YOUR COMMENTS

I wouldn't mind the Denglish here in Germany so much if only the words/expressions were pronounced correctly or were grammatically correct. For example, I have had difficulty in understanding "body" (pronounced in Germany as "buddy"), and "thin client" pronounced as sincleeant. I shudder inwardly when I read or hear "air condition" instead of "air conditioning"!
Susan Wiegleb

To a certain extent it is natural that one language influences another, but I think we should also bear in mind three important extra factors:

• 1) In the case of German, there is a strong fashion to be as English in vocabulary and way of speaking as possible, just as in Germany generally there is a kind of "imitative culture" regarding all things English, mainly owing to historical self-deprecation. Witness for example how German publications imitate English ones in design and motif (eg die Zeit, Financial Times).
  
• 2) English as the international language of modern business has universal appeal and this gives it an enormous boost
  
• 3) When infiltration reaches a sufficiently high level, the infiltrating language will begin to undermine and destroy the "host" language. English is a monopolizing language and the list of languages which it has infiltrated and subsequently replaced is long and growing. In my opinion on current trends, German will be a dead language, replaced entirely by English, within the next 70 years and German Spotlight out of business for that reason!

Whether one thinks this is good, bad or irrelevant is a different matter entirely.
Michael Francis Walker

As a native speaker of German I have always loved my language with its unlimited possibilities of connecting words, but I am also fond of the English (and Italian) language so I’ve constantly enriched my vocabulary with English (and even Italian) words and phrases: sometimes because they sounded better than their German counterparts, sometimes because they expressed my feelings more correctly and sometimes just because I felt like it. It never even crossed my mind that this switching from one language to another might do harm to my German but it obviously did… as I realized during the Denglish-test. Next time I’m about to use an English word like benchmark, launch or branding in a German sentence, I’ll try to come up with a German equivalent instead. If there is none, I’ll be happy to use the English term.Dorothy

Jörg Dierig writes:
Dear BS-Team,
really, denglish is more common than ever.
In my opinion, it's to assess in different ways:

• 1. For globalisation it is very useful and necessary – in business, everyone could understand these words and everyone is able to discuss, if someone will use these mixture.
  Although german is used, DENGLISH is valuable and connect speakers, partners, conferences, etc.
  
• 2. For self-improvement, it helps to progress myself and to dive into the language every time – training by doing and speaking!
  
• 3. The German language will loose the basics.
  If everyone will operate in this way, there is a danger for our language and for the next generations – English is in development every day round the world – uncountable new words a day but what will happen in Germany?
  I'm concerned about this!!!

Finally, I´m not sure what is better now – I think, everyone has to decide, in which space to speak and talk.

Achievement of our language must be the first goal – “keep the golden mean!”

Best regards!
Jörg Dierig

Languages are dynamic and not at all static. And nothing in the world is more dynamic than trade and art. If certain people believe that a notion or an action is better described by an English word - why not use it, and they should do so.

A different aspect is the fact that very often the use of English expresses a certain arrogance of the person speaking or writing. As far as his partners and / or his clients understand him he will not hesitate to stick to his habit. But everybody should be carefull that people officially play to take his language serious and at the same time internally laugh about him.

Within a company the CEO should express his viewpoint about exaggerations of the use of foreign words. Many people of his stable will follow him!
Philipp Daum

Regarding your report "Different views of Denglish“ in the Business Spotlight 2/2008, I would like to come back to your question: "Is Denglish a natural language development or something that should be limited as much as possible?"

In principal I would say that Denglish is a natural language development. Each language is influenced by foreign words. It is not only a development from English to German. It is also the other way round and additionally influenced by words from other European countries.

The question for me is how these kind of words become that common that they will be used in foreign countries. And the answer for me is that

• 1. the media in principle or advertising agencies use more and more foreign words for slogans, product-names and so on. Over the marketing (i.e. television or radio) these kind of words become more and more popular.
  
  
• 2. the technical development in our households is changing. We all have a PC (Denglish) with an Intranet connection (Denglish) and everyday I am surfing (Denglish) via a chat-room (Denglish) with my friends.
  
  
• 3. more or less all European countries are growing together to one Europe. One Europe means no borders, one unify currency, one communication language. Furthermore due to the loss of borders the population in the European countries will mix more and more. Especially young people are very open to this development and the new friendships become more and more multi-cultural.

These are only a few reasons why I think that Denglish is a natural language development. I am not afraid about this and I am sure that each country will not lose its own language, it will only get some few more words. Each language will become more interesting.

Regards, Salut, Ciao, Auf Wiedersehen!
Franz-Josef Klein

I'm glad that you give us a possibility to state our opinion on "Denglish". I, personally, am not a fan of it. It is a mixture between two languages. Why, I ask? 'Cause it sounds "cool"? Most people use it either 'cause of that, or 'cause they are "global" and thus speaking english half of the time anyway. The latter will lead to mixing the languages eventually, though one must wonder why nearly everybody follows this trend.

The development is scary. Far too many german words are nowadays replaced by english terms, and will eventually be completely forgotten. If it goes on like that, soon we'll all only speak english. Why? Speaking german is a part of the german culture; we can't carry over our traditional dialects into english, either. And as a devoted fan of my personal dialect, I cannot and will not give it up just 'cause everybody else think he's right.

And don't get me started on different parts of english grammar being used in german, too. The "'s' used to indicate that the said object is the owner, affectionately called an "Idiotenapastroph", has nothing to do with german, though people still claim that they're right in using it. And it certainly has nothing to do with an "s" indicating a plural form.

All in all, I am very much against this trend, though I can't help but having to keep up with it as long as anyone else doesn't stop it, too.

Regards,
Daniel Nisandzic

Dear Sir or Madam,

3 weeks ago I have had a 'special' experience with this kind of stuff. I was invited to an event of one of our software vendors. They introduced a new version of their products. The product itself and all of the new features are really good, but the presentation was terrible. They switched between English and German within one sentence and this all the time. The issues you described in "What exactly is Denglish" were a part of the whole event. I can imagine that for some reasons e.g. 'submitten' sounds cool for a developer and his manager. It could be also essential for that kind of group. A funny statement for an information scientist. ;-) One the other hand it is an impertinence for the auditorium. In this case they should use English or German if they are worried about that Germans can not follow their presentation.

From time to time I have also the feeling that even the speakers are not sure what they are saying. With this kind of style the auditorium won't. Maybe they think: "I'm not sure what I'm saying but I believe and believing can move mountains and nobody recognise it."

In the end a language is a kind of life form. Time changes and languages, too. I believe that no one can and should stop changes. They can improve our life. 50 years ago nobody knows what a 'Microwave' is or even imagine that someone combine micro and wave to one word with a special meaning for a cooking device. From time to time we should have an eye on it, that we will not end/strand in chaos.

One open question: Could we really distinguish what Denglish is today? Probably not the words - maybe the way of using them.

With kind regards

Knuth Hartlieb

Hello Spotlight

Over the years in my job as a language trainer, my students and I have been following with interest the development of Denglish as a phenomenon that initially appeared to be confined to the world of business but in the meantime has filtered down to the kids at school as well as numerous high street shop slogans. It has been a very gradual process but yet it appears to be fairly firmly anchored now amongst the bulk of the German population and in particular in the school/college/business/education sectors.

I have done the Denglish Test with several groups of students which have led to very lively class discussions and with each student coming to the realization of how much Denglish he/she uses on a daily basis without almost being aware of it! There are many diverse reasons as to why this hybrid language has become so quickly rooted in German business life and the question is to what extent this development will continue?

The point is that whether we like it or not this language development is, more than likely, here to stay. It is already firmly established in the business world; it has, in fact, got its seal of approval there. The next point to consider is how much of Denglish is really appropriate or relevant to what one wants to communicate. If there is a perfectly good German word which can equally express what one wants to say then it sounds more authentic to use your own native word rather than a hybrid word which sounds somehow out of place. On the other hand the use of a Denglish word where there really is no German equivalent or alternative makes sense and is a natural language development.

At the moment there seems to be a “flood” of Denglish expressions in spoken German and the challenge for the future lies in an openness and awareness of this new language development while at the same time ensuring that perfectly good German words and expressions do not become obsolete and lost forever through lack of use. Hopefully this current Denglish trend will eventually balance out to reflect all attitudes towards modern language development and language preservation.

Best Regards

Bernadette Nicklis

Page 1: Do you speak Denglish?
Page 2: Comments
Page 3: Different views on Denglish
Page 4: Test