German spelling in the 20th century

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The German spelling in the 20th century was established at the Orthographic Conference in Berlin in 1901 and standardized the German spelling of the 19th century . The rules were passed in 1902 by the then German Federal Council; Austria-Hungary and Switzerland also joined.

The German spelling , which was further developed by the end of the 20th century, has been regulated in West Germany by the Duden since 1955, which was "decisive in all cases of doubt". In the course of time, regulations perceived as overly complicated were given, among other things, as an argument for the necessity of a spelling reform , which was implemented at the end of the 20th century (see also innovations in the German spelling reform of 1996 ). However, Theodor Ickler viewed these problems more as deficiencies in the representation of the Duden and created his own dictionary (see literature) as an alternative to the Duden and the regulation of the spelling reform of 1996 and its revisions from 2004 and 2006.

Designations

The term old (German) spelling is used very often in literature and in public discussion , especially as a term that contradicts the reformed new (German) spelling . But reform opponents often reject this term because

  • it is too imprecise to describe the spelling described here (there are also other old German spellings, e.g. also before 1901, and the reform variants from 1996–2006),
  • this spelling is still partially used today and
  • an essential part of the reform, namely the increased capitalization of non-nouns, represents a step backwards by several centuries mandated by the state, so the unreformed spelling is actually modern.

Therefore, some reform opponents perceive the use of the adjective "old" as a dysphemism , so that various alternative terms are used, some of which are intended to emphasize the advantages of the previous spelling, perceived by the reform critics (e.g. "tried and tested (German) spelling") , "Quality spelling", "(German) standard spelling" or "(German) standard spelling"), use a less negative sounding alternative to "old" ("classic (German) spelling", "previous (German) spelling") indicate the state before the reform ("unreformed (German) spelling", "normal (German) spelling") or should also provide a neutral, correct description ("traditional (German) spelling", "conventional (German) spelling").

The IETF language tag (the technical language tag ) for this spelling is de-1901. This identifier can be used, for example, in HTTP, HTML, XML and similar formats.

Further development

For compounds separately or spelling and punctuation no rules were formulated, these and other regulations were but in the following years " de facto developed" from the Duden editors. The planned, very far-reaching reform of the German spelling of 1944 was no longer implemented due to the chaos of the war.

After the Second World War, there were two Duden editorial offices in Leipzig and Mannheim (East and West Duden). The education ministers of the western German federal states declared the (West) Duden to be binding in all orthographic cases of doubt by a resolution of November 1955.

The German spelling of the 20th century was modified by the reform of the German spelling of 1996 and its amendments in 2004 and 2006 and called the " New German Spelling " . However, the German spelling of the 20th century is still widespread in the 21st century; The revisions of the rules of the 1996 spelling reform that followed until 2006 brought them closer to the spelling of the 20th century. In June 2006 a new edition of Mackensen was published , which describes the German spelling of the 20th century in a descriptive way.

Some of the German-speaking writers, such as the Nobel Prize winner for literature Günter Grass , insisted / insist that their works be published exclusively in their preferred spelling.

literature

  • Duden, spelling of the German language , 20th edition, Dudenverlag Mannheim, 1991, 832 pages, ISBN 3-411-04010-6 ( last edition according to the rules of the 20th century ).
  • Theodor Ickler. Normal German spelling. Write meaningfully, separate, make a mark. 4th, expanded edition, 2004, Leibniz-Verlag, St. Goar, 579 pages, ISBN 3-931155-14-5 .
  • Lutz Mackensen. German dictionary. Unreformed, undeformed . Manuscriptum-Verlag, June 2006, 1264 pages, ISBN 3-937801-08-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Theodor Ickler : German standard orthography
  2. ^ Theodor Ickler : Normal German spelling. Write meaningfully, separate, make a mark. 4th, expanded edition, 2004, Leibniz-Verlag, St. Goar, 579 pages, ISBN 3-931155-14-5 .
  3. ↑ Press release from Axel Springer AG of August 6, 2004 ( Memento of March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ OVG Lüneburg, decision of September 13, 2005
  5. ↑ Christian Stang: 125 years of Duden ( here ( memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) as PDF, 0.7 MB), p. 12.
  6. ↑ Research Group German Language e. V .: Lawyers on the spelling reform ( here as PDF, 0.1 MB), December 13, 2005.
  7. ^ Memorandum of the Swiss Orthographic Conference (SOK) of June 1, 2006 ( here as PDF, 0.01 MB).
  8. ↑ On the revision of German spelling from August 1, 2006 (PDF, 186 kB). Sprachreport, special edition July 2006, Institute for German Language, Mannheim, pp. 5, 7, 9, 11.