Duden Publishes 'Words of the Decade' Volume

A special edition of the iconic German Duden dictionary has just been published on the 100th anniversary of its creator's death that features a selection of new words to enter the language over the past decade.

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Aptly entitled "Unsere Wörter des Jahrzehnts. 2000 bis 2010 - Von Abfrühstücken bis Zwischenparken" (Our Words of the Decade. 2000 to 2010 - From 'Breakfast-Devouring' to 'Inbetween Parking'), it traces the latest trajectory of the German language and incorporates new terms that have in many cases only entered common parlance due to societal changes.

In this vein, the first Babyklappe (baby flap) and first Castingshow (Popstars) were introduced to Germany in 2000. And gay couples have been permitted to live in legally recognized Lebenspartnerschaften, or official life partnerships, since 2001.

Press that bread button

Living language: German is the mother tongue of more than 100 million people. (© picture alliance/ dpa)

As its title suggests, this new Duden edition chronicles memorable words used in Germany from 2000 to 2010, "such as Hüftgold which translates as hip gold, but is a slangy way of saying fat stored on the hips – and is often used to describe fattening foods," thelocal.de recently reported.

"Another eating-related new word is Gammelfleisch – rotting or unclean meat. One which may end up migrating into English dictionaries is Fremdschämen, surely a relative of Schadenfreude (to take joy in the misfortunes of others), meaning to be ashamed on the behalf of someone else," it added.

"There is also Dudelfunk, a radio station which only plays German folk music, and Dosenpfand, the deposit levied on drink cans. A nice innovation is Brötchentaste, the button on a parking meter which gives a few minutes free parking – to pick up daily bread."

New words on the block

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While some of the new German words featured in the dictionary are clearly derived from the German language, many have been adopted directly from English or other languages and often reflect today's globalized, digital era.

"New German words such as Buzzer, Hoax, Googeln, Get-together, Electronic Book, Drop-down Menü and Gangsta-rap need no translation," thelocal.de reported.

"Caffe Latte, Latte macchiato, Pancetta, Bruschetta, El Kaida, Falafal, Manga, Shiitake and Sudoku, are all taken, unchanged from Italian, Arabic and Japanese," it added.

Cornucopia of compound nouns

Yet there are also some creative concoctions from the German language - which lends itself supremely well to a cornucopia of compound nouns in seemingly endless sequences of combinations.

As thelocal.de also reported: "Schlüssellochchirurgie can be literally translated, one element at a time to become 'key hole surgery', while Handyfrei is obviously a mobile phone-free zone. Hassprediger is a hate preacher, while Fettabsaugung, literally 'fat sucking' is liposuction. Another word which raises a smirk is Buschfunk, literally 'bush radio', for the distribution of information via informal channels – the jungle telegraph."

Save the Ampelmännchen

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Using Infokästen, or info boxes, the new Duden moreover illustrates specific shifts in German, such as the history of the Ampelmännchen, those über-cute little red and green guys from the former East Germany that signaled to pedestrians at crosswalks. Although the Ampelmännchen was supposed to go the way of the dodo after German unification in 1990 in the interest of a more harmonized national look at intersections, fan clubs across Germany helped save it from extinction. Today it is a cleverly marketed cult symbol.

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The book, which is intended as more than "just" a dictionary, and could ba a fun way to while away a few hours via multiple "aha" experiences, also includes each Unwort and Wort des Jahres (Unword and Word of the Year) from 2000 to 2010.

To be sure, these words always serve as signs of the times and are generally derived directly from national experiences and debates.

Russian redux

The Brandenburg Gate at the heart of the city behind the Berlin Wall. (© picture-alliance/dpa)

In the past, there were, moreover, two separate Dudens - one in the former West and one in the former East Germany, which were printed in the cities of Mannheim and Leipzig, respectively. The printing of two separate editions continued in both cities until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The first published Duden appeared in Leipzig in 1951, which was followed by the first published "western" edition in Mannheim in 1954. (The Leipzig edition was largely ignored as "illegitimate" in West Germany.)

A key difference between the two editions were adopted Russian words that crept into the eastern edition, especially from the political arena, such as Politbüro and Sozialdemokratismus. The East German Duden also recorded the nominalization of German words by adding the suffix -ist, borrowed from the Russian suffix.

Linguistic zeitgeist

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The new "Unsere Wörter des Jahrzehnts" Duden edition marks the 100th anniversary of Konrad Duden's death on August 1, 1911. A teacher from the eastern German state of Thuringia, Duden was the creator of the first ever German dictionary accepted across the country as the legitimate canon on German language usage.

The Urduden (original Duden) was first put forward in 1880 and has been continuously updated ever since, with new editions now appearing every four to five years. While many words have been added to the German language since the Duden's inception, others have vanished from this classic tome of German Orthography. In this vein, the Duden always reflects the language of the times.