There is of course the curious use of 'Handy' to refer to a mobile phone.
Michael Patterson
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Leaman
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 03/10/2002 11:04
Subject: Spelling Reform and Anglicisms
The Spelling Reform correspondence made me think about the more
gradual but no less dramatic changes in linguistic usage in German,
most notably the invasion of Anglicisms which don't quite work (for
me at least). Dipping into recent employment and taxation policy
discussions in Germany, I encountered the proposal to introduce the
'Job floater' (it involves offering small companies cheap credit if
they take on unemployed people) administered by a
'PersonalServicesAgentur' (with the old Arbeitsamt) and a
'BridgeSystem' for older workers. The SPD election campaign group
(Kampa) talks breezily about 'das neue Tool' (the Internet, I think)
and much, much more. The fact that such borrowings aren't embedded in
native English usage and therefore don't reflect the dafter
associations with floaters, personal services and tools is worrying.
Above all, the preparedness to coin new concepts without passing them
by a native English speaker (I assume they didn't) smacks of a rather
irritating confidence. Of course, we can only blame ourselves for
being a stubbornly monolingual culture and allowing others to become
confident in a second language where we so palpably aren't. (This is
all quite separate from any criticism of the banality of the new
policies hidden behind the modish rhetoric). Any other daft
Anglicisms out there to brighten the gloom?
Jeremy Leaman
Dr J.Leaman
Department of European Studies
Loughborough University
LE11 3TU
Tel: (44)01509-222995
Fax: (44)01509-223917
For information about programmes in European Studies at Loughborough,
see
our page on WWW
http://info.lboro.ac.uk/departments/eu/
Journal of European Area Studies
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/eu/jeas.html
Debatte - Review of Contemporary German Affairs
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/0965156X.html
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