1.2 Was ist „Deutsch”?
Die deutsche Sprache (The German Language)
Standard German, also known as Hochdeutsch, is most frequently used for print/writing and formal communication situations. You will learn the standardized version of German in this course. It is important to note that when it comes to the German standard language, we find different regional variants where the standard is coloured by regional dialect(s).
Watch the following video to learn more.
Video: “The German Language” by Langfocus [12:19] is licensed under the Standard YouTube License. Transcript and closed captions available on YouTube.
What is the difference between a dialect (Dialekt/Mundart) and a language (Sprache)?
When speakers of different varieties can understand each other, they speak different dialects. If they cannot understand each other, they speak different languages.
Like most languages, German is not a homogenous language; it has many different dialects in different countries and even in different regions within Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and so on. This makes it a pluricentric language.
Let’s explore more about dialects in the following video.
Video: “Speaking 22 Different German Dialects – Can You Understand All of Them?? ” by Passport Two [15:41] is licensed under the Standard YouTube License. Transcript and closed captions available on YouTube.
Why did a German Standard (Hochdeutsch) develop?
The following is a timeline of key events that shaped the development of the German standard.
1455: The Gutenberg Printing Press
The Gutenberg printing press allowed for the spread/mass production of printed texts. With the printing press, German-speaking societies encountered not only texts in Latin, the dominant language of the elite of the time (e.g., church, learned people, rulers), but also in vernacular German languages (Gutenberg Museum, n.d.). The printing press was key to the Reformation movement.
Vernacular languages: languages of the common people or also the mother tongue of people (not a second language, learned or imposed).
1522 to 1534: Luther Bible
This contains the German language bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, who considered the printing press the greatest gift from God. The Luther Bible had an impact on the unity of written German (not the spoken language, i.e., dialects): How much of an impact is contested. The German of the Luther Bible was a written language only, not a spoken language. For instance, even Luther continued speaking his dialect (Deutsche Bibel Gesellschaft, n.d).
1517 to 1648: The Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation refers to the widespread religious, cultural, and social upheaval of 16th-century Europe that broke the hold of the medieval Church, allowing for the development of personal interpretations of the Christian message. The Protestant Reformation is often referred to as the birth of the modern age as it coincided with and was encouraged by the Renaissance of the 15th to 16th centuries.
You can learn more about where the Reformation spread and where Catholicism remained strong by viewing this map called Religions in Europe in the 16th Century.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries
During this time, the social-political aspects of standardization were becoming more apparent, with the German Standard being used
- for official purposes
- in schools (education)
- in the form of a first dictionary of the German language published in 1880: Der Duden, after Konrad Duden. Der Duden unified German spelling.
“One finds few voices questioning the necessity of a relatively uniform standardized variety. Nearly all the literature in German seems to assume that imparting competence in (written and spoken) standard is or should be one aim, if not the major aim of German teachers.” –(Salmons, 2018, p. 311)
Over the centuries, German became a “prestige language” or “dominant language,” competing with or rejecting other prestige languages such as Latin, French, and Italian. The table below gives examples of the persistent co-existence of German equivalents with borrowings from other languages (Salmons, 2018, p. 304):
| Word without borrowings | Equivalent with borrowings from other languages |
|---|---|
| Abstand | Distanz |
| Anschrift | Adresse |
| Augenblick | Moment |
| Entwurf | Projekt |
| Mundart | Dialekt |
| Verfasser | Autor |
Here are some additional links to explore:
- Standardization of German pronunciation: One key influence was Theodor Siebs’ Deutsche Bühnenaussprache – Hochsprache (first edition in 1898) – theatre environment
- Today: Fear of Anglicisms/Americanisms in the German language: See, for instance, Verein Deutsche Sprache
The Protestant Reformation section from “Protestant Reformation” from World History by Joshua J. Mark is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, except where otherwise noted.
