Suchergebnisse

In this paper, I investigate which linguistic mechanisms come into being when two culturally and politically splitted communities such as GDR and FRG continue to share the same language. The research has an historical linguistic focus and intends to outline the field of tension between German language, German nation and its geo-political counterparts over the past seventy years.

With the reunification of the two German states it was possible to observe directly and almost simultaneously the linguistic changes which resulted from the event. The process that had such a strong impact on the German language following the political upheaval of 1989/90 was absolutely unique and produced a transformation which was practically definitive, unilateral and selective. This German-German-Italian glossary of daily life is a collection of terms which, although by no means complete, shows many of the small differences in the language used in the two Germanies: the so-called lexemes which began in GDR and which have often found synonyms in West Germany.