KIEZDEUTSCH AND ITS CONFLICTING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NORMATIVE SYSTEM OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE

Аннотация

The article considers the ethnolect 'Kiezdeutsch' – the slang spoken in the multiethnic areas of large German cities – and raises the question of its potentially negative impact on the literary standard of the German language. After considering the main linguistic and stylistic features of slang and analysing how it functions, the author concludes that Kiezdeutsch currently occupies a marginal position within the German language and does not significantly affect literary language. Keywords:Kiezdeutsch, language of communication, multi-ethnic composition, language standard, Over the past decade, lively discussions have been taking place not only among linguists, but also in the German press and among bloggers, concerning an ethnolect known as Kiezdeutsch. Translated, the term ‘Kiezdeutsch’ means ‘neighbourhood German’ and refers to the main area where this ethnolect is spoken, namely the multi-ethnic districts of German cities such as Berlin-Kreuzberg, Berlin-Hellersdorf and Neuköln. The term ‘Kanak Sprak’ (from the German derogatory term ‘Kanake’ for immigrants, usually from the south-east, who speak poor German) is considered synonymous with it – an ethnolect, as well as the manner of speaking of young people with a migrant background. The term became widely used after the publication in 1995 of the book Kanak Sprak by the German writer of Turkish origin Feridun Zaymoğlu. In our article, we will use the term Kitsdeutsch as the term that has become most established in recent years in thescientificliterature onthissubject. Kiezdeutsch serves as a language ofcommunication not onlyfor ethnic minority youth, but also for German teenagers and mixed ethnic groups, and is a consequence of changes taking place in language and culture, namely the processes of internationalisation and globalisation, growing linguistic, social and cultural pluralism. The exclusively oral form of functioning and the multi-ethnic composition of the slang's speakers have determined the key linguisticand stylisticfeatures ofKiezdeutsch, namely: page467 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ISSN:2692-5206,ImpactFactor:12,23 AmericanAcademicpublishers,volume05,issue06,2025 Journal: https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai - simplifications at all levels of grammar (assimilation, partial rejection of case inflections and articles, free use of syntax, desemantisation of verbs acting as components of verb-noun combinations); - numerous lexical borrowings from the corresponding source languages, mainly Turkish and Arabic: ‘lan’ (from Turkish, German equivalent ‘Typ / Kerl’, Russian ‘guy’) , “wallah” (from Arabic, German equivalent ‘bei Gott’,Russian‘hey, honestly’)), etc.; -Anglo-American vocabulary (influence ofthe languageof hip-hop and rap musicstyles). The German press emphasises the social function of this linguistic phenomenon. In friendly publications, Kitzdeutsch is regarded as a variant of German, a multiethnic dialect or even a fully-fledged dialect that serves as a toolfor establishing thesocial and age identity ofspeakers. For example, in March 2012, the authoritative magazine Der Spiegel published an interview with Potsdam University professor Heike Wiese under the headline ‘Plädoyer einer Professorin. Kiezdeutsch rockt, ischwör!’ (A professor's plea. Kiezdeutsch rocks, I swear!). Wiese considers Kiezdeutsch to be evidence of the successful integration of young people with a migrant background and asserts the legitimacy of slang as a fully-fledged variant of the German language [8]. From her point of view, the distortions of literary German in Kiezdeutsch are not chaotic or random, but, on the contrary, extremely productive and in line with contemporary trends in the development of the German language as a whole. In her academic works, she analyses and classifies these features. It is claimed that the majority of Kiezdeutsch speakers are by no means illiterate teenagers or immigrants who have not mastered literary German, but young people who have a full or sufficient command of the language standard (Standarddeutsch), i.e. the generally accepted norms and correct language structures. They consciously switch language codes depending on thecommunicativesituation ortheir communicativeintent [6]. Since speech is the most important factor in expressing the speaker's social and cultural identity, changing the language code is always pragmatically marked and aimed at affirming one's belonging to a particular group, individualstatus or thestatus ofthegroup itself. It is noteworthy that in most contemporary publications and research materials, there is a clear tendency to view ethnolect exclusively in a positive light. Its creative potential and innovative and productive nature are emphasised, while accusations of primitiveness and distortion of ‘correct’ grammatical forms are refuted [4]. Supporters of Kiezdeutsch argue their position based on the linguistic material itself: from their point of view, ethnolect