{"id":11355,"date":"2020-01-01T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T06:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=11355"},"modified":"2019-12-23T11:03:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T11:03:04","slug":"german-word-of-the-year-2019-runners-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/german-word-of-the-year-2019-runners-up\/","title":{"rendered":"German Word of the Year 2019 Runners Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! <\/span><\/span><\/span>E<\/span><\/span><\/span>ach year, the<\/span><\/span><\/span> Gesellschaft f\u00fcr deutsche Sprache (GfdS<\/strong>) <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span>The German Language Association \u2013 picks a word as their Wort des Jahres <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2013 \u2018<\/span><\/span><\/span>Word of the Year\u2019. This is often a word related to a prominent topic in the country during the year, and is usually interesting from a linguistic perspective, too. The Word of the Year has nothing to do with how often the word has been used, but is more about the word\u2019s significance. What\u2019s great about learning the German Word of the Year is that it gives us an insight into Germany\u2019s current events, politics and culture, whilst teaching us some quirks of the language, too. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last time, I wrote about the winner of the Wort des Jahres.<\/strong> You can read about that word here.<\/a> In this post, we will briefly look at the runners-up.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The runners-up for the Wort des Jahres 2019 are as follows:<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rollerchaos<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018scooter chaos\u2019 (der Roller is the German word for scooter). In summer 2019, a law was passed in Germany that allows people to ride electric scooters on bike paths at speeds of up to 20kph (12mph). The \u2018Chaos\u2019<\/strong> (the word is the same in German and English) comes from the increase in accidents involving e-scooters; the way they are often left parked in random places; and even incidents involving people driving them on motorways!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fridays for Future<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

This Anglicism refers to the youth climate strikes done globally, originally founded by Greta Thunberg.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Schaul\u00e4stige <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

This word is a<\/span><\/span><\/span> combination of <\/span><\/span><\/span>die <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>Schaulustige<\/strong> (onlookers) and l\u00e4stig<\/strong> (annoying). <\/span><\/span><\/span>It describes people who <\/span><\/span><\/span>slow their cars down to<\/span><\/span><\/span> watch at the scene of an accident or crime, <\/span><\/span><\/span>therefore creating even more traffic,<\/span><\/span><\/span> and\/<\/span><\/span><\/span>or stick their heads out of their cars <\/span><\/span><\/span>t<\/span><\/span><\/span>o see what\u2019s going on further down. They are usually called Schaulustige<\/strong> in German but the play on words is that the last part of the word, lustig<\/strong>, means \u2018funny\u2019, while the similar word l\u00e4stig<\/strong> means \u2018annoying\u2019. And it is truly more annoying than it is lustig<\/strong>! Apparently the word <\/span><\/span><\/span>Schaul\u00e4stige <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>was originally said as a slip of the tongue, but it stuck.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Donut-Effekt <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018doughnut effect\u2019, this refers to the phenomenon where inner-city areas become too expensive, so people move their businesses and homes to the outskirts where it\u2019s more affordable, leaving a hollow in the city centre.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

brexitm\u00fcde <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018Brexit-tired\u2019, this does not need an explanation. We are all Brexit-tired.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

gegengoogeln <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

This strange verb roughly translates to \u2018check with Google\u2019. Gegengoogeln<\/strong> means to check facts with Google before accepting anything as truth, as so many people do nowadays.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bienensterben <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018bee deaths\u2019 but also known as \u2018colony collapse disorder\u2019, this word is topical because many petitioned and demonstrated in early 2019 to save the bees in Germany. You can read more about it in this post.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oligarchennichte <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Austria. Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018Oligarchen niece\u2019, this refers to what\u2019s now called the Austrian Ibiza-Aff<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00e4<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>re <\/strong>(\u2018Ibiza affair\u2019), a scandal which led to the collapse of the Austrian governing coalition and led to an early election.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Geordnete-R\u00fcckkehr-Gesetz<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Das Asyl – Asylum. Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally \u2018orderly return law\u2019, this controversial bill gained attention in Germany this year because it proposed tougher laws on deportations for asylum seekers. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I hope you have enjoyed this little insight into Germany’s ‘hot topics’ in 2019!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! Each year, the Gesellschaft f\u00fcr deutsche Sprache (GfdS) \u2013 The German Language Association \u2013 picks a word as their Wort des Jahres \u2013 \u2018Word of the Year\u2019. This is often a word related to a prominent topic in the country during the year, and is usually interesting from a linguistic perspective, too. The…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":11363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[376028,504111,376066,95131,953,358428,451644,376023,376042,551758,517994,238367,358620,375962],"class_list":["post-11355","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-current-events","tag-current-events-in-germany","tag-german-culture","tag-german-language","tag-german-news","tag-german-politics","tag-german-words","tag-language","tag-new-german-words","tag-news","tag-news-in-germany","tag-of-the-year","tag-word-of-the-year","tag-wort-des-jahres"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11367,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11355\/revisions\/11367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}