{"id":6160,"date":"2015-03-25T05:44:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T05:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=6160"},"modified":"2017-11-20T14:36:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T14:36:23","slug":"der-duden-the-cornerstone-of-german-spelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/der-duden-the-cornerstone-of-german-spelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Der Duden – the cornerstone of German spelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Was ist richtig, was ist falsch?\u00a0Schlag im Duden nach!<\/em><\/p>\n

Like the Oxford Dictionary, the\u00a0Dikke van Dale<\/em>, or Mirriam-Webster, Germany has the\u00a0Duden<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Just like all the above-mentioned famous dictionaries, the\u00a0Duden\u00a0<\/em>has its own history. In the 19th century,\u00a0Konrad Duden, a High School teacher at the\u00a0Gymnasium\u00a0<\/em>created his own dictionary, which was named after him. It influenced the creation of a unitary German grammar and spelling.<\/p>\n

For his own life, he was quite a guy. He started studying in Bonn, Germany. After four semesters, he stopped his studies, probably because\u00a0of financial reasons. Then he became Hauslehrer\u00a0<\/i>(a private tutor) in Frankfurt am Main and in Genua in Italy. Just six years later, then, in 1854 he still did the\u00a0Staatsexamen\u00a0<\/em>(state examination), without studying more because of his job as a\u00a0Hauslehrer<\/em>. Well played! He became a\u00a0teacher in Soest, but stopped that and then did his PhD in the same year at the University of Marburg. No, he did not write this dissertation in less than a year. He already worked on it during his time as\u00a0Hauslehrer\u00a0<\/em>in Italy. Then again, he went to Genua to be a Hauslehrer<\/i>. In 1859, he then came back and became teacher and then principal of the\u00a0Gymnasium <\/em>in Soest\u00a0he was a teacher at before.\u00a0Hauslehrer\u00a0<\/em>seems to be quite a rewarding job!<\/p>\n

He married there, and became father of seven children.<\/p>\n

In 1869, he became principal of the\u00a0Generalgymnasium\u00a0<\/em>in\u00a0Schleiz. Here, different accents collided (the Frankish, Thuringian, and Saxon dialects). The spelling of each student was graded by their\u00a0descent and home dialect. Mr Duden did not like this, and thus worked on a way to make it easier, especially for those that were excluded from\u00a0Bildung\u00a0<\/em>(education), to read and write. In 1880 he finalized his extremely successful work:\u00a0Vollst\u00e4ndiges Ortographisches W\u00f6rterbuch der deutschen Sprache\u00a0<\/em>(Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language). It quickly became the standardized work in schools, however Bismarck prohibited it to be used by the\u00a0Verwaltung\u00a0<\/em>(administration).<\/p>\n

In 1901, then, an\u00a0Einheitliche Rechtschreibung\u00a0<\/em>(unitary spelling\/orthography) was introduced on a national, German level based on Duden’s work. In 1902, the German Senate, the\u00a0Bundesrat<\/em>, decided to use Duden’s work as the mandatory spelling rules for all German\u00a0Bundesstaaten\u00a0<\/em>(Federal states).<\/p>\n

Also, today, the Duden still has significant influence. It is the standard for spelling, and a lot more is offered now. There is, for example, also the\u00a0Fremdw\u00f6rterduden,\u00a0<\/em>with words from other languages that found their way into the German language. A lot of this, of course, is English.\u00a0Couchsurfing\u00a0<\/em>is such a word, for example!<\/p>\n

Who is the “spelling hero” of your country?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Was ist richtig, was ist falsch?\u00a0Schlag im Duden nach! Like the Oxford Dictionary, the\u00a0Dikke van Dale, or Mirriam-Webster, Germany has the\u00a0Duden. Just like all the above-mentioned famous dictionaries, the\u00a0Duden\u00a0has its own history. In the 19th century,\u00a0Konrad Duden, a High School teacher at the\u00a0Gymnasium\u00a0created his own dictionary, which was named after him. It influenced the creation…<\/p>\n

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