was expressed, for example, in the dispute between the Swiss authors Johann Jakob Bodmer, Johann Jakob Breitinger and Albrecht von Haller and the Saxon Johann Christoph Gottsched over "Swiss linguistic freedom".

Linguistic hegemony from the 18th to the 20th century

The preference for Meissen Upper Saxon as the model for a correct German, which was part of the standardization approaches from Schottelius to Gottsched and others, already possessed traits of hegemony in the 17th and 18th centuries. Despite the growing linguistic self-confidence as well as the attempts at demarcation by Swiss-German authors and their confrontation with the previous standardization of German from the northern German-speaking area, especially through Gottsched's work, nothing changed. On the contrary, there was sometimes a kind of "submissiveness", for example on the part of Austria. During Gottsched's visit to Vienna in 1749, the Archduchess Maria Theresa apologized for the bad language of the Austrians.

The hegemony still intensified in the 18th century and continued in the 19th century in a linguistic imperialism and chauvinism, especially after the "Kleindeutsche" Reichsgründung in 1871 and into the 20th century. Around the time of the founding of the Reich, a linguistic-political contradiction manifested itself between the German-speaking Reichsdeutsche, Austrian and Swiss large-group identities. Thus, since the 19th century, the German language developed into a pluricentric language. Even the first edition of the Rechtschreibedudens included Swiss vocabulary from Gottfried Keller's work, and in the fourth edition of 1893 the preface explicitly referred to an expanded "number of good Swiss expressions". At the beginning of the 20th century, further evidence for pluricentricity was available in the form of Otto Behaghel's 1915 treatise Deutsches Deutsch und Österreichisches Deutsch and Paul Kretschmer's 1918 Wortgeographie der hochdeutschen Umgangssprache, but recognition was essentially only in the form of "deviations" existing outside or on the periphery of Germany. In 1939, the then Deutschschweizerischer Sprachverein (DSSV) first submitted a list of Helvetisms to the Duden editors for the 1941 edition of the Duden - a collaboration that was institutionalized in 1960 in the form of a "Swiss Duden Committee" and continues to this day.

Linguistic research on the "peculiarities" began, among others, with Hugo Moser in the Federal Republic of Germany. He produced studies on the "peculiarities" in the 1960s, examining not only Austria and Switzerland but also Luxembourg and the GDR, but made no reference to language use in the Federal Republic. Reichsdeutsch, which he now called Binnendeutsch, continued to be regarded by him as the "real" German. The term Binnendeutsch continued to represent the monocentric point of view, according to which there was only one German language centre, in contrast to which everything else lay "on the fringes" or "outside". In 1969/70, the Germanist Stephan Kaiser was the first to deal with the "peculiarities of the written German language in Switzerland" in the areas of lexis, morphology and syntax. This was followed in 1973 by Hannelore Fenske's study of "Swiss and Austrian peculiarities in German dictionaries". The recognition of Swiss standard German was based on the work of Kurt Meyer, who was able to reach wide circles with his scientifically based but popular book Wie sagt man in der Schweiz? from 1989 (revised 2006). The codification of Swiss standard pronunciation also began in the second half of the 20th century, when Bruno Boesch drew up a first set of rules in 1957 on behalf of the Swiss Siebs Commission.

pluricentrism as of the end of the 20th century

At the end of the 20th century, there was a fundamental change in the previous process of standardization of German. An equal status of the Austrian and Swiss-German standard varieties vis-à-vis the Federal German one, as described by linguists, prevailed in the 1990s with the pluricentric view of the German language by Clyne, Ammon and others.

Present

Grammar

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the 4th volume (Die Grammatik) of the Duden series gained importance in the field of grammar, because its 1st volume (Die deutsche Rechtschreibung) had been used for decades as "authoritative in all cases of doubt" (as the subtitle of the 20th edition of 1991 still stated) before the accession of the New Länder in 1990. The 3rd and 5th editions of the Duden grammar have undergone revisions that have followed recent developments in linguistics on the one hand and in the language itself on the other. Both the theoretical conditions according to which criteria for standards are established and language practice, which has increasingly deviated from the ostensible standards, have led to the formulation of new standards. Such and competing grammars are therefore descriptive rather than normative and difficult for many potential users to use for guidance.

Orthography

For the area of orthography (spelling), the Duden volume of spelling was the authoritative instrument in the "old" Federal Republic before 1990 (based on a resolution of the Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Federal States in November 1955). In Switzerland, the Duden volume was one of the instruments; in Austria, the Österreichisches Wörterbuch (ÖWB), which has been published in recurring editions since 1951, assumes the function of a domestic codification work.

Since 2004, the rules of the Council for German Orthography have been binding for administration and schools in Germany, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol and the German-speaking Community of Belgium. For Switzerland, by decree of the Swiss Federal Chancellery (BK), this spelling standard is merely a house orthography, for documents produced in German in the Federal Administration. However, deviations from the rest of standard German apply, e.g. because of the missing ß and in some spellings. Further deviations are listed in the approximately 200-page, current guide to German spelling published by the BK with a rules section including a word list. In Austria, the current edition of the ÖWB continues to apply in cases of doubt and deviations.

Lexic

Lexicology (vocabulary) is one of the areas in which the standard varieties of Germany, Austria and Switzerland differ to a greater extent. Several reference works exist for the German lexicon. The most recent codification works on lexis published in Germany are: Duden - Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in sechs bzw. zehn Bänden (GWDS), the Deutsche Wörterbuch in sechs Bänden (Brockhaus-WAHRIG) and the Digitale Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (DWDS), which builds on the lexical codification work published in the GDR, the Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache (WDG). In addition to the core corpus, the DWDS contains further corpora, including a GDR-specific and a Swiss text corpus.