german spelling reform

[Guest Yau]

i don't speak any german but really amazed by her effort on spelling reforms, though it finally broke down.

Can anyone briefly explain the content of the reform and its impact? Very curious to know about it.

[yan]

The main focuses were

simplification of rules regarding commata,

writing of foreign words, i.e. Katastrofe instead of Katsastrophe, Teater instead of Theater etc,

elemination of some not-so-necessary orthography rules, i.e. for the s-sound after a short vowel, you usually had to write "ss" [like in "müssen"] - except if it was at the end of the word or if the next letter was a "t", then you had to write "ß" [like in "du mußt", "ich muß"] - now "ß" is only used for a sharp s-sound after a long vowel, like in "Fuß"

new and supposedly more logical rules on when verbs are to be written as one or as two words (before: "leidtun", "radfahren", now "Leid tun", "Rad fahren")

supposedly more logical rules regarding writing of derived words (e.g. "Paket'" is derived from "packen", therefore the new form will be written "Packet")

The criticism mainly focuses on the new spelling of foreign words (supposedly looks dull) and the last two points, as certain nuances of the language might be lost by writing all those verbs as two seperate words, and as the word stem princible leads to new illogic, e.g. most people would pronounce "Paket" with a long "a" (and "e"), while "Packet" gives the impression that the "a" (and actually also the "e") are short. There ae also some regional differences in pronounciation that were hidden by the old spelling (e.g. "Spaß" with long or short vowel) and where only one pronounciation has been taken into account for the reform.

The criticism started immediately after the reform was announced (in 1995?), and I'd say the reform has not yet been accepted by most people. Most publishers have taken a middle course, accepting some new rules and keeping some old ones, and pupils learnt the new rules in school (but until next year they still can use the old orthography)

[Guest Yau]

Thanks yan for detailed explanation!

Do you know who advocated the reform first? And how do germans feel about the recent effort to abondon the new spelling?

From BBC:

The Axel-Springer and Spiegel-Verlag publishing houses, which between them cater for 60% of the German population, said on Friday that the new rules had created a "state-ordered dyslexia". They announced they would immediately return to the old style of spelling in their publications.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3544714.stm

[yan]

The content of the reform has been developed by an international (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) expert comission, and approved by the cultural ministers of those countries (in Germany by the cultural ministers of the Länder)

Some academic circles have demanded various reforms (like abolishing the capitalization of nouns) ever since the introduction of an "official" orthography in 1901, but usually without much success (except that Switzerland abolished the "ß" somewhere along the way).

Outside of the schools, the reform actually had almost no effect, in part because it affected not that many words in the first place. The words it affected were usually cases where most people are unsure which form (the old one or the new one) would be correct, and therefore mistakes were often made and not eye-catching (like "radfahren" - "Rad fahren"). The good thing was that both forms were correct during the last years

I think the enemies of the reform feel better now, the people who promoted it feel bad, and most people do not care that much. Actually, the debate was somewhat heated at the end of the 90s, but I guess after most people did not even recognize the difference between newspapers using the old or the new spelling they calmed down somewhat.

[Guest Yau]

I guess after most people did not even recognize the difference between newspapers using the old or the new spelling they calmed down somewhat.

I feel quite confused about this point. If there's a radical change in the spelling, then people should be aware of it.

In fact, how much the reform influence the daily life in german speaking regions? Do students feel difficult to adapt to two different systems?

[yan]

The change was not that radical after all, at least less radical than expected - just some foreign words, and verbs of which most people where unsure about how to write them correct in the first place. Outside of primary or secondary schools and publishers, I think there has not been much of an effect at all. I think the new spelling of foreign words has not even been adopted by newspaper publishers. I can't speak about students' experiences, though.

[Guest Yau]

Do you think this unsuccessful reform will finally divide deutsch into two, like what's happened in china, hk and taiwan?

[Széchenyi]

I think it is too early to say that the reform is unsuccesful.

Succesful or not, the reform will not divide German into two, like Chinese, for several reasons:

- Everybody who learned German before the reform can understand texts written witht the reformed spelling.

- There is not one country who reforms and others who don't. There are some people who don't want to accept the reform and thus want it to be abolished.

A possibility is that the weird situation in Germany now: Some newspapers and publishing companies use the reformed spelling and some use the old one.

By the way, there does not seem to be that much criticism in Austria. By now all Austrian newspapers use the reformed spelling. As long as Austrians have their Austrianisms (for example Paradeiser instead of Tomate) they are content.

Yan:

I am afraid some examples you gave are not correct.

Fortunately, the spelling of Katastrophe, Theater and Paket have not been changed. Katastrofe, Teater and Packet somehow look horrible.