Fun facts about the German language - The German language is constantly evolving

Throughout history, events of great significance —such as wars or migrations— have greatly impacted the way in which people acquire and pass on knowledge.

One of the implications is that the vocabulary needs to be adjusted to describe what has happened. Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) has complied more than a hundred compound words related to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of 2021, it looked like the pandemic had had a negligible effect in the country due to low infection rates and fatalities. It was not until 2022 that the following terms became relevant: “Abflachen der Kurve” (“flatten the curve”), “Zweitimpfung” (“first booster shot”), “Boosterimpfung” (“booster shot”), “Impfbotschafter” (“vaccine promoters”) and “Impfverweigerer” (“vaccine hesitancy”). 

Professional meanings are not always permanent 

The IDS constantly analyzes the German vocabulary and includes new terms and new compound words in the neologisms that they compile. This entity is based on fictional and nonfictional texts, acts, and empirical analysis. They can also remove entries that are no longer valid. Their linguist Annette Klosa-Kückelhaus, says: “It would be wonderful if this were the case for most allusions to Coronavirus”. On the other hand, there are also informal or temporary words that make it to the media, but not to the Academy. 

Trends related to the consumer society that affect young people 

‘Pandemials’ are the new generation —a generation that comes after the Millennials and the Zs—. They are a portion of the population that is still young. They lived the economic reactivation with euphoria after being locked down for so long because of the restrictive sanitary measures. Those who refused to turn on their cameras were suffering from “Cam-Shaming”. There were others who used the tag “Finsta” —that comes from ‘Fake-Instagram’—, to show their imperfections, or their makeup-free faces.