Quietly, and mostly avoiding the identification of language shifts in German society, there is a 'war' brewing.
Having sat through literally a couple hundred hours of German language....I came to a point to realize that there are barriers and 'guardians' who watch over the German language....hour by hour....to safeguard what will be normal or accepted.
The Duden? It's the holy book of the language. If the rule or use idea is not in the Duden....then it's not official.
With all this talk in 2021 over gender topics....it's finally reached the stage of discussion in the Bundestag.
You basically have three politicized groups existing.
First, there is the pro-side, who want gender topics picked up and changes to occur (Greens, SPD, Linke Party). Second, there are the AfD Party who is fairly negative about gender topics (oddly enough). Third, there are the FDP and CDU-CSU who are just trying to keep this whole mess from exploding or becoming a top ten subject.
If you asked working-class Germans? Out of their top 500 problems? It doesn't rate anywhere in the 500 subjects. Affordable housing, safety on the streets, clean parks, no Covid-ban-rules, taxes.....these all rate as real issues. Gender terms? No.
So there is a 'war' brewing, and you can't readily predict where this will go after the September national election.
Could the political side and Duden-side go hand-in-hand? No. The Duden folks are fairly dedicated to intellectualism and keeping the language along a particular path/trail. Just having the Bundestag pass some law and insist on control of the language....probably won't work.
So in 2022, if you were looking for a curious 'fight' coming in....I'd rate this as a top ten issue, with no real solution.
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