11.12 German today — anglicisms, youth language, Kiezdeutsch, Leichte Sprache — Epoché
What you will be able to do Understand four developments in German as it is spoken and written today: English loanwords, the language of young people, new urban varieties such as Kiezdeutsch, and Easy Language for people with reading difficulties. Recognise how English verbs are fitted into German grammar: downloaden , ich habe heruntergeladen , gelikt . Read a text in Easy Language, Leichte Sprache , and know its rules. Judge these changes as a linguist does: as variation and change, not as decline. Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Sind Sie sich auch sicher, dass das hier eine Abkürzung ist? [1] Are you sure this is a shortcut? Lass uns eine Abkürzung nehmen! [2] Let's take a short cut. Ich habe die Datei noch nicht heruntergeladen. [3] I have not yet downloaded the file. Es geht nicht darum, was du sagst, sondern wie du es sagst. [4] It's not what you say that matters, but how you say it. Esperanto ist eine leichte Sprache. [5] Esperanto is an easy language. Ich habe eine leichte Erkältung. [6] I have a slight cold. Dieses Wort gibt es im Französischen nicht. [7] This word doesn't exist in French. Prerequisites : 11.11 — you need the history of the language from 11.5 Background , the language since 1990 from 11.8 Background , the false friends and Denglisch of 5.26 Vocabulary , and the registers of 5.19 Vocabulary . Every living language changes, and German is no exception. Older Germans complain about English words, young people invent new expressions every year, the big cities have produced new ways of speaking among young people of many origins, and the state now publishes texts in a simplified form of German for people who find standard texts too hard. Each of these developments is debated in Germany, sometimes passionately. This lesson describes them as facts of the language, so that you can recognise them when you meet them and understand the debates. English in German German has always borrowed words: from Latin in the Middle Ages, from French in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and from English since the nineteenth, above all since 1945. Today English loanwords, Anglizismen , are common in business, technology, advertising and youth culture: das Meeting , der Laptop , das Feedback , der Shitstorm . Some are pseudo-anglicisms that English does not use, such as das Handy and das Homeoffice , as you saw in 5.26 Vocabulary . German fits these words into its own grammar. Nouns get a gender, often by analogy with a German word: die E-Mail like die Post . Verbs get German endings and German participles: liken , ich like , ich habe gelikt ; downloaden has two participles in use, downgeloadet and gedownloadet , which is why many prefer the German heruntergeladen . Some associations campaign against anglicisms; linguists generally point out that borrowing has always enriched German and that the share of English words in ordinary texts remains small. The language of young people Young people everywhere use language to mark their group, and German youth language, die Jugendsprache , changes quickly. Much of it comes from English, from social media and from music: cringe for embarrassing, lost for clueless. Since 2008 the publisher Langenscheidt has chosen a Jugendwort des Jahres , a youth word of the year, in recent years by public vote; cringe won in 2021, and in 2024 the winner was Aura , in the sense of charisma or presence, a word you met in a very different sense in Benjamin's essay in 7.55 Reading . Many of these words disappear after a few years. For a learner, the lesson is simple: recognise them, but use them only with people of the same age, or you will sound like a parent trying to be young. Kiezdeutsch In the multiethnic neighbourhoods of German cities, der Kiez in Berlin, young people of many origins, including those whose families have been German for generations, speak a variety that the linguist Heike Wiese has called Kiezdeutsch . It has its own words, many from Turkish and Arabic, such as lan and wallah , and its own grammar: articles and prepositions can be dropped in phrases of place, Ich geh Schule , Gehst du Kino? ; the verb can come in third place, Morgen ich geh Kino ; and new particles appear, such as lassma for lass uns mal . Wiese argues that Kiezdeutsch is not broken German but a new dialect with regular rules, used by speakers who also master standard German. Her view has been both widely accepted by linguists and attacked in public debate. Easy Language Easy Language, die Leichte Sprache , is a strictly regulated form of German for people with learning difficulties and others who cannot read standard texts. Its rules include short sentences with one statement each, no passive, no genitive and no subjunctive, common words instead of rare ones, explanations of every necessary difficult word, and long compounds divided with a hyphen or a middle dot: Bundes-Tag or Bundes·tag . Since 2011 federal authorities have been required to provide certain information on their websites in Easy Language. Less strict is plain language, die Einfache Sprache , used for example in news for learners and readers with limited German. Critics object that Easy Language sometimes breaks the rules of standard German; supporters answer that its aim is participation, not style. In real sentences German English In meiner Sprache gibt es viele Fremdwörter. [8] There are a lot of borrowed words in my language. Hier ist eine Liste mit häufigen Abkürzungen. [9] Here is a list of common abbreviations. Wir leben in der Großstadt. [10] We live in a big city. Das ist verständlich. [11] That's understandable. Im Türkischen gibt es viele persische Lehnwörter. [12] There are many Persian loanwords in the Turkish language. Terms Eight terms of language change and language use, each with a corpus example. Word (article, plural) Meaning Notes der Anglizismus（Anglizismen） de anglicism, English loanword Gender /