The One Standard German Axiom is a concept used to describe the ongoing scepticism in German dialectology and linguistics towards the idea of multiple standard varieties. While multiple standard varieties are commonplace in English, Portuguese and Dutch today (e.g. American English, Brazilian Portuguese or Belgian Dutch), among many others, German scholars have repeatedly expressed their doubts about the idea or vitality of pluricentric languages in relation to the German language.[1][2][3] The term One Standard German Axiom was first used by Austrian-Canadian UBC linguist Stefan Dollinger in his 2019 monograph The Pluricentricity Debate: On Austrian German and Other Germanic Standard Varieties[4] and has since attracted debate, both in the scholarly and public domains. Dollinger argues that by downgrading or even negating the relevance of national standard varieties of German, especially Standard Austrian German, the implied underlying modelling of the German language today has not changed to the time around 1850,[5] before the unification of Germany without Austria, as visualized in Figure 1.

Development

Figure 1: Visualization of the modelling of German based on the One Standard German Axiom (following Dollinger, Pluricentricity Debate, Figure 4.2)

The argument for the One Standard German Axiom is built on a common observation, which Martin Durrell frames in the terms that "German" as a name for the standard language is historically misleading and has led to powerful "myths established by earlier linguistic historiography about the relationship of the Germans, their name and their language are immensely powerful and persist in popular imagination".[6] Durrell sees the cause for this power imbalance among German standard varieties in this fact, which would explain the common perception that the "real" German is only spoken in Germany. In this context, the One Standard German Axiom is introduced:

Given the continued appeal of the idea of one Standard German, a German that ties all German speakers together, the One Standard German Axiom can be seen as an unreflected political concept underpinning linguistic approaches that negate the existence of Standard Austrian German.

— Stefan Dollinger, The Pluricentricity Debate: On Austrian German and Other Germanic Standard Varieties, p. 14

If this observation is correct, it would suggest the presence of hegemonial concepts in German dialectology and a case of unarticulated "language making", in this case "language unmaking",[7] resulting in the preventing of the development of newer standard varieties of German.

The claim is further made that "pluri-areal" features "emptiness as a concept, ... asocial dimensions and, inevitably, ... colonial reverberations".[8] As a term it counters "pluricentric" conceptions of German (visualized in Figure 2); it is theoretically empty and synonymous with geographical variation.[9] Dollinger stresses that linguistic feature overlap, as shown in the overlap of the standard variety pyramids in Figure 2, are an integral part of pluricentric theory since Michael G. Clyne's work.[4]

Figure 2: Pluricentric German, with three standard varieties (following Dollinger, Pluricentricity Debate, Figure 4.1)

Scholarly Reception

Some proponents of German dialectology have in a letter petition publicly rejected the existence of such One Standard German Axiom,[10] and Germanist Nils Langer sees in a rather harsh review little virtue in Dollinger's book, considering a verdict of "not publishable" still "rather very mild" ("noch sehr milde").[11] Dollinger offers a discussion of Langer's review on his website, arguing that "non-linguists seem to get it [the problem]" and therefore that "linguists should get it too"[12] and published a clarification in response to the letter petition, in which he states the "structural" nature of the problem in the field of German dialectology.[13]

Not all Germanists respond negatively, however. Julia Ruck sees a lot of merit[14] in the concept of a One Standard German Axiom, likewise Austrian Studies scholar Hermann Möcker. Historian Annelise Rieger reviews the German book[15] on the concept very favourably because it includes "also methodological reasonings about perspective in German Studies and here, especially, the standardization process" ("auch methodische Überlegungen, zur Frage der Perspektive beim Betreiben der Germanistik und hier insbesondere dem Standardisieren zu bieten") hat.[16] Möcker confirms that in his view the "influence of statedom on Austrian German ... [should] be denied, respectively abolished" ("Einfluss der Staatlichkeit aufs österreichische Deutsch ... geleugnet bzw. beseitigt werden" (p. 9) soll).[17]

Public Debate

The concept has garnered considerable interest in the Austrian media landscape. Contrary to the scholarly uptake, public media reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Coverage of the concept includes the Ö1 Mittagsjournal[18] (National noon radio news) and Kontext[19] (monthly book reviews show), Vienna TV station Puls 4,[20] or daily newspapers Der Standard,[21][22] Die Presse,[23] or Wiener Zeitung. In Wiener Zeitung, Robert Sedlaczek discussed the Axiom and summarized the problem as being rooted in differences in socialization in Germany versus Austria or Switzerland.[24] Retired linguist Peter Wiesinger strongly disagreed in a letter to the editor the following week.[25]

References

  1. ↑ Elspass; Niehaus(2), Stephan; Konstantin(2) (2014). "The standardization of a modern pluriareal language: concepts and corpus designs for German and beyond". Ord & Tunga [Word and language]. p. 50. Firstly, it [pluricentricty of German, multiple German standard varieties] is an entirely political concept, based on the notion of Überdachung of the language area by a political state. As for the recent history of German, this would have had the somewhat odd consequence that on 3 October 1990, the German language has lost an entire national variety, namely GDR German, literally overnight.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Scheuringer, Hermann (1996). "Das Deutsche als pluriareale Sprache: Ein Beitrag gegen staatlich begrenzte Horizonte in der Diskussion um die deutsche Sprache in Österreich". Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German. 29 (2). Immer mehr hat es sich in den letzten Jahren gezeigt, daß der Terminus plurizentrisch den arealen Mustern des deutschen Sprachgebietes nicht gerecht werden kann.
  3. ↑ Koppensteiner; Lenz (2), Wofgang; Alexandra N. (2) (2020). "Tracing a standard language in Austria using methodological micro variations of verbal and matched guise technique". Linguistik Online. Vol. 102. p. 74. doi:10.13092/lo.102.6816. S2CID 229123301. Considering the findings and our interpretations thereof, the results contribute to the discussion of Herrgen's (2015) thesis of 'two alternative standards of orality' as follows: there seem to be fundamental evaluative frictions and incongruities regarding conceptualizations and parameters of "standard in Austria" in the minds of speakers and listeners.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 Dollinger, Stefan (2019-01-01). "[Chapters 1 & 9 + frontmatter + backmatter] The Pluricentricity Debate: On Austrian German and other Germanic Standard Varieties [published 23 May 2019]". Routledge FOCUS Short Monographs: 14, 39–40.
  5. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan (2023). "Prescriptivism and national identity: sociohistorical constructionism, disciplinary blindspots, and Standard Austrian German". The Routledge Handbook Linguistic Prescriptivism. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 136 [ms. 17]. there should be no room for pan-German (großdeutsch) perspectives in the name of linguistic science, which would mean breaking with a long-standing, field-defining practice
  6. ↑ Durrell, Martin (2009). "Deutsch: Teutons, Germans or Dutch? The problems of defining a nation". Landmarks in the History of the German Language (Geraldine Horan, Nils Langer & Sheila Watts ed.). Oxford: Lang. p. 183.
  7. ↑ Philipp Krämer, Leena Kolehmainen & Ulrike Vogl, "What is "language making"?", International Journal for the Sociology of Language, no. 274, pp. 1–27
  8. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan (2019). "Debunking "pluri-areality"". Journal of Linguistic Geography. 7 (2): 109.
  9. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan (2019). "Debunking "pluri-areality": on the pluricentric perspective of national varieties". Journal of Linguistic Geography. 7 (2): 98–112.
  10. ↑ Lenz, Alexandra N. (2021). "Stellungnahme".
  11. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan (2022). "Review of The Pluricentricity Debate". Zeitschrift für Rezensionen zur Germanistischen Sprachwissenschaft. 13 (1–2): 2–9. doi:10.1515/zrs-2020-2060. S2CID 234011977.
  12. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan. "Brief Response to Nils Langer".
  13. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan (2021). "Response to Lenz et al".
  14. ↑ Ruck, Julia (2021). "Rezension von The Pluricentricity Debate". ÖDaF-Mitteilungen: Fachzeitschrift für Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache. Band 37: 150–153.
  15. ↑ Dollinger, Stefan (2021). Österreichisches Deutsch oder Deutsch in Österreich? Identitäten im 21. Jahrhundert (3 ed.). Vienna: New Academic Press.
  16. ↑ Rieger, Anneliese (2021). "Rezension: Österreichisches Deutsch oder Deutsch in Österreich? Identitäten im 21. Jahrhundert von Stefan Dollinger". Medienimpulse. 59 (3): 3.
  17. ↑ Möcker, Hermann (2022). "Rezension". Österreich in Geschichte, Literatur und Geographie. 66.
  18. ↑ Obermüller, Eva (2019). "Österreichisches Deutsch". YouTube.
  19. ↑ Ritschl, Wolfgang (2021). "Interview mit Stefan Dollinger". YouTube.
  20. ↑ Schwarzjirg, Bianca. "2021". Audio only.
  21. ↑ Pumhösel, Alois (2021). "Sprachforscher Dollinger: Österreichisches Deutsch sollte man feiern!". Der Standard.
  22. ↑ Pumhösel, Alois (2021). "Ist Österreichisch eine eigene Sprache?". Der Standard.
  23. ↑ Schmidt, Veronika (2021). "Wie die Sprache nicht in einem Einheitsdeutsch endet". Die Presse (Vienna).
  24. ↑ Sedlaczek, Robert (2021). "Österreichisches Deutsch unter Druck". Wiener Zeitung.
  25. ↑ Wiesinger, Peter (2021-05-05). "Das Volk bestimmt die Sprache: Das österreichische Deutsch ist kein unveränderlicher hieratischer Block". Wiener Zeitung.
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