The ''Österreichisches Wörterbuch'' (English: Austrian Dictionary), abbreviated ''ÖWB'', is the official spelling dictionary of the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

in the

Republic of Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine States of Austria, states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, th ...

. It is edited by a group of linguists under the authority of the Austrian

Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture The Ministry of Education (German: ''Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung'', ''Bildungsministerium'', historically also ''Unterrichtsministerium'') is the government ministry of Austria in charge of public schools and acade ...

(''Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur'') and contains a number of terms unique to

Austrian German Austrian German (german: Österreichisches Deutsch), Austrian Standard German (ASG), Standard Austrian German (), or Austrian High German (), is the variety of Standard German written and spoken in Austria. It has the highest sociolinguistic p ...

or that are more frequently used or differently pronounced there. A considerable amount of this "Austrian" vocabulary is also common in

Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

, especially

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and some of it is used in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

as well. The most recent edition is the 43rd from 2017. Since the 39th edition from 2001 the orthography of the ''ÖWB'' was adjusted to the

German spelling reform of 1996 The German orthography reform of 1996 (') was a change to German spelling and punctuation that was intended to simplify German orthography and thus to make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the lang ...

. This dictionary is also in official use in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

province of

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

History

The first edition of the Austrian Dictionary was edited in 1951 on an initiative from the then Austrian minister of education Felix Hurdes. It replaced the old "''Regeln für die deutsche Rechtschreibung nebst Wörterbuch''", a standard work for the German orthography that dated back to pre-

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

times (1879 and 1902). The first edition had 276 pages and around 20,000 entries and was designed for use in the Austrian educational system. At that time, only six years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Austria was still under allied administration and the Austrian civilian government tried to cut political ties to Germany, including cultural and linguistic reminiscences to the former

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The creation of the Austrian dictionary has to be assessed under these circumstances. The

annexation of Austria The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the Nazi Germany, German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Ger ...

into

Greater Germany Pan-Germanism (german: Pangermanismus or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the German-speaking people – and possibly also Germanic-speaking ...

in 1938 had also brought a unified official standard form of the German language, that was now revised by referring to pre-war Austrian standards and by including local vocabulary originating from

Austro-Bavarian Bavarian (german: Bairisch , Bavarian: ''Boarisch'') or alternately Austro-Bavarian, is a West Germanic language, part of the Upper German family, together with Alemannic and East Franconian. Bavarian is spoken by approximately 12 million peop ...

dialects, especially but not exclusively typical

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * V ...

terms. The Austrian dictionary hence defined the Austrian form of

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...

, making it official and obligatory for use in schools and in public administration. For private persons, the business correspondence of companies, publishing houses and newspapers it remained an orthographic recommendation. Since then it was republished and expanded in numerous editions, that were each published in three different versions: a reduced version for primary schools (''

Volksschule The German term ''Volksschule'' generally refers to compulsory education, denoting an educational institution every person (i.e. the people, ''Volk'') is required to attend. In Germany and Switzerland it is equivalent to a combined primary (' ...

''), a medium sized version for high schools (''

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

, Gymnasium'') and a full version for the general public. The 35th edition from 1979 was considerably expanded in the listed vocabulary and with the 39th edition from 2001 the reformed German orthography was adopted. This new standardized orthography, that was determined by an international group of experts from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and Austria, led to considerable debates and refusal in Austria. Most newspapers switched to the reformed orthography but some later revoked their decisions and now use either the old version or a separate in-house orthography (''Hausrechtschreibung''). The Austrian dictionary remained with the reformed orthography, only at terms that are differently pronounced in Austria, the orthography differs from the German standard. Nevertheless the ÖWB still includes a considerable amount of unique vocabulary, that was even expanded in the newest 40th edition.

Characteristics

The full version of the 2006 40th edition contains around 80,000 terms on 1,008 pages. The school version is 864 pages, and the small version has 20,000 terms. The authors of this edition were the

linguists Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Otto Back, Erich Benedikt, Karl Blüml, Jakob Ebner and Hermann Möcker from the Institute of Austrian Studies (''Institut für Österreichkunde''), as well as the dialectogists Maria Hornung, Professor Heinz Dieter Pohl from the

University of Klagenfurt The University of Klagenfurt (german: Universität Klagenfurt or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the state of Carinthia. It has it ...

and

Emeritus professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Herbert Tatzreiter from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

. About 3,000 new terms were added to the 39th edition, among them Austrian

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s such as "''E-Card''" for the Austrian social security card, "'", a legal term for a special retirement law, and "'". From the colloquial vocabulary new terms were added such as "'" (geriatric nurse), "'" (to get fed up), "'" (without transfer fee), „''Audiobook''“, „''Afro-Look''“ und „''Alkopops''“ (soft drink with liquor). New technological terms were also added, like: "'", "'", "'", "''Linux''" and even "''Wikipedia''". New terms might differ from their counterparts in Germany. The Austrian dictionary now sets the term "'" (to text message, pronounced as-am-as-an) as standard, whereas the Duden uses "'", both derived from the English abbreviation "''SMS''" for "''short message service''". Numerous outdated words were removed from the 40th edition, either because their reference in the real world ceased to exist or because they became out of fashion. Examples are "'", "'" und "'". However, the terms "'' Austrian schilling, Schilling''" and "'" are listed, although their signifiants no longer exist. Still included are some typical dialect terms, that continue to be used in the written language, such as the

Carinthian Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carint ...

"'" (

common beans ''Phaseolus vulgaris'', the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its botanical classification, alo ...

) or the word "'" or "'" for a wicker

basket A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...

. Other typically Austrian words in the dictionary are for example: ''" (

drunken Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...

ness), "'" (grocery shop), "'" (complicated situation), "'" (easy opponent in sports), "'" (a cheese-filled

Carniolan sausage The Carniolan sausage ( sl, kranjska klobasa; en-AU, Kransky, german: Krainer Wurst, Italian dialect of Trieste: ''luganighe de Cragno'') is a Slovenian sausage similar to what is known as kielbasa or Polish sausage in North America. The noun ...

), "'" (terrific), "'" (a linesman), "'" (

unreported employment Unreported employment, also known as money under the table, working under the table, off the books, cash-in-hand, or illicit work is illegal employment that is not reported to the government. The employer or the employee often does so for tax evas ...

), "'" (fine), "'", "'" (a medal rank in sports), "'" (a hip nightclub), "'" (to booze), "'" (chewy, tough) and "'" (to crumple). Some parents protested against the 39th edition, arguing that there were too many "dirty words" listed, some of which have subsequently been removed from the school version of the 40th edition.

Language policy

The objective of the Austrian dictionary has never been to do classical

language planning In sociolinguistics, language planning (also known as language engineering) is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure or acquisition of languages or language varieties within a speech community.Kaplan B., Robert, and Richard ...

, but to do a re-codification of the form of the German language used in Austria. New terms were only included to the dictionary, when they had already been in considerable use in newspapers and contemporary literature. Although the dictionary was originally designed to promote Austrianism and language patriotism, throughout the years the dictionary commission followed a moderate policy of contrastive linguistics and tried to avoid

language secessionism Language secessionism (also known as linguistic secessionism or linguistic separatism) is an attitude supporting the separation of a language variety from the language to which it has hitherto been considered to belong, in order to make this var ...

. Nevertheless in the case of conflicting definitions the Austrian dictionary overrules the Duden and remains the sole source for defining the Austrian standard. In post-World War II Austria the German Duden never had any legal authority, although informally it is also widely in use as a work of reference.Marlis Hellinger, Ulrich Ammon: ''Contrastive Sociolinguistics''; chapter 4
Comparing the linguistic codices
Walter de Gruyter, 1996

References

Literature

*''Österreichisches Wörterbuch – auf der Grundlage des amtlichen Regelwerks (neue Rechtschreibung)''; herausgegeben im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur; Bearb.: Otto Back et al., Redaktion: Herbert Fussy et al., 40. neu bearb. Aufl., Wien: öbv&hpt, 2006, 1008 S., (full version) *''Österreichisches Wörterbuch – auf der Grundlage des amtlichen Regelwerks (neue Rechtschreibung)''; herausgegeben im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur; Bearb.: Otto Back et al., Redaktion: Herbert Fussy et al., 40. neu bearb. Aufl., Wien: öbv&hpt, 2006, 864 S., (school edition) *''Österreichisches Wörterbuch – auf der Grundlage des amtlichen Regelwerks (neue Rechtschreibung)''; Ebner, Jakob, u. a., 40. neu bearb. Aufl., Wien: öbv&hpt, 2006, (small version)

History

Characteristics

Language policy

See also

References

Literature

Further reading