ORTHOGRAPHIC DOUBLETS IN MODERN GERMAN: USAGE TRENDS

Abstract

The article analyzes German lexical doublets, which are the result of the orthographic reforms in 1996 and 2005. The orthography of some doublets is based on traditional principles with the preservation of foreign graphemes and letter combinations that are not characteristic of the German phonetic system. Other doublets represent word forms, the spelling of which is regulated by phonemic and morphematic principles. The paper statistically analyzes the use of doublets from 1990 to 2023 on the basis of the DWDS German text corpus. Considerable attention is paid to the frequency of doublets before the recent orthographic reforms came into force and in the post-reform period. On the basis of statistical data, extralinguistic factors influencing the realization of the principles of German orthography and the frequency of use of a certain orthographic doublet by native speakers are determined.