Annoying Orthography or ‘Raid ez ju wont”
My German studies have taught me the history of the standardization of German. So, let’s have a brief look into it. Mostly aristocrats and ministry officials were literate up to the historic period that is called Early Middle High German. In the 16th century there existed five written languages of German in parallel. Over the centuries and through processes of adaptation and assimilation they were standardized and finally the East Middle German writing style was generally accepted in the mid-eighteenth century. Since the second half of the 19th century, various cities, like Hannover and Leipzig, were endeavored to determine regulations concerning German orthography. These ambitions lead to the spelling dictionary for printers in 1903 which became binding in 1955. Since 1996 there are attempts for further development that are highly discussed in those days.
What’s the aim of all those standardizations? Facilitation of written communication!
The new teaching method of learning how to write -in which pupils shall use their sense of hearing- causes an outcry.
Why oh why?
Why do we have to deal with orthography when people in the 16th century were able to communicate, although they had different written languages?
It would be wise to neglect spelling in earlier years because children wouldn’t be frightened by strict revisions. If they don’t have to be afraid of making mistakes, they develop a more far-reaching diction at an early stage.
Is there an additional value to learn spelling norms when orthography is no evaluation criterion in school anymore?
And finally, why should we hammer orthography into the brains of nowadays children, when they won’t benefit from it because technology will be ready to be used only via voice command in ten years?
If you wree albe to raed tihs snetnece whtiuot hnavig big pboremls, I ask you: Why should we stick to ‘correct’ orthography?
Keep in mind that orthography is the only standardized regulation in relation to language and, of course, we don’t need it!
