Standard German

Standard German has originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a Written Language , developed over a process of several hundred years, in which writers tried to write in a way that was understood in the largest area. Until about 1800 Standard German was almost entirely a written language. In this time, people in northern Germany , who spoke Low German dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign language. Later the Northern pronunciation was considered standard and spread southward; in some regions (such as around Hanover ) the local dialect completely died out.

TERMINOLOGY

In German Linguistics , only the traditional regional varieties of German are called Dialect s, not the different varieties of standard German. The latter are known as ''Umgangssprachen'' and on the territory of Germany have begun to replace the traditional dialects from the 19th Century . They constitute a mixture of old dialectal elements with Standard German.

Standard German in Standard German is known as ''Hochdeutsch'', a misleading term since it collides with the linguistic term High German . ''Hoch'' "high" in the term for the standard language refers to "high" in a cultural or educational sense, while in the linguistic term it simply refers to the Geography Of Germany , High German of the southern uplands and the Alps contrasting with Low German spoken in the lowlands stretching towards the North Sea . To avoid this confusion, Standard German is increasingly referred to as ''Standarddeutsch'', ''deutsche Standardsprache'', or if the context of the German language is clear, simply ''Standardsprache'' "standard language".

VARIANTS

Standard German differs regionally, especially between German-speaking countries, especially in Vocabulary , but also in some instances of Pronunciation and even Grammar . This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a Pluricentric Language .

In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectical varieties to more standard varieties according to situation.

In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland , mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is almost entirely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a ''medial Diglossia ''. Standard German is rarely spoken, for instance when speaking with people who do not understand the Swiss German dialects at all, and it is expected to be used in school. Standard German has, however, left a clear imprint on the contemporary variants of Swiss German, regional expressions and vocabulary having been replaced with material assimilated from the standard language.

PHONOLOGY

See Also: German phonology

Pronunciation of Standard German was first prescribed in 1898 in the ''Deutsche Bühnenaussprache '' of Theodor Siebs . In Siebs' pronunciation, the phoneme /r/ was given a pronunciation of , while regional variants are permissible in contemporary Standard German.

GRAMMAR

See Also: German grammar

ORTHOGRAPHY

See Also: German orthography

A first standardization, although non-prescriptive, of Early Modern High German was introduced by Luther Bible of 1534 . In consequence, the written language of the chancery of Saxony-Wittenberg rose in importance in the course of the 17th century, and the 1665 revision of the Zürich Bible abandoned its Alemannic idiom in favour of this standard.

The First Orthographical Conference ('''') was called in 1876 by the government of Prussia . Since Prussia was by far the largest state in the German Empire , its regulations also influenced spelling elsewhere.

in West Germany and Leipzig in East Germany . By the early 1950s, a few other publishing houses had begun to attack the Duden monopoly in the West by putting out their own dictionaries, which did not always hold to the "official" spellings prescribed by Duden. In response, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings to be binding as of November, 1955 .

From 1996 , Another Reform was attempted, based on an international agreement signed by the governments of the German -speaking countries Germany , Austria , Liechtenstein , and Switzerland . The acceptance of the reform was limited. While, As Of 2004 , most German print media use rules that to a large extent comply with the reform, some newspapers, such as Die Zeit , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , or Süddeutsche Zeitung , created their own in-house orthographies.

SEE ALSO

Standard Language

History Of The German Language

Information About

Standard German