German Publishers Reject Spelling Reform, Return to Old Rules
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Axel Springer AG, Europe's largest newspaper
publisher, and Spiegel Verlag, which introduced Anglo-Saxon style journalism
to Germany in 1947, have rejected a German spelling reform six years after
its introduction and will return to the old rules in their print and
Internet publications.
"On a day-to-day basis, the reform has failed," said Mathias Doepfner, chief
executive at Springer, which publishes Germany's most read newspaper, in a
statement faxed to news organizations. "The situation is getting worse,
confusion is growing greater."
Springer and Spiegel, whose publications reach about 60 percent of Germans,
want to promote a universal standard for German orthography, the statement
said. A commission of German, Swiss and Austrian experts agreed on the
reform to simplify use of the comma, spelling, capitalization and
compounding of nouns.
Most newspapers adopted the new rules in 1999. One year later Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany's equivalent to the New York Times, rejected
them, calling the reform inconsistent and complicated.
Source:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=a6y25XSCyCsg&refer=germany
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The news on Radio Hamburg with an interview with Christian Melsa, Verein für
deutsche Rechtschreibung und Sprachpflege (VRS):
http://www.vrs-ev.de/vrs_radio_hamburg.mp3
See also:
http://www.vrs-ev.de/
http://www.rechtschreibreform.com/
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