PURISTIC ACTIVITY IN GERMANY IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE XXI CENTURY

Abstract

The researcher analyzes puristic activity in Germany in the 2000s-2020s. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the opinion of the German language community on borrowings and attempts to “purify” the German language at the present stage of language development from excessive Anglo-Americanisms. The conducted research allows to notice that ordinary citizens, along with linguists, take quite an active part in the struggle for the purity of the language with the complete non-interference of the German federal authorities. So, thanks to the Anglizismenindex project, created with the assistance of the German Language Union (Verein Deutsche Sprache) and the German Language Foundation (Stiftung Deutsche Sprache), anyone can offer their own replacement word for existing Anglicism. Within the framework of this project, the purists of the “new wave” formulated criteria in which cases borrowings should be replaced, and also proposed German replacement words for more than 80% of Anglicisms. In addition, recently there has also been a tendency to abandon the use of English-language lexemes in advertising texts in the domestic market, i.e. most consumers misunderstand or do not understand slogans in English at all.