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Preponderance
Of Anglicisms.
Perspectives
A Publication of the German Embassy of Ottawa, Canada: Vol. 6, No. 1, Winter 1998-1999
Globalisierung
Look at a new list compiled by German intellectuals of the 100 words that best reflect the 20th century: AIDS, beat, bikini, camping, comics, computer, design, Holocaust, image, jeans, pop, single, sex, star and stress - just some of the English words and ideas that have crept into German during the past 100 years.
Karin Frank-Cyrus, head of the Society for the German Language, one of the sponsors of the project, said the preponderance of anglicisms on the list doesn't surprise her.
"I think that language is also a mirror of the history and these words reflect that," Ms. Frank-Cyrus said. The 20th century has been dominated by the United States, and hence most of the foreign words on the list are English. By contrast, she said, the Russians have only a couple of entries, perestroika and Sputnik.
Unlike the French, who are constantly waging campaigns to protect the purity of their language, Germans adopt foreign words - especially English - easily. Sometimes they get a little Germanified, as seen on the list with words like Globalisierung for globalization or Demokratisierung for democratization.
Frank-Cyrus said her society, charged with caring for the German language, has nothing against foreign words, but is worried about the current flood.
"The English language has become a lingua franca, a language that the whole world understands," she says. "And that I think is very good and makes sense. But this language-mixing, that's not always necessary."
While there's no good German word for recycling, she said, a computer could be called a Rechner. "And why not, when it's so easy?"
Of course, there's no shortage of purely German entries on the list, some that even English speakers can understand: autobahn, kindergarten and zeitgeist.
*This is the first step toward THE One World Language.
Step Two: Your personal pronoun on a pike!
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