World German
| World German | ||
|---|---|---|
| Project author | Lichtenstein / Adalbert Baumann | |
| Year of publication | 1853/1915 | |
| Linguistic classification |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
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| ISO 639 -2 |
art (other constructed languages) |
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World German is the name of several planned languages from the time of the First World War. These are variants of simplified German that should function as an international lingua franca in Germany's interest. Particular benefits were attributed to their use in the German colonies and protected areas .
history
In 1913 appeared The simplified German by Oswald Salzmann .
Several models were presented under the name "Weltdeutsch" in 1915 and 1916:
The German-Baltic natural scientist and Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Ostwald , who made important contributions both to interlinguistics in general and to the development of Esperanto and Ido , proposed a hegemonic variant of a planned language in 1915, which he called World German. In his proposals, however, he remained largely theoretical. About a “simplified German” he said: “In this all dispensable manifolds, all those aesthetically so appealing 'richness' of the language, which makes it so immensely difficult to learn, should be eliminated [...].” Specifically, Ostwald only stated, that he would only allow a single article (e.g. de ) and delete the sounds ä, ö, ü and the compound characters ch and sch ; instead of z one could write ts . More details have not yet been found in Ostwald's writings. Probably he never worked the project out. This is all the more likely since he had expressed massive reservations about a national language as a lingua franca in his book The Demand of the Day , published in 1910 .
In 1915 Adalbert Baumann brought out his proposal for the solution of the language problem under the name Wede . After briefly explaining the need for a world auxiliary language and harsh criticism of previous attempts at solutions such as Volapük or Esperanto , Baumann proposed the development of an artificial language on the basis of a modern language. In principle, both English and German are suitable as a starting point. In view of the first successes in the war years 1914/1915, however, the author firmly believed in the “victory of Germanness”: England's supremacy in the world was severely shaken by the war and so “the Völkerauslese in favor of Germanness ”failed. Therefore, only German is possible. (Original quote from Baumann: “Through the victorious World War 1914/15 Germany's political weight and reputation grew unprecedented, the whole world will seek the friendship of the mighty, like the flowers of the sun, all important peoples will lean more and more towards Germany in the coming decades in order to receive cultural light and social sun from him. ”) So he formed his artificial language from German by adopting elements of Middle High German and easing it from various dialects . The first version by Wede was replaced by an even further simplified version in 1916. The principle is: "Shraibe, how you speak!" Among other things, the conjugation was simplified (now only with "do"), there was only one article (de) and adjectives were no longer adapted to nouns (e.g. de great tree). As an example for the application of Wedes, Baumann submitted an advertisement which should read as follows: one (does) search for a good comi with beautiful handshrift. forzug: shorthand. Offers stating the age at the address ...
In contrast to colonial German , World German was not only intended for use in the colonies , but as an international means of communication “for our allies and friends!”.
In 1928 Baumann presented his revised project under the title "Oiropa Pitshn ".
Examples
| Wede | German |
|---|---|
| Our father vele be in himel, | Our father in Heaven, |
| your name shall be healed, | Blessed be your name, |
| your reik mes sukom us, | Your kingdom come |
| your wile meg geshê wi in himel so af earth. | Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. |
| Give us our taglie bread, | Our daily bread Give us today. |
| fergewe us our shulda (feltrita), | And forgive us our debts |
| how we fergewe our feinda, | as we also forgive our debtors. |
| u fire nit in fersukun us, | And lead us not into temptation, |
| but choose us fon ale iwela. | but deliver us from evil. |
literature
- Lichtenstein: pasilogy or world language. From Dr. L. Joh. Urban Kern, Breslau, 1853 ( books.google ); 2nd edition, Breslau, 1859
- Oswald Salzmann : The simplified German. The language of all peoples . Publishing house by Oswald Salzmann, Leipzig, 1913 ( books.google-US )
- Adalbert Baumann : Wede, the language of communication of the central powers and their friends, the new world auxiliary language . Huber, Diessen 1915.
- Adalbert Baumann: The new, light world German (the improved Wedé), for our allies and friends! Its necessity and its economic importance. Lecture given on December 16, 1915 at the Munich Commercial Association of 1873 (details added). written in loud-shrift! Ferlag Jos. C. Huber, Diessen for Munich, krigs-iar 1916.
- Detlev Blanke: Interlinguistic Contributions. On the nature and function of international planned languages . Edited by Sabine Fiedler. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2006, ISBN 3-631-55024-3 .
- Markus Krajewski: Complete absence. World projects around 1900 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-596-16779-5 , ( Fischer 16779), pp. 73-96, in particular 92 ff.
- Ulrich Becker, Fritz Wollenberg: A language for science. Contributions and materials of the Interlinguistics Colloquium for Wilhelm Ostwald, on November 9, 1996, at the Humboldt University in Berlin . GIL, Berlin 1998, ( Interlinguistic Information Supplement 3, ISSN 1432-3567 ).
- Peter Mühlhäusler: Tracing the roots of pidgin German . In: Language and Communication 4, 1984, 1, ISSN 0271-5309 , pp. 27-57.