Deutsch — Sprachbezeichnung und Volksbegriff

Abstract

The Medieval Latin adjective theodiscus ›belonging to the people‹ (›volkhaft, volksgemas‹), formed on vernacular basis, describes in the 8th and 9th century combined with the Latin word lingua ›language‹ the inherited languages of Germanic gentes like Bavarians, Langobards, Alemanni, Franks and Saxons in contrast to Latin. The term stands also in opposition to designations of Romance vernacular idioms in the Western part of the regnum Francorum designed as lingua latina rustica or lingua romana. Only later the language name changed to the self designation of German speaking people. At least in the 11th Century the corresponding vernacular term diutisk reaches beyond the linguistic context and designs also common features in life style, customs and culture, testified in a spectacular manner by the socalled ›Preislied‹ (L. 56, 14) of Walther von der Vogelweide in the beginnings of the 13th century. Walther’s praise song gave inspiration to Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben for his ›Lied der Deutschen‹ (partly now the German national anthem) in 1841. Until the middle of the 19th century the term oesterreichisch (Austrian) was included as a subdivision in the generic term deutsch. The dissociation of the Austrian Empire and the German states, culminating in the establishment of the new German Empire in 1871, marks the beginning of the present terminological situation. There still exists a German language but no more a German area (›deutscher Raum‹): the new term is German-speaking area (›deutschsprachiger Raum‹).