German Language Research Institutions

Germany: In addition to the German university institutes, two institutions deal with research into the German language: the “Institute for German Language” (IDS) in Mannheim (founded in 1964; publishes, among other things, the series of publications “Language of the Present” as well as the magazines “Deutsche Sprache” and “Sprachreport «Out) and the» Society for German Language «(GfdS) in Wiesbaden (here since 1965; founded in 1947 in Lüneburg as a successor organization to the German Language Association founded in 1885; maintains [2005] 62 branch associations in 20 countries; publishes the magazines» Mutterssprache «and »The Language Service«; has chosen the »Words of the Year« since 1971). The Goethe-Institut in Munich (founded in 1932, rebuilt in 1952) is dedicated to cultivating the German language and culture abroad. which (2004) has 128 branches in 79 countries and 16 domestic institutes. In the GDR, the Herder Institute in Leipzig (founded in 1956) was dedicated to the linguistic training of foreign students, the further training of foreign Germanists and German teachers as well as linguistic research in the field of German as a foreign language. Some of these tasks are being carried out today by the University of Leipzig. The “German Academy for Language and Poetry” (founded in 1949) in Darmstadt takes on German literature, but also the German language in art and science; it awards, inter alia the Johann Heinrich Voss Prize for Translation and the Friedrich Gundolf Prize for German Studies Abroad. The “German Language Council” founded in 2003, a cooperation between IDS, GfdS and the Goethe-Institut, is to coordinate the language maintenance activities of the three institutions and develop scientifically based recommendations for general language use. The Duden editorship (as the linguistic department of the BIFAB publishing house) has continued the work of Konrad Duden since 1911 (including the development of Dudens into the German standard dictionary). She makes an active contribution to language maintenance through Duden language advice. The research institute “Deutscher Sprachatlas” in Marburg serves the German dialect research. Development of the Dudens to the German standard dictionary). She makes an active contribution to language maintenance through Duden language advice. The research institute “Deutscher Sprachatlas” in Marburg serves to research German dialect. Development of the Dudens to the German standard dictionary). She makes an active contribution to language maintenance through Duden language advice. The research institute “Deutscher Sprachatlas” in Marburg serves to research German dialect.

Language examples for Early New High German and New High German Hide table

Early New High German From Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, “Psalm 127” (1534)

Where the LORD does not bawet the house

So otherwise they work on it.

Where the LORD does not keep the city

So the guard wakes up otherwise.

Otherwise the morning is waiting for you

and then sit for a long time

and eat ewer bread with care

Because he gives his friends asleep.

See

children are a gift from the Lord

and the fruit of my body is a gift

Like the arrows in the hand of a star

So the young boys guess.

well that

who has his quiver of the same vol

They are not going to be shamed

if you deal with iren enemies in thor.

New High German From Theodor Fontane’s “Walks through the Mark Brandenburg” (1862–82)

The path leads through thick wood, which stands like a green screen and does not allow a view to any side. The trees themselves are still young, and only every fifty steps we come across a few half-dead oaks, of which it is difficult to say what may have saved them from the ax of the woodcutter, their old age, their picturesque beauty, or a superstitious and pious consideration against the family of woodpeckers who live in it and are at home on the Müggelsberg hilltops in a similar way as the ravens and jackdaws on the church towers of old cities. With busy bills, they carve their solid nests into the hard wood and, perhaps out of a convivial instinct, make each individual tribe into a kind of family house. Often fifty nests in a tree. Everywhere it scurries out and in, pecks and screeches,

In Austria, the tradition of the “German Language Association, Wiener Zweig” (founded in 1886) is continued by the “Mutterssprache” association (publisher of the “Wiener Sprachblätter” magazine). The “Institute for Austrian Studies” has published the magazine “Austria in History and Literature” (with geography) since 1956. – In Switzerland there is the »German-speaking Swiss Language Association« in Bern, which publishes the magazine »Sprachspiegel«.

History

The history of the German language and the connection between the German language and the other Germanic and Indo-European languages ​​has been a focus of linguistic research since J. Grimm. Today, Old High German (around 750 to around 1050), Middle High German (around 1050 to around 1350), Early New High German (around 1350 to around 1650) and New High German (since around 1650) are differentiated as independent epochs of German language history. the boundaries between the individual linguistic historical periods are fluid. The latest linguistic historical approaches also discuss the establishment of a period boundary around 1950, at which New High German ends and another independent epoch, late New High German, begins.

German Language Research Institutions