LL-L "Language politics" 2010.04.05 (05) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 05 April 2010 - Volume 05*
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From: M.-L. Lessing <marless at gmx.de>

Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2010.04.05 (02) [EN]



Well, dear Marcus, with Nazi Germany I think you have a country that banned
certain words rather successfully. Quite simple, everyday words. I have a
lot of elder relatives (including my mother) who went to school during Third
Reich, and what do they say when doing a subtraction? "17 weniger 5 gibt
12." As a child I wondered, until finding that "weniger" means "minus". Of
course "plus" was substituted by "und". And as to punctuation, "Der
Beistrich steht vor dem Nebensatz." Guess what "Beistrich" is? The Komma.
And all parts of grammar had german names, including Nominativ, Genitiv,
Dativ and Akkusativ, which became Wer-Fall, Wes-Fall, Wem-Fall and Wen-Fall
accordingly. (Once I told this to a friend who was a rather hopeless case of
Legastheniker and grammar flop; his face began to shine with sudden
enlightenment, and he exclaimed: "So kann ich das endlich auch begreifen!
Die waren ja gar nicht so doof, die Nazis!" This was not a political
statement however.)



The Nazis (who were very doof despite all this) began in school and made the
teachers use german terminology consistently. If a child had learned
latin-based terms at home, their use was strongly discouraged. I think in
this way you can substitute words quite effectively.



Is not the same thing happening today in German with many German words being
supplanted by English words (or such that are believed to be English)? It is
media and certain cultural trends that help this on -- not by means of law,
but by, well, psychology (?) and still in a pluralistic society. But if an
influential, trendsetting group goes to work methodically and with
resolution, I think they could exterminate certain words very effectively
and in no more than a few years. Shall we bet? ;-)



Hartlich



Marlou





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