2023-12-28 14:21:40
culture language
How a toilet in a cheese shop refutes the gender duden
As of: 1:21 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Source: Josef Bayer
You can listen to our WELT podcasts here
In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
In the Austrian village of Andelsbuch, people still speak German. You know what the word “customer” means. The Duden editorial team no longer knows. A linguistics professor explains it.
In the Austrian village of Andelsbuch (Vorarlberg), people still seem to have stable linguistic intuitions. There is no other way to explain why the message “Customers Only” appears on both the door to the men’s toilet and the door to the women’s toilet in a store.
Why don’t people write “Customers Only” on the door to the ladies’ room? You can assume that this room is only for women. However, this question only arises if one gives in to the misconception of the gender-appropriate language regulations, according to which the noun Could refers exclusively to men. The authority in these matters, “The Dictionary of the German Language – Duden online”, defines the meaning of that word as follows: “male person who [regelmäßig] buys a product or uses a service [und daher in dem Geschäft, in der Firma bekannt ist].“
also read
This definition is far too narrow, because it cannot be said that a customer has to be someone who regularly shops in a store or even has to be known to the store or company. How could there be in such a case the word Walk-in customers come? Walk-in customers do not consist of shoppers who rush into a store, but primarily of shoppers who happen to pass by the store and want to quickly stock up on something.
The problem with the Duden definition that is more relevant here naturally comes from a further narrowing, namely to male people. According to Duden, all women who do not regularly shop in the shop – which is, by the way, a highly recommended cheese shop – and are known there, would be excluded from using the women’s toilet. Male buyers who have the required customer characteristics would also be welcome in the women’s toilet. This must be imagined. The Andelsbuch people who put up these signs are declared by the Duden dictionary and by the language regulations of the supposedly gender-equal people to be buffoons who are not familiar with elementary areas of linguistic communication.
Masculine is not necessarily male
Everyone can now guess three times who the idiots really are. My tip: In any case, it’s not the Andelsbuchers.
The example is further striking evidence that masculine personal names do not necessarily refer to male people, but rather, as lexical units, are free in their reference to natural gender. It’s bad that this simple linguistic fact is currently being ignored everywhere, not least even in the dictionary.
Joseph Bayer is Professor Emeritus for General and German Linguistics at the University of Konstanz.
#Gendern #toilet #cheese #shop #refutes #Duden