February 2003 - Nr. 2
Linguists Name Job Market Buzzword "Unwort" of the Year
TWIG - Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s coalition of Social Democrats and Greens may have words of encouragement for Germany’s jobless, but they are far from eloquent, linguists say. This week a favourite government catchphrase for labour reform, "Ich-AG," was pronounced the Unwort - most ill-chosen word - of 2002.
As buzzwords go, "Ich-AG," which translates roughly as "Me, Inc.," may seem relatively benign. It stands for a labour market reform measure offering funding to individuals and families moving from joblessness to self-employment. But to Horst Dieter Schlosser, a spokesman for Germany’s annual "Unwort" competition, it is "one of a growing number of instances in which difficult social and socio-political circumstances are smoothed over with cosmetic language." The six-member jury of linguists argues the term, besides being an oxymoron, reduces "human fate to the linguistic level of the stock market."
Officials at the Federal Labour Office in Nürnberg, which is helping implement the job-creation measure, seemed untroubled by the news. It’s easy to argue about language, said spokesman Eberhard Mann. "But the word ‘Ich-AG’ makes it clear what this is about: giving jobless people the chance to become self-sustaining."
Each year Germans are invited to submit suggestions for the Unwort competition, an initiative launched in 1991 to keep the media and its use of language in line. This year the jury received 1,744 submissions and had to choose from 806 suggested terms. Selection is based on the egregiousness of the clash between the word and what it designates, rather than the number of submissions received. The most frequently submitted phrase was U.S. president George W. Bush’s "axis of evil," which the jury dismissed because it was never adopted by the German press. Runners-up included the use of Ausreisezentrum (departure center) for a holding facility for foreigners seeking political asylum in Germany, and Zellhaufen (pile of cells), describing embryos in early stages of development.
The 2002 Word of the Year, selected by the German Language Association in Wiesbaden as an expression of the national zeitgeist, is "Teuro," a word coined to reflect public suspicions that merchandise has become more expensive (teuer) with the introduction of the euro.
