Sprachkritik und Sprachpflege im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Einstellungen zu 'Fremdwörtern' und 'Kurzwörtern'

Vincent Balnat (1) , Barbara Kaltz

1 LILPA - Linguistique, Langues et Parole

The old question of the acceptability of Fremdwörter (“foreign words”) in the German-speaking countries was the subect of particularly intensive discussion in the early 20th century. In this article the connection between Sprachkritik and Sprachpflege (language criticism and language cultivation) in discussions of this question will be considered, taking as a starting-point Leo Spitzer's famous „Streitschrift gegen die Sprachreinigung” [polemic against language purification] (Fremdwörterhatz und Fremdvölkerhaß, Vienna 1918). In the same period, not just foreign words, but also the so-called „Aküsprache” (language of abbreviations) prompted a wave of outrage amongst a number of German language critics / cultivators. The growing tendency to use abbreviations, even in spoken language, was often attributed to the increasing infleunce of English, so that these two “problem areas” partially overlap to an extent. Here we investigate the often ideologically laden arguments of these language critics / cultivators, and we find clear parallels with the current discourse about abbreviations and foreign words in German today.

Mots clés: Sprachpflege; Kurzwörter; Anglizismen; Sprachkritik

Domaines: Linguistique

Vincent Balnat, Barbara Kaltz. Sprachkritik und Sprachpflege im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Einstellungen zu 'Fremdwörtern' und 'Kurzwörtern'. Bulletin of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas, 2007, 49, pp.27-37. ⟨halshs-01470805⟩