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the corresponding article in German. (May 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the German article.
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The
German language developed differently in
East Germany (DDR), during its existence as a separate state from 1949 to 1990, from the German of
West Germany because of significant differences in the country's political and socio-cultural environment. Additionally, from the late 1960s onwards the political leaders of the DDR were intent on affirming the independence of their state by "isolationist linguistic politics"[1] with the objective of demarcating East Germany from
West Germany by actively reducing the unity of the German language.[2]
This political effort did not amount to the creation of a new language in the DDR but brought about a particular usage of the language and of linguistic behaviours specific to it,[3] felt not in syntax or grammar, but in vocabulary,[4] and manifesting itself in both the official and non-official spheres.[5]
The result was that the German of the former East Germany also includes two separate vocabularies, both different from the German of the
Bundesrepublik: the official Socialist one (Newspeak [6] or
officialese) and the critically humorous one of everyday life.[7][8][9]
Examples
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2021)
Führerschein (driver's licence) – Fahrerlaubnis (Replacement of the word
Führer)
^Müller, Gerhard (1994), "Der "Besserwessi" und die "innere Mauer". Anmerkungen zum Sprachgebrauch im vereinigten Deutschland", In "Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache" (in German): 119 ff
^Hellmann, Manfred. Deutsche Sprache in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. In: Althaus, Hans Peter u.a. (eds.). Lexikon der germanistischen Linguistik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1980, p.520: see the paragraph on die ostdeusche Betonung sprachlicher Differenz
^Peter Von Polenz (1999): Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelater bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 3: 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin, New York, Walter de Gruyter, 776 p.
ISBN3110143445 and
ISBN9783110143447, p. 428
^On the distinction between the two, see Gotthard Lerchner (1996), Sprachgebrauch im Wandel: Anmerkungen zur Kommunikationskultur in der DDR vor und nach der Wende, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang
Frank Thomas Grub: „Wende“ und „Einheit“ im Spiegel der deutschsprachigen Literatur. Ein Handbuch. Band 1: Untersuchungen. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2003
ISBN3110177757
Hugo Moser: Sprachliche Folgen der politischen Teilung Deutschlands. Beihefte zum „Wirkenden Wort“ 3. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1962
Michael Kinne, Birgit Strube-Edelmann: Kleines Wörterbuch des DDR-Wortschatzes (2nd edn). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1981
ISBN3590155094
Martin Ahrends (ed.): Trabbi, Telespargel und Tränenpavillon – Das Wörterbuch der DDR-Sprache. Heyne, München 1986
ISBN3453023579
Wolf Oschlies: Würgende und wirkende Wörter – Deutschsprechen in der DDR. Holzapfel, Berlin 1989
ISBN3921226341
Manfred W. Hellmann: Divergenz und Konvergenz – Sprachlich-kommunikative Folgen der staatlichen Trennung und Vereinigung Deutschlands. In: Karin Eichhoff-Cyrus, Rudolf Hoberg (ed.): Die deutsche Sprache zur Jahrtausendwende – Sprachkultur oder Sprachverfall. Duden-Reihe Thema Deutsch, Band 1. Mannheim (Duden-Redaktion) and Wiesbaden (GfdS) 2000, pp. 247–275
Marianne Schröder, Ulla Fix: Allgemeinwortschatz der DDR-Bürger – nach Sachgruppen geordnet und linguistisch kommentiert. Heidelberg 1997
Birgit Wolf: Sprache in der DDR. Ein Wörterbuch. de Gruyter, Berlin und New York 2000
ISBN3110164272. online bei Google-Books
Jan Eik: DDR-Deutsch: eine entschwundene Sprache. Jaron, Berlin 2010
ISBN9783897736450
Norbert Nail: Jenseits des „breiten Steins“: Studentendeutsch in der DDR. In: Studenten-Kurier 3/2013, pp. 15–17
[1]
Antje Baumann: Mit der Schwalbe zur Datsche. Wörter aus einem verschwundenen Land. Bibliographisches Institut – Duden, Berlin, 2020
ISBN9783411745326
In English
Russ, C. (2002). The German language today: A linguistic introduction. Routledge. (See Chapter 5 German in East Germany)
Stevenson, P. (2002). Language and German disunity: a sociolinguistic history of East and West in Germany, 1945–2000. Oxford University Press
You can help expand this article with text translated from
the corresponding article in German. (May 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the German article.
Machine translation, like
DeepL or
Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,121 articles in the
main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide
copyright attribution in the
edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an
interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Sprachgebrauch in der DDR]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Sprachgebrauch in der DDR}} to the
talk page.
The
German language developed differently in
East Germany (DDR), during its existence as a separate state from 1949 to 1990, from the German of
West Germany because of significant differences in the country's political and socio-cultural environment. Additionally, from the late 1960s onwards the political leaders of the DDR were intent on affirming the independence of their state by "isolationist linguistic politics"[1] with the objective of demarcating East Germany from
West Germany by actively reducing the unity of the German language.[2]
This political effort did not amount to the creation of a new language in the DDR but brought about a particular usage of the language and of linguistic behaviours specific to it,[3] felt not in syntax or grammar, but in vocabulary,[4] and manifesting itself in both the official and non-official spheres.[5]
The result was that the German of the former East Germany also includes two separate vocabularies, both different from the German of the
Bundesrepublik: the official Socialist one (Newspeak [6] or
officialese) and the critically humorous one of everyday life.[7][8][9]
Examples
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2021)
Führerschein (driver's licence) – Fahrerlaubnis (Replacement of the word
Führer)
^Müller, Gerhard (1994), "Der "Besserwessi" und die "innere Mauer". Anmerkungen zum Sprachgebrauch im vereinigten Deutschland", In "Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache" (in German): 119 ff
^Hellmann, Manfred. Deutsche Sprache in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. In: Althaus, Hans Peter u.a. (eds.). Lexikon der germanistischen Linguistik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1980, p.520: see the paragraph on die ostdeusche Betonung sprachlicher Differenz
^Peter Von Polenz (1999): Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelater bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 3: 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin, New York, Walter de Gruyter, 776 p.
ISBN3110143445 and
ISBN9783110143447, p. 428
^On the distinction between the two, see Gotthard Lerchner (1996), Sprachgebrauch im Wandel: Anmerkungen zur Kommunikationskultur in der DDR vor und nach der Wende, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang
Frank Thomas Grub: „Wende“ und „Einheit“ im Spiegel der deutschsprachigen Literatur. Ein Handbuch. Band 1: Untersuchungen. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2003
ISBN3110177757
Hugo Moser: Sprachliche Folgen der politischen Teilung Deutschlands. Beihefte zum „Wirkenden Wort“ 3. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1962
Michael Kinne, Birgit Strube-Edelmann: Kleines Wörterbuch des DDR-Wortschatzes (2nd edn). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1981
ISBN3590155094
Martin Ahrends (ed.): Trabbi, Telespargel und Tränenpavillon – Das Wörterbuch der DDR-Sprache. Heyne, München 1986
ISBN3453023579
Wolf Oschlies: Würgende und wirkende Wörter – Deutschsprechen in der DDR. Holzapfel, Berlin 1989
ISBN3921226341
Manfred W. Hellmann: Divergenz und Konvergenz – Sprachlich-kommunikative Folgen der staatlichen Trennung und Vereinigung Deutschlands. In: Karin Eichhoff-Cyrus, Rudolf Hoberg (ed.): Die deutsche Sprache zur Jahrtausendwende – Sprachkultur oder Sprachverfall. Duden-Reihe Thema Deutsch, Band 1. Mannheim (Duden-Redaktion) and Wiesbaden (GfdS) 2000, pp. 247–275
Marianne Schröder, Ulla Fix: Allgemeinwortschatz der DDR-Bürger – nach Sachgruppen geordnet und linguistisch kommentiert. Heidelberg 1997
Birgit Wolf: Sprache in der DDR. Ein Wörterbuch. de Gruyter, Berlin und New York 2000
ISBN3110164272. online bei Google-Books
Jan Eik: DDR-Deutsch: eine entschwundene Sprache. Jaron, Berlin 2010
ISBN9783897736450
Norbert Nail: Jenseits des „breiten Steins“: Studentendeutsch in der DDR. In: Studenten-Kurier 3/2013, pp. 15–17
[1]
Antje Baumann: Mit der Schwalbe zur Datsche. Wörter aus einem verschwundenen Land. Bibliographisches Institut – Duden, Berlin, 2020
ISBN9783411745326
In English
Russ, C. (2002). The German language today: A linguistic introduction. Routledge. (See Chapter 5 German in East Germany)
Stevenson, P. (2002). Language and German disunity: a sociolinguistic history of East and West in Germany, 1945–2000. Oxford University Press