German Spelling reform of 1996

The German spelling reform of 1996 (in German Rechtschreibreform), into force since the mid- 1998 and obligatory since July 2005, is intended to simplify the training of the German Orthographe . It relates to varied fields: the Fremdwörter (loanwords), compound words, orthographical irregularities, the Caesura, capitalization, the comma.

History

In 1980 the Cercle of international work for the orthography was founded which accommodated German linguists , Austrian and Swiss. Two Conversations of Vienna took place in 1986 and 1990 and were invited there representatives of the German-speaking Pays and areas. In 1992, the Circle published its reform proposals and the third Conversation of Vienna of 1994 recommended of it officially the adoption. July 1st 1996, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Liechtenstein committed itself adopting the reform. However, the Luxembourg, of which one of the official languages is German, did not affix its signature with the reform.

Endorsed by the unanimity of the German Länder, this reform is coming into effect in Germany on August 1st, 1998. The old C-W communication was to remain valid there - but déconseillée - until July 31st, 2005.

In 1997, a interetatic commission on the German orthography was created. On the order of the Ministers for the education of Länder, it had the role of accompanying the introduction by new rules and of clarifying cases of possible doubts. Its successor is the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung (the Council for the German orthography) which began its work on December 17th, 2004. He worked out recommendations of modifications, especially in the fields of the made up words and capitalization. In many cases these modifications mean return towards the old C-W communication.

March 2nd, 2006, the Ministers for the education of Länder approved the recommendations of the council.

Changes concerning the C-W communication

Foot-note: in the examples, the old C-W communication is indicated between brackets as comparison.

Le ß (= S) gets busy only after one long vowel or a diphthong.
bisschen ( bißchen ) Fass ( Faß ) of the musst ( of the mußt ) but always
Grüße bloß beißen
This change does not relate to Switzerland, which had already abolished the ß in the Années 1930.

L' orthography of certain derived words is brought closer to the root, and that of words of the same family is homogenized. One will note that the change benefits from it to use, if necessary, a double consonant after the short vowels.

  essenziell  starting from  Essenz  ( essential )
  aufwändig  starting from  Aufwand  ( aufwendig  will remain possible)
  nummerieren  like  Nummer  ( numerieren )
  Tipp  like  tippen  ( Tip )
  platzieren  like  Platz  ( plazieren )

L' orthography of certain “difficult” words is simplified by homology

  Känguru  like  Gnu ,  Karibu  ( Känguruh )
  rau  like  genau ,  blau  ( rauh )

Trois consecutive consonants in the made up words is never reduced to two:

  Geschirrrückgabe  (or alternatively  Geschirr-Rückgabe ) of  Geschirr  +  Rückgabe  ( Geschirrückgabe )
  Stofffarbe  (or  Stoff-Farbe ) of  Stoff  +  Farbe  ( Stoffarbe )

Certaines alternative C-Ws communication is accepted
```
  Albtraum  ( Alptraum )
```

Un certain number of Fremdwörter (words of foreign origin) are germanisés, but the traditional C-W communication remains valid

'Delfin  ( Delphin )
  Krepp  ( Crepe )
  Tunfisch  ( Thunfisch )
  Jogurt  ( Joghurt )
  Fonologie  ( Phonology )

Capitalization

The goal is to make logical capitalization: the substantives systematically take the capital letter and the other grammatical entities (if possible) are written in small letters.

Les ordinal adjective substantivized is written with the capital letter:
```
  der Dritte  ( DER dritte )   
```

Les substantive in the set phrases takes the capital letter:

  of Weiteren  ( of the weiteren )
  im Allgemeinen  ( im allgemeinen )
  in Acht nehmen  ( in acht nehmen )

Les names of languages with preposition takes the capital letter: auf Dänisch ( auf dänisch )

Les adjectival in the expressions which form a name, without however being an entity with whole share (in particular an honorary title, a name of race or species, an historical event or a special day), takes the tiny one:

  erste Hilfe  ( Erste Hilfe )
  das schwarze Brett  ( das Schwarze Brett )
  die schwarze Magic  ( die Schwarze Magic )
  die schwarze Mass  ( die Schwarze Mass )

but always

  der Nahe Osten  
  der Zweite Weltkrieg  
  Erster Bürgermeister

Les adjectival drawn from proper names takes the tiny one normally: das ohmsche Gesetz or, alternatively, das Ohm' sche Gesetz ( das Ohmsche Gesetz )
Les personal pronouns in the letters takes the tiny one:
```
  of the  ( Of the )
```

Les names of moments of the day always takes the capital letter:

  heute Abend  ( heute abend )
  gestern Abend  ( gestern abend )

Après the colon, capitalization is libre

Separation in several words

Are written in several words

Les verbs whose particle is a name, an infinitive, a participle or an adverb:

  Rad fahren  ( radfahren )
  kennen lernen  ( kennenlernen )
  auseinander gehen  ( auseinandergehen )

Les verbs whose particle is an adjective that one can modify (e.g. to prefix of ganz or to put it at comparative):
```
  fern (er) liegen  ( fernliegen )
```
but always
```
   fernsehen  ( fernsehen )
```

Les participles whose infinitive is written in several words:

     allein erziehend  <  allein erziehen  ( alleinerziehend )

Certaines set phrases:

  im Stande center  ( imstande center )
  in Frage Stellen  ( infrage stellen , still valid)

The hyphen

peut to be used in the made up words to simplify the reading of it:

  Iraq-Krieg  ( Irakkrieg )
  Geschirr-Rückgabe  ( Geschirrückgabe , but  Kaffee-Substitute )

doit to be used to connect numbers and letters:

  28-jährige  ( 28jährige )
   4-fach  ( 4fach )

Use of the comma

The comma becomes optional

entre proposals connected by und and oder :

  Ich trinke und er redet Käse.  ( Ich trinke, und er redet Käse. )

pour to separate an infinitive proposal:

  Ich versuche be zu machen.  ( Ich versuche, be zu machen. )

However it must be kept to raise ambiguities:

  er empfiehlt, ihr zu helfen.  
  er empfiehlt ihr, zu helfen.

Caesura

La caesura is done by syllable:

  da-rum  (before:   dar-um )
  List  (before:   List )

La syllable ck is not cut any more:
```
  We-cker  (before:   Wek-ker )
```

Polemic

A polemic swells, in Germany, about the reform. As of 1998, the Land of the Schleswig-Holstein had voted the return to the traditional orthography. The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung made a similar decision in 2000. In August 2004, it was with the turn of the editors Spiegel and Springer , like with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung announcing similar intention; the minister-president of the Bavaria and chief of the party Christian-Democrat CSU, Edmund Stoiber, declared defender of the old orthography.

the detractors of the reform point various problems

inconsistencies of the reform, in particular:
suppression, for example, of pH in favor of F in the Fremdwörter but not of other irregularities: Gold HT ografie ;
the etymological loss in the Fremdwörter : Portmonee informs little about its origin;
rules on capitalization: die Übrigen / die anderen ;
the faulty classification of certain words: in be concealed to mir leid , leid is not a substantive but well an adjective, however the reform requires to capitalize it (be concealed to mir Leid) ;
inconsistency of the caesura We-cker (before Wek-ker ). The ck , double letter, belongs to the two syllables ( Silbengelenk ). The new caesura would let believe that the first syllable is open, therefore long;
production of ambiguities: badengehen , " to undergo a échec" , and Baden gehen , " to go baigner" , both are written Baden gehen ;
the invention of new words as an orthographical change: nummerieren is added to numerieren (still correct). Moreover, certain additions ( Zierrat ) decide differently from their old orthography ( Zierat );
arbitrary and “undemocratic” character of certain simplifications, natural evolution of the language having to be only with the source of the spelling reforms;
need “for translating” the German authors for the schoolboys and high-school pupils or then the risk which they appear out-of-date;
the difficulty of the parents, trained with the old C-W communication, to help their children.

the defenders of the reform support on the other hand

that a good part of the orthographical difficulties were removed;
that a return to the traditional orthography would again cause high costs for the communities and the companies;
that a return to the traditional orthography would cause confusion for the schoolboys, formed with the new orthography;
that it made it possible to withdraw the linguistic ability at a private company, to give it to the States.
that part of criticisms are unfounded: that Baden gehen means at the same time " to undergo a échec" (before badengehen ) and " to go baigner" (before Baden gehen ) was already the case in certain combined forms ( ich gehe Baden ); also no new real ambiguity was added.

It seems that, beyond the technical arguments, the controversy is fed by sentimental reasons. That proceeds not only of one attachment to the language and its smoothnesses, but of a resistance symbolic system to the Réforme, in a context where a big number of Germans are estimated injured by the economic reforms and social of the government red-green of Gerhard Schröder, or, on the contrary, of a will also symbolic system of modernization.

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