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In the revised edition of the Duden, there are 3,000 new words – including “ChatGPT” and “climate glue”. Outdated terms and some spelling variants have been removed. The “Hackenporsche” is making a comeback.
On Tuesday, after a four-year break, the 29th edition of the most well-known reference work on German spelling will be released.
Crisis, War, and Cooking
With 151,000 entries, the printed edition is the most extensive yet. According to Kunkel-Razum, the greatest language changes of recent years can be sharply reduced to three areas: crisis, war, and cooking.
For example, “Coronapandemie” has become a new entry – alongside “Antigenschnelltest” and “Coronaleugner/-in”. Terms like “Extremwetterereignis”, “Flugabwehrsystem”, “Gasmangellage”, and “Entlastungspaket” reflect crises in other areas. Changed dietary habits are mirrored in terms like “Fleischersatz”, “Gemüsekiste”, “Tahini”, and “Kontaktgrill”.
Spelling variants like “Tunfisch” removed
However, the Duden editorial team also regularly removes words that are seldom used. In the current edition, 300 words have been removed, according to Kunkel-Razum. Terms like “Frigidär” (refrigerator), “UMTS-Handy”, or the term used in the GDR “Rationalisator” for an employee with rationalization tasks are no longer included.
Likewise, spelling variants that are no longer permissible have been removed, such as “Tunfisch” and “Spagetti”. “Removing words is much harder than adding them,” says the linguist. It is harder to prove that a word is only rarely used than the other way around. And sometimes deletions are also reversed. The word “Hackenporsche” (colloquially for a shopping cart) was missing from the last Duden and is now making a comeback. “We received complaints that the word was removed,” Kunkel-Razum reported.
Duden’s monopoly long since broken
The reference work named after its founder Konrad Duden was considered authoritative for decades. The 1996 spelling reform broke this monopoly. The relevant authority is the Council for German Orthography, which publishes the “official rules.” It consists of a rules section and a word directory. Reference works like Duden make these regulations practical for everyday use.
According to Kunkel-Razum, the new edition also includes the spelling changes that the Council for German Orthography approved at its last meeting of the third term at the end of 2023. This includes the rule that the comma before an extended infinitive is again mandatory.