There is a lot of debate about the use of gender asterisks and other special characters in schools or administration, for example. Now a preliminary ruling has been made.
Words with gender asterisks are still not part of the official German spelling. The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) pointed this out in a statement. The new official spelling rules, which have been in force since the beginning of the month, are now official following approval by the responsible authorities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol.
It applies to schools and public administration. According to the KMK, the new version should be implemented in schools by the 2027/28 school year at the latest.
Experts continue to monitor developments
New to the rules is a section on special characters in words, such as those used by advocates of gender-sensitive language. “These characters within words are not part of the core of German orthography,” it says.
In various cases, their use could lead to subsequent grammatical problems that have not yet been resolved. However, the development of the entire area is not yet complete and will continue to be monitored.
Uniformity in the German-speaking area
The Council for German Orthography, which is supported by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the province of Bolzano-South Tyrol and the German-speaking community of Belgium, is responsible for the rules. Luxembourg is represented in an advisory capacity.
The council is supposed to preserve the uniformity of spelling in the German-speaking world. At the end of last year, it had already reiterated its view that all people should be treated with gender-fair language. “This is a social and socio-political task that cannot be solved with orthographic rules and changes in spelling,” it said at the time.
“Whatsappen” now an official word
The vocabulary in the official regulations has also been updated. According to the KMK, foreign words such as “timen”, “mailen” or “whatsappen” have been added.
Source: Stern
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