German Language Shift

It may seem odd to mother tongue English speakers, but many nouns in modern languages have genders. English used to have both genders and cases but they were left behind as the language evolved and became more simplified. Not every language evolved in the same way; German and many other modern languages retained both of these linguistic features.  However, it seems that this may be beginning to change.

As Mark Twain said, ‘in German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl.’ These thoughts on gender equality and what is ‘politically correct’ has prompted reconsideration to the use of noun-genders in their language and whether it is sexist.

The Federal Ministry Justice now encourages all businesses should use the neuter form in their official paperwork and advert campaigns. If all German speakers were to use neuter forms when addresses mixed-sex groups and object, this could solve their problem.

However, some theorists believe that the trend will flip and the female form will become more prominent. For example, it is much more common now to see the feminine form in job advertisements.

An alternative method is to create new, gender-neutral nouns out of the verbs. For example, instead of studenten, it is increasingly common to use studierende , which translates as ‘those that study’. However, this method of avoiding question is only functional if there is a corresponding verb. Although in this example, studieren is the verb to study, many nouns do not have related verbs. Such as the noun polizist (policeman) could not be manipulated in the same way as there is no verb meaning ‘to police’ that would work. 

However, other linguists, such as Luise Pusch, believe that both of these methods are too laborious and that the only feasible solution is to eradicate all genders in the language.

Many people will raise the question whether a language can be transformed through political changes and the will of the public. Anatol Stefanowitsch, a linguist at Berlin's Free University said "It's hard to transform grammar through legislation, and even if so, such changes often happen over centuries." Also, we are unaware of the percentage of speakers who would abide by these changes, it is likely that many people would not conform or want to change their language.

This was recently posed online, regarding this topic: “yes, to achieve that fluency, I had to work jolly hard. But once the language has been learnt, it is very easy to understand why it has three genders. Were it to lose those genders, and become "gender-neutral", the language would lose so much of its clarity and beauty.”

To conclude, although genders may cause confusion in learners and possibly some tension in Germany, it is still to be seen whether any firm changes will occur. Personally, I believe that we ought to let languages evolve by themselves, without governmental intervention – it is the public that should decide the future of their language.

As sourced from Mark Twain’s Notebook:

A dog is "der Hund"; a woman is "die Frau"; a horse is "das Pferd"; now you put that dog in the genitive case, and is he the same dog he was before? No, sir; he is "des Hundes"; put him in the dative case and what is he? Why, he is "dem Hund." Now you snatch him into the accusative case and how is it with him? Why, he is "den Hunden." But suppose he happens to be twins and you have to pluralize him- what then? Why, they'll swat that twin dog around through the 4 cases until he'll think he's an entire international dog-show all in is own person. I don't like dogs, but I wouldn't treat a dog like that- I wouldn't even treat a borrowed dog that way. Well, it's just the same with a cat. They start her in at the nominative singular in good health and fair to look upon, and they sweat her through all the 4 cases and the 16 the's and when she limps out through the accusative plural you wouldn't recognize her for the same being. Yes, sir, once the German language gets hold of a cat, it's goodbye cat. That's about the amount of it.