Swiss association for the German language

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Swiss Association
for the German Language
(SVDS)
purpose Promotion and maintenance of the standard German language in Switzerland
President: Jürg Niederhauser
Establishment date: 1904
Seat : respective seat of the association secretariat
Website: www.sprachverein.ch

The Swiss Association for the German Language (SVDS) until 1993 German Swiss Language Association, is an association within the meaning of Art. Ff 60th of the Swiss Civil Code , which is in the German-speaking Switzerland for the promotion of linguistic culture of the German language and a factually appropriate language cultivation begins . The association is the official contact person for the Duden editorial team with regard to the German language in Switzerland.

The Swiss Association for the German Language should not be confused with the Swiss German Association (since 2018 dialect forum ), which was founded in 1938 as the Bund Schwyzertütsch and, unlike the SVDS, accepts Swiss German dialects .

Purpose of the association

The association affirms the maintenance of both forms of the German language in Switzerland - the standard language and the dialect . He strives to strengthen and deepen awareness of the importance and possibilities of the German language in the distinctly Diglossian German-speaking part of Switzerland.

The focus is on Swiss High German , the Swiss variant of Standard German . The Duden Committee set up by the association deals with the Helvetisms and advocates their inclusion in the dictionaries.

History and activities

The association was founded in Burgdorf in 1904 under the name Deutschschweizerischer Sprachverein . His subjects at the time were "language maintenance" and "language protection"; other societies that were founded at the time with ideologically comparable objectives - care and protection of the local population - include the Swiss Association for Heritage Protection (1905) and the Swiss Confederation for Nature Conservation (1909).

In the early years, the association dealt closely with the relationship between the national languages ​​in Switzerland . Among other things, he worked to ensure that the train stations in the German-speaking parts of the mostly French-speaking cantons of Friborg and Valais would no longer be written to in French, but in German. In French-speaking Switzerland , he was soon perceived as a “language troublemaker”.

On the initiative of the Swiss Association of Correctors, the language association submitted a list of Helvetisms for the 1941 edition to the Dudens editors for the first time in 1939 . To this day, he is the contact person for the Duden editorial team for all matters relating to Swiss German.

After National Socialism had strained Switzerland's relationship with High German, the association founded the monthly magazine "Sprachspiegel" in 1945: "We want to keep the relationship between dialect and written language in balance, but also protect the right of the German language on Swiss soil", was the title it programmatically in the first edition. The journal, which has been published six times a year since 1955, deals with Swiss and general topics in linguistics and language practice.

Today's German section of the Central Language Services of the Swiss Federal Chancellery , whose language work is firmly integrated into the legislative process , goes back to a proposal submitted in 1966 by the secretary of the language association, National Councilor Alfons Müller-Marzohl .

Already active in language counseling for a long time, the association founded its own agency for free language information in 1971, which - first in Lucerne, then in Basel and now in Zurich - has been maintained since 2015 in cooperation with the SAL School for Applied Linguistics . Examples from the work of the language information service are published in the “Mailbox” section of the “Language mirror”.

A fruit extensive work for the language club was also Kurt Meyers basic publications on the Swiss High German, in particular , as they say in Switzerland? (1989) and Swiss dictionary (2006).

Publications and editorship (selection)

Magazines
  • Language mirror. 1945 ff .; appears six times a year ( digitized ).
  • Annual review of the German-speaking Swiss language association. 1912–1941 [with essays on various topics].
  • Announcements from the German-speaking Swiss language association. 1917–1944 ( digitized version ).
Monographs
  • Hans Bickel , Christoph Landolt : Swiss High German. Dictionary of the standard language in German-speaking Switzerland. 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition, published by the Swiss Association for the German Language. Dudenverlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-411-70418-7 (1st edition Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-411-70417-0 ; as e-book: ISBN 978-3-411-90268 -2 ).
  • Johannes Wyss: Right or wrong? Hit list of linguistic doubtful cases. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-03810-136-9 .
  • Peter Heisch : word legumes. 83 Considerations of language. Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel 2009, ISBN 978-3-7245-1615-6 .
  • Jürg Niederhauser, Johannes Wyss (Ed.): German in Switzerland. One hundred years of the Swiss Association for the German Language (SVDS). Sprachverein.ch publishing house, Thalwil 2007, ISBN 978-3-905681-30-7 .
  • Hermann Villiger: Is that really wrong? Attempt to classify errors. Huber, Frauenfeld 1977 (publications of the German-speaking Swiss language association 9).
  • Wolfgang Mieder: The saying in our time. Huber, Frauenfeld 1975 (publications of the German-Swiss language association 8).
  • Paul Zinsli : place names. Structures and layers in the names of settlements and fields in German-speaking Switzerland. Huber, Frauenfeld 1971, 2nd edition 1975 (Writings of the German-Swiss Language Association 7).
  • Heinz Rupp: Law and freedom in our language. Huber, Frauenfeld 1970 (publications of the German-speaking Swiss language association 6).
  • Hans-Martin Hüppi: Speech training. Instructions and exercises for German-speaking Swiss. Huber, Frauenfeld 1970, 3rd edition 1975 (publications of the German-Swiss language association 5).
  • August Steiger: What should our child be called? Huber, Frauenfeld 1968 (publications of the German-speaking Swiss Language Association 4).
  • Roberto Bernhard: Alemannisch-Welsche language concerns and cultural issues. With contributions by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Alfred Richli. Huber, Frauenfeld 1968 (publications of the German-Swiss language association 3).
  • Hermann Villiger: Endangered mother tongue. Huber, Frauenfeld 1966 (publications of the German-Swiss language association 2).
  • Paul Zinsli: On the development and nature of multilingual Switzerland. Retrospect and Prospect. Feuz, Bern [1964] (Writings of the German-Swiss Language Association 1).
  • Language, language history, language maintenance in German-speaking Switzerland. Sixty years of the Swiss-German language association. 1st and 2nd revised edition. Edited by the office of the German-speaking Swiss Language Association, Zurich 1964.
  • August Steiger: German place-name booklet for western Switzerland, Ticino and Graubünden. Hirzen, Basel 1953. [= 2nd, edited and expanded edition by: Eduard Blocher, Emil Garraux: German local name booklet for western Switzerland. Zurich / Leipzig 1907.]
  • Leaflet for traders to avoid foreign words. Edited by the German-speaking Swiss Language Association. Publishing house of the Swiss Commercial Association, Zurich [1944].
  • Swiss German and Standard German, each in its own place. A collection of voices. Edited by the German-speaking Swiss Language Association. Bollmann, Zurich 1938.
  • August Steiger: Gottfried Keller's mother. A little book for the people. Edited by the German-speaking Swiss Language Association. 3. Edition. Schweizerisches Familien-Wochenblatt, Zurich 1913 (2nd edition 1914, 3rd edition 1919).
  • Heinrich Stickelberger: Swiss High German and Pure High German. A guide in cases of doubt when handling the New High German written language. Schulthess, Zurich 1914.
  • Heinrich Stickelberger: The pronunciation of standard German. Schulthess, Zurich 1911.
Rows
  • Writings of the German-Swiss language association. Volumes 1-9 (see above). Feuz, Bern and Huber, Frauenfeld 1964–1977.
  • People's books of the German-speaking Swiss language association. Volumes 1-15. Various publishers, 1918–1945 (?). [Life pictures of Swiss writers like Meinrad Lienert , Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and Jeremias Gotthelf .]

literature

  • Jürg Niederhauser, Johannes Wyss (Ed.): German in Switzerland. One hundred years of the Swiss Association for the German Language (SVDS). Verlag sprachverein.ch, Thalwil 2007.
  • Jürg Niederhauser, Johannes Wyss: The Swiss Association for the German Language (SVDS). In: Der Sprachdienst 6 (2010), pp. 198–202.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.sprachverein.ch - Statutes (PDF).