The (, "Council for German Orthography" or "Council for German Spelling"), or , is the main international body regulating Standard High German

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

. With its seat being in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

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 ...

, the RdR was formed in 2004 as a successor to the ' ("Intergovernmental Commission for German Orthography") in order to include both supporters and opponents of the

German orthography 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 lan ...

(and subsequent reforms). Currently the RdR is composed of 41 members from those states and regions in the German Sprachraum: * : 18 councillors * : 9 councillors * : 9 councillors * (

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

): 1 councillor * : 1 councillor * (

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

): 1 councillor * : 1 observer (no voting right) Despite having German as one of its official languages,

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, which was not involved in devising the reform of 1996, is not a full member of the council. The government of Luxembourg unilaterally adopted the reform. According to the duchy's largest newspaper, the ', Luxembourg does not perceive itself as a "German-speaking country" (the only national language is

Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; Luxembourgish: ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. As a standard form of th ...

) and thus had no right to take part in the council. Despite this, Luxembourg takes part in the annual meetings of German-speaking countries. Furthermore, Luxembourg participates in and has members in the , despite French being only a co-official language, just like German. The chairman of the ' () is a member of the council. In 2003, the RdR, the GfdS, the ' and the Institute of the German Language, founded the German Language Council ('), which was later also joined by the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD (german: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), was founded in 1925 and is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation. Organisation ''DAAD'' is a ...

(DAAD).

References

External links

* {{Authority control Language regulators German orthography 2004 establishments in Germany Mannheim Organizations established in 2004

See also

References

External links