German variant dictionary
The variant dictionary of German , first published in 2004, describes the geographic varieties of the German standard language for the first time . Dialect and colloquial language were only taken into account if the corresponding words often appear in standard texts. It was developed by linguists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Subject
The dictionary regards German as a pluricentric language and equates the standard language variants of the countries with German as the official language . This takes into account the fact that standard languages are also shaped by the states and their institutions (administration, legal system, etc.). Compare, for example, the different meanings of the word Bundesrat .
In the first edition, the German language was taken into account in Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland as well as in East Belgium and South Tyrol .
For the second edition, published in 2016, “Namibisms”, ie specific expressions of the Namibia German , were also included. Examples are the Afrikaans terms “Braai” for a “barbecue”, “Bokkie” for goat or “Pad” for a gravel road. In addition, words in the standard language of the Romanian Germans and in the Mennonite settlements on the American continent were added. 1,500 words that were still in the first edition have been removed, partly because they are now in use nationwide (i.e. no longer variants), partly because they no longer belong to the standard language in the original language area. Conversely, 2,100 new keywords were added.
Admission criteria
The dictionary does not contain the entire vocabulary of standard German , but only those words that have state or regional characteristics. A word was added when it was
- does not occur in the entire German-speaking area
or if it depends on the country or region
- carries different meanings
- is used differently
- different language styles are assigned
- used by different speaker groups
- is used differently
In addition to the basic vocabulary, designations for subject specifics and institutions, typical first names and abbreviations as well as idioms were taken into account . Technical language , dialect and colloquial language, outdated words and expressions were not taken into account . According to the publisher, the dictionary contains around 12,000 words and phrases.
In the case of delimitation problems, the occurrence in the corpus was particularly decisive. Words that differ from common German words only in their spelling and pronunciation were not included.
- Examples
1. Problems of demarcation to the standard: The word Wuchtel is among other things in Austria
- casual term for " ball " (borderline case of the standard)
- casual term for the punch line of a joke (borderline case of the standard)
2. Idioms
- Skimming off cream is widespread in this form throughout the German-speaking area, although cream and cream are synonyms in Germany .
- someone chases the pacifier out (Switzerland; borderline case of the standard) corresponds to the “jmdm. the hat goes up "," so. goes up the hat cord ”and“ sb. bursts the hat string ”.
expenditure
- Ulrich Ammon , Hans Bickel , Jakob Ebner a. a .: German variant dictionary. The standard language in Austria, Switzerland and Germany as well as in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, East Belgium and South Tyrol . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-016575-9 .
- Ulrich Ammon, Hans Bickel, Alexandra N. Lenz (Hrsg.): German dictionary of variants. The standard language in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, East Belgium and South Tyrol as well as Romania, Namibia and Mennonite settlements. 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-024543-1 .
Literature on Swiss High German and Austrian German in particular
- 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 .
- Kurt Meyer : Swiss Dictionary. That's what we say in Switzerland . Huber, Frauenfeld 2006, ISBN 3-7193-1382-4 .
- Austrian dictionary . Edited on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education . 43rd edition Österreichischer Bundesverlag (ÖBV), Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-209-08514-6 .