The comments of the German philologist, Dr Peter Küpfer regarding Gender Newspeak advocate a language usage which maintains the cultural tradition of a richly differentiated language. He is not alone in this matter. The contortions regarding the so-called ‘male-dominated language’ to be forced into a ‘female-dominated one’ have been an irritation for many for a long time. As an example of this, I wrote to Radio SRF relating to this subject because I found the substitute for ‘demonstrators’ (which means those who point out, generically neutral) by ‘demonstrating people’ another proof of the loss of the recognition of the root word and of the language. The answer showed me that the complaint was not understood as well as the concern, to free language from this weight, was not shared. It was then a greater pleasure for me, today, to have found the following remark in a letter from my bank: “In the interest for a better readability, the texts are formulated in a gender-neutral way ...”
Renate Dünki, Oberwangen (Switzerland)
(Translation Current Concerns)
Editor's note: This letter to the editor refers to the article "Doktrinäres «Kauderwelsch» oder verständliche Sprache?“ from Zeit-Fragen No. 11 of 18 May 2021, only in German.
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