1 Varieties of Language

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-53000-2 - Using German: A Guide to Contemporary Usage: Second Edition Martin Durrell Excerpt More information 1Varieties of language German is spoken as a native language by about 100 million people in at least fifteen European countries. This constitutes by far the largest speech community in Western and Central Europe. It is an official state language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. It has recognized regional status in areas of Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Romania and, even after the expulsion and resettlement of large numbers of German speakers after the Second World War, it still accounts for sizeable long-established minorities in France, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia. It also has a vast range in terms of possible uses: for everyday conversation, formal speech, technical writing, journalism, literature (in the widest sense), and so on. Given this broad geographic spread and the number of uses to which it is put, it is quite natural that it is subject to considerable variation. Different words, grammatical constructions and sentence types are used depending on who is speaking or writing, to whom, on what topic, in what circumstances, in what region. Most people can choose to speak formally or informally as they feel appropriate in a given situation. Students, for instance, express themselves in very different ways when discussing politics or sport with friends in a cafe, talking to their parents or a lecturer, writing a seminar paper or a letter of application for a job. The spoken language also differs markedly from Berlin to Cologne, Munich, Zurich¨ or Vienna. There can be substantial differences between the written German of a modern novel, a serious newspaper, a history book and a travel guide. All these different forms are varieties of German, and we can identify those characteristic features, the variants, which go to make up each variety. In the process of learning their own language native speakers develop an awareness of the variants available to them and a degree of competence in using those which are appropriate to a given situation. They also develop a keen sensitivity towards such variation, so that when they hear or read a particular variant in an inappropriate context it will sound out of place, and possibly comical, affected, pompous, slipshod – or even rude. Clearly, this presents problems, and potential traps, for foreign learners. In order to communicate effectively in German they have to go through a much more conscious process of acquiring the ability to recognize and use those forms which are right for each particular situation. This is not always straightforward because 1 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-53000-2 - Using German: A Guide to Contemporary Usage: Second Edition Martin Durrell Excerpt More information DÄNEMARK The German LITAUEN speech area RUSSLAND Königsberg Danzig Rostock Hamburg WEISSRUSSLAND Bremen Hannover NIEDERLANDE Berlin POLEN Key BUNDESREPUBLIK National frontiers since 1990 Düsseldorf DEUTSCHLAND Boundary of the German speech area Leipzig in Switzerland Köln BELGIEN Dresden Breslau Area where German was spoken before 1945 Luxembourg: German and French 'official' languages. Luxembourgish (a dialect of Frankfurt German) is the national language + + Prag German-speaking minorities in other countries: Nürnberg TSCHECHIEN With official 'regional' status for German Stuttgart With no official status for German FRANKREICH Straßburg SLOWAKEI + + + Scattered German-speaking minorities in + + Wien other countries (usually with no official Pressburg status for German) München Salzburg Officially recognized linguistic minorities Zürich + + in the German-speaking countries, i.e. ÖSTERREICH Danish in Schleswig Innsbruck Budapest SCHWEIZ Graz + Sorbian in Lusatia Bern + Croatian in the Burgenland (eastern Austria) Slovene in Carinthia (southern Austria) UNGARN + + NOTE: All place names and country names on the + map are given in their German form + + + ITALIEN + SLOWENIEN + + + + © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-53000-2 - Using German: A Guide to Contemporary Usage: Second Edition Martin Durrell Excerpt More information 1.1 Varieties according to use: register 3 there are no hard and fast rules – it is not a matter of grammar – and the language is most often presented to foreign learners, certainly in the early stages, in a uniform variety which can be rather artificial and removed from actual everyday usage. Initial confrontation with German as it is used in day-to-day situations, with all its variation, can be confusing or frustrating – for example when learners find that laboriously learnt grammatical constructions amuse native speakers if they are used in everyday conversation, or when they are told that a particular word or expression is ‘not used here’, possibly with the implication that it is not very good German. But developing competence in handling variation appropriately is an essential aspect of mastering the language fully, as much for the foreign learner as for the native speaker. Within the scope of this book it would be impossible to give a detailed account of all the varieties of modern German. They are in any case not clearly defined; distinctions between individual varieties are not clear-cut and each one tends to shade into the next. This book identifies some of the most frequent variants which native speakers have at their command and which the advanced foreign learner is most likely to encounter. This is done by explaining in detail the major factors which affect choice between variants. These factors can be usefully divided into two categories: those relating to the uses which the language serves and those relating to the users of the language, in particular to the social groups to which they belong. : More extensive information on variation in German can be found in Barbour & Stevenson (1990), Clyne (1995) and Stevenson (1997). The account here draws on these works and has also benefited from the analysis of register in French in R. E. Batchelor and M. H. Offord, Using French,3rd edn (Cambridge 2000), on which the numbering in 1.1.5 is based. 1.1 Varieties according to use: register The forms used by native speakers are influenced by factors like subject matter (i.e. what they are talking about), medium (i.e. are they speaking or writing?) and situation (i.e. where they are saying it and who they are talking to). Variation of this kind, which depends on the use to which the language is being put, is commonly known as register variation. A register is a type, or stylistic level of language (e.g. colloquial, informal, formal, technical, etc.), which is influenced by factors of this kind. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-53000-2 - Using German: A Guide to Contemporary Usage: Second Edition Martin Durrell Excerpt More information 41Varieties of language 1.1.1 Medium The first crucial distinction affecting register is that between spoken and written language. When we are writing we have more time to consider what we are saying and how we are saying it, to be precise in expression, and to formulate more carefully than in the flow of speech. As a result written language tends to be more elaborate and complex than spoken language. And because there is no direct contact with the person being addressed, more detailed explanation and more formal coherence are necessary than, for example, in a conversation with a close friend, when we can leave words out, break sentences off and be less precise in our use of words and still be perfectly well understood. As a result, written language is structured more formally and precisely and exhibits a greater degree of organization in every aspect. It has a more extensive vocabulary, with distinctions of meaning which are often ignored in the spoken language. There are grammatical forms, such as, in German, the present subjunctive, the genitive case and the past tense, which are used more sparingly (if at all) in everyday spoken German than in writing. Sentences tend to be longer, with a more complex structure. Regionalisms are very limited and are largely restricted to a few items of vocabulary, principally those characteristic of the different German-speaking countries. Spoken German, on the other hand, is characterized in general by considerable deviation from the formal norms of sentence construction which are adhered to in writing. Sentences are often incomplete (often just nouns or phrases without a verb), there are many broken or elliptical constructions, repetitions and phrases added or inserted as afterthoughts without linking them properly to the rest of the sentence. There are fewer subordinate clauses, and main-clause constructions are the rule. Filler words, like the modal particles (aber, doch, denn, etc., see 2.6), hesitation markers (oh¨ , mhm, etc.), interjections and comment clauses (sehen Sie, weißt du, etc.), are very common. Regionalisms are almost inevitably present to some degree, and these become more marked the further south one goes (see 1.2.2). Despite the apparent paradox, not all writing is in the ‘written’ register as described above, and not all speech is in the ‘spoken’ register. We can imitate natural speech in writing, and many modern popular novelists and the popular press use a variety which is close to it. However, in practice this is restricted to certain characteristic words and expressions, and possibly some phonetic contractions such as sehense for sehen Sie. The lax sentence constructions which are typical of spontaneous informal speech (see the examples in 1.4.2)arerarely found in any form of writing, not least because they are conventionally felt to be ‘incorrect’. Similarly, characteristic written forms may be spoken, often in the most formal situations, e.g.

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