“The word “shitstorm” was institutionalized in the latest edition of Duden, the most-respected German-language dictionary, which was published in July,” writes Karina Martinez-Carter at Slate. “The English profanity had previously spread through the ranks of German society, even working its way into German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s vocabulary. She employed the word in a public meeting—Germanized in pronunciation to “shitschturm”—to describe the eurozone crisis.
The English compound word “flashmob” also was given its own listing in the Duden earlier this year. With terms like “flashmob” and the newly adopted “shitstorm,” the German language society Verein Deutsche Sprache criticized the German language bible for diluting the language and incorporating too many Anglicisms. The society awarded Duden its “adulterator of the language” title, with the society’s chairman stating, “Whoever suggests the ridiculous and phoney Anglicism soccer as a replacement for Fussball richly deserves this [award].”
In today’s globalized world, languages freely borrow from each other, and with German and English stemming from the same family of languages, cross-pollination occurs with particular ease, both in adopting full words into the lexicon and creating hybrids. In fact, a language term exists for this blending of English words into German words, phrases, or sentences: “Denglisch.”
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