S1E2: Corona and German
What are Krisenfrisen? How do you pronounce Quarantäne? What do baby elephants have to do with corona and German?
The coronavirus pandemic has instigated a wave of new vocabulary in German, and has caused the meanings of many existing words and expressions to change. In this episode I talk to Barbara Soukup (University of Vienna) and Frauke Rüdebusch (Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache) about how COVID-19 has changed the German language.
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About this episode's guests
Barbara Soukup is an assistant professor at the Department of German Studies at the University of Vienna. As a sociolinguist, one of her main research interests is strategic language use, focusing on German in Austria and Anglicisms in the Viennese linguistic landscape.
Email: barbara.soukup@univie.ac.at
Links and information
- "Sprache in Zeiten der Corona-Krise" (online article by Barbara): https://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uniview/wissenschaft-gesellschaft/detailansicht/artikel/sprache-in-zeiten-der-corona-krise/
- "Sprache in Zeiten der Corona-Krise" (long version): https://dioe.at/details/artikel/2370/
- Here you can find information about the ELLViA project which Barbara is leading: https://homepage.univie.ac.at/barbara.soukup/ellvia.html
- If you would like to contribute and send Barbara any interesting artefacts of language use in the Austrian linguistic landscape (e.g. interesting examples of language as seen on signs, rubbish bins, posters, etc.), you can send them to this email address: ellviaproject@gmail.com
- Blog post about the ELLViA project: https://dioe.at/details/artikel/1820/
- Some results from Barbara's Quarantäne study: https://homepage.univie.ac.at/barbara.soukup/UmfrageQ.html
- More information and articles about (German) language in the corona crisis (Leibniz-Institut für deutsche Sprache): https://www1.ids-mannheim.de/sprache-in-der-coronakrise.html
- Article (kurier.at) presenting a glossary of corona-related terms, a so-called Corona-Wörterbuch: https://kurier.at/freizeit/leben-liebe-sex/corona-woerterbuch-von-maskomat-bis-coronakilo/400822112
Frauke Rüdebusch is a research associate at the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS). She conducts research into many facets of the German language, including in the context of corona. One of her main areas of work also concerns first names (see links below).
Email: frauke.ruedebusch@gfds.de
Links and information
- Website of the GfdS: https://gfds.de/
- GfdS article about the German word of the year: https://gfds.de/wort-des-jahres-2020-1/
- “Sprachraum: Corona” (GfdS articles about the German language in the context of corona): https://gfds.de/category/sprachraum-corona/#
- "Vornamen" (on the GfdS website, with lots of facts and other information about first names, an area where Frauke is particularly involved): https://gfds.de/vornamen/
- "Wortcast" - Podcast of the GfdS: https://gfds.de/podcast/
This episode was first released on 09.02.2021.
YOTE theme music by Vincent Tone (PremiumBeat.com)