SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION. Germany has an orthographical problem of her own, although a less complicated one than England and America. The spelling of Modern German had become pretty well settled in the latter half of the eigh teenth century, when Gottsched (Deutsche Sprachkunst, Leipzig, 1748) and Adelung (An weisung zur deutschen Orthographic, ib., 1788) were the chief authorities; and there were only slight changes (due especially to the grammatical works of J. Chr. A. Heyse) in the early nine teenth century. More recently, however, when the works of Jakob Grimm and his followers had led to a better understanding of the history of the German language, and when phonetics had become an essential element in the study of grammar, a more radical reform than that attempted by Heyse was advocated by many scholars. Opinions, however, differed as to whether the reform should rest primarily on an historical or a phonetic basis. The uncertainty in orthographical matters was .on the increase, and in 1876 the Prussian Government decided to call to Berlin a conference of German philolo gists, principals of schools, and publishers. This conference had no immediate practical outcome, though its transactions were instrumental in clearing the way for subsequent regulations. Four years later the Prussian Minister of In struction (von Puttkamer) introduced in the Prussian schools a uniform spelling, the rules for which are contained in the Regeln and Worter verzeichnisse flur die deutsche Rechtschreibung (Berlin, 1880). This Preussische Schulortho graphic, however, could only mean a temporary solution of the difficulty. Its rules were often (e.g., as to the use of th and t) complicated and generally of such a character as to satisfy neither the conservatives nor the advocates of reform. It became finally necessary for the Prussian Government to call at Berlin in 1901 a second conference, in which the Southern German States and the Austrian and Swiss governments were also represented. The result is the revised edition (Neue Bearbeitung) of the above-men tioned Regeln and WOrterverzeichnisse (Berlin, 1902). The new regulations are simpler than the former ones, although they imply more radi cal changes. They have been introduced in both German and Austrian (and also Swiss) schools, and have at the same time been adopted by most of the leading newspapers. There is every pros
pect that for all practical purposes the problem of spelling has been successfully solved for a long time to come.
With the pronunciation of German the case is different. Neither has there been nor is. there at present a generally recognized stand ard pronunciation; so that in this respect the union of Northern and Southern Germany is not yet perfected. In Southern and Midland Ger many the difference between the literary lan guage and the dialect is not fundamental enough to consider the two as different languages. We find, therefore, that the pronunciation even of cultured people is almost always more or less tinged by their native dialect. The Swabians, the Swiss, the Austrians, and the Saxons are, as a rule, easily recognized by their pronunciation. In Northern Germany the Low German dialects and the literary idiom are regarded as different languages. But as High German here has been for several centuries the language of the edu cated classes, it has again developed local pe culiarities and dialectic differences of its own.
It is claimed by many that the language of the theatre—which, if not entirely so, is, on the whole, uniform throughout Germany—must be regarded as dialect-free and as the standard pro nunciation. This contention, however, is contra dicted by others, who maintain that the pronun ciation of the stage, while essentially Southern German, is partly based on arbitrary regula tions, and that it has no legitimate claim to the position of a standard pronunciation outside of the theatre. It is not very likely that the question of pronunciation will be satisfactorily settled within the present generation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Verhandlungen der orthographiBibliography. Verhandlungen der orthographi- schen Konferenz in Berlin (Berlin, 1876) ; Wil manns, Die Orthographie in den Schulen Deutsch lands (2d ed., Berlin, 1887) ; Hempl, German Orthography and Phonology (part i., Boston, 1897) ; Duden, 'Orthographisches 1Vorterbuch der deutschen Sprache (7th ed., based on the new regulations, Leipzig, 1902) ; Siebs, Deutsche Biihnenaussprache (2d ed., Berlin, 1901).