While some youth language may come and go, other "cool" terms date back hundreds of years in the German language. And many actually enter German vocabulary from other languages, especially today.
Young people have always developed their own kind of language as a means of identifying with each other and distinguishing themselves from the adult world. In fact, younger generations often tend to cringe when adults try to imitate the way they speak.
"For my pubescent children, I'm an embarrassment no matter what I do," author Matthias Heine said in an interview with Germany's Bayerischer Rundfunk public broadcaster. He's the author of the book "Krass — 500 Jahre deutsche Jugendsprache" (translation: Crass — 500 Years of German Youth Language), which explores how young people speak.
The author stresses that youth language is by no means a phenomenon of modern times. Back in the 17th century already, students cultivated their own special jargon, and things are no different in the age of the internet and influencers.
In general, adults tend to be suspicious of the younger generation's language code, Heine writes in the preface to his book: "Youth language is perceived by most people as a form of modern decay, which at best is annoying, but at its worst contributes to the destruction of the German language," Heine writes.
'Krass' has been around for almost 300 years
On the other hand, the author discovered that many terms used among German youth as slang have a much longer shelf life than is generally assumed.Languages take shape over millennia, with some ideas surviving and others falling by the wayside with the passage of time.
In 2017, "Läuft" became the Youth Word of the Year, meaning that things are moving in the right directionImage: Martin Schroeder/chromorange/picture alliance
Heine explains that grade-school-age daughters say things like "Ich hab keinen Bock" (translation: I am not in the mood) and "geil" (translation: incredible), which are terms he himself used back in the 1970s.
Even the term "krass" (translation: crass) has been around a long time, as students are known to have used it in the 18th century. Back then however, the word was derived from the Latin term "crassus" (thick, coarse, clumsy), and had quite the opposite meaning: it was used to refer to inexperienced and naive freshmen entering the ranks of academia.
"You don't stop using youth language when you turn 18," Heine explains. And so it is not surprising that terms once coined by students and schoolchildren have become part of everyday language. Even German national poets like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller have used expressions in their works that they had once learned in their respective youths.
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Flower power and Fuzzis
The starting point of Heine's research was the 16th century since written sources about youth language have only survived since then. At that time, the way that students lived the university towns of Halle, Jena and Giessen was considered a model for young people — even if the students were not always on their best behavior. In fact, they were known for drunken brawls and trouble with the police.
Matthias Heine's book debunks myths about youth language in Germany
But many German terms that are no standard use date back to their misbehaviour — such as "Skandal” (translation: scandal) or "verdonnern” (translation: to be condemned). Many of the more unusual German prefixes also hail from this era, such as the use of the prefix "sau" for saukalt (translation: freezing cold) or "Sauklaue” (translation: terrible handwriting), with "sau" actually meaning meaning sow, as in the female pig.
These trees continued into the 20th century, when the use of the word "Bullen" (actual meaning: bulls) was first used to refer to the police. Later in the the 20th century, musicians had a major influence on young people and their use of language. The hippie generation introduced many terms from the English language into German language: terms like "joined” and "stoned” are used also in language to talk about the use of certain illicit drugs.
German rock star Udo Lindenberg even invented his own word: Fuzzi. This term is used as a compound noun to describe a random person and his role or job. So "Werbefuzzi" would mean something like "that advertising guy," as "Werbung" mean advertising. And they've all got another thing in common: over the years, they've all made their way into the Duden — Germany's leading thesaurus and authority on the language.
The countries with the most German speakers
Some 118 million speak German in over 45 countries. Where is the language the most popular?
Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein
Three EU countries have German as their sole nationwide official language: the small principality of Liechtenstein, where 35,000 people speak German; Austria, with around 7.5 million German speakers; and of course Germany, with about 10 times as many people who use the language — not all of the nearly 83 million German citizens speak German though.
Image: picture-alliance/imagebroker/B. Claßen
Switzerland
In Switzerland, German is one of four official languages. About two thirds of the population — 5 million people — speak German. German emigrants like Hermann Hesse and Erich Maria Remarque, both famous authors, were enamored with Switzerland's Italian-speaking region. In exile and until his death, Remarque often lived in this villa on Lake Maggiore
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Luxembourg
In Luxembourg, too, German is one of the country's official languages, alongside Luxembourgish and French. About 470,000 inhabitants of the Grand Duchy speak German as their mother tongue. Luxembourgish has only been the national language since 1984 and is spoken mainly on radio and television. However, most writing is done in German.
Image: picture-alliance/imagebroker/D. Renckhoff
France
The spread of a language reflects history: In France, German is a minority language. The country's 1.2 million German speakers live in the German-French border area that includes Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine. They speak Franconian and Alemannic dialects. Old inscriptions recall the times of German administration.
Image: picture-alliance/H. Meyer zur Capellen
Italy
German is the official minority language in Italy in South Tyrol, which belonged to Austria until 1919. Even today, more than 60% of the population in the autonomous province of Bolzano-South Tyrol, which has about 520,000 inhabitants, speak German as their mother tongue. Throughout the province, signs are bilingual, in German and Italian.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R.Kaufhold
Spain
In Europe, Spain is the most popular country for German emigrants. About half a million Germans have settled there, with large German colonies on the Canary Islands, Mallorca and along the Spanish mainland coast. These regions also attract a lot of German tourists.
Image: Imago Images/C.E. Janßen
The Netherlands
In many Dutch towns like Venlo (photo), German is spoken and written in addition to the national language. About 360,000 Germans who emigrated to the country live in the Netherlands. Many Dutch schools offer German as a foreign language.
Image: picture-alliance/ANP/R. Engelaar
Ireland
Germans have left their mark across Ireland. For instance Handel's "Messiah" oratorio was first performed in 1742 in Dublin's Old Music Hall in Fishamble Street (photo). A German architect by the name of Richard Castle designed many imposing buildings in Dublin in the early 18th century. Today about 100,000 people in Ireland still speak German.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Israel
Some 100,000 Israelis speak German; most of them are descendants of Jewish immigrants. German was long frowned upon as the language of the Nazis, but it overcame that stigma around two decades ago. As interest in Germany grows, so does interest in the German language. Some schools offer German as a foreign language, and German courses are often fully booked.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Küchler
Russia
The German language in Russia looks back at a history of more than 250 years. As early as 1763, German-born Catherine the Great enabled thousands of German farmers to settle on the Volga. After 1990, many of the once 2.3 million Russian-Germans moved to Germany. At present, 394,000 ethnic Germans still live in Russia. Not all of them speak the German language, however.
Even before the Second World War, Kazakhstan was home to over 92,000 "local Germans," descendants of people who voluntarily resettled, refugees from the Volga region and expropriated farmers. During WWII, more than 444,000 Germans were deported to Kazakhstan. Today, two-thirds of Kazakhstan's German population still speak German — about 350,000 people.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Grimm
South Africa
South Africa is popular with German emigrants. Cape Town even has a German quarter, nicknamed "Sauerkraut Hill." The numbers vary, but there are an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 native German speakers in the sunny country. In the mid-19th century, missionaries from Lower Saxony and other emigrants founded settlements they named after their home towns, like Hermannsburg and Lüneburg.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Krüger
United States
Over 50 million Americans claim German ancestry, and up until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, over 10,000 German citizens were leaving Germany every year to live in the USA. An estimated 1.1 million people speak German in the United States today. The "German Belt" stretches from Alabama across the Midwest to Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Dabrowski
Canada
Canada is also very popular with emigrants. Over 400,000 Germans have emigrated to the country since the 1940s. A total of about 430,000 people speak German there. Founded in the middle of the 18th century, Lunenburg is officially the oldest German settlement in Canada. The port town in Nova Scotia has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Schwenkenbecher
Brazil
Ten percent of all Brazilians have German ancestors, who emigrated to Brazil for economic and social reasons in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some 1.1 million people in Brazil speak German. The city of Blumenau, founded in 1850, hosts the largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany. It also has a museum showing how German immigrants lived there at the beginning of the 20th century.
Image: Getty Images/M. Tama
Argentina
In the first half of the 20th century, Germans carried their language to many South and Central American countries. In Argentina, 400,000 people are estimated to speak the language today. The mountain village of Villa General Belgrano attracts tourists with its German delicacies. Nearby, the wooden houses of the hamlet of La Cumbrecita are also reminiscent of traditional Bavarian architecture.
Image: picture alliance / imageBROKER
Paraguay
Paraguay, where 166,000 people still speak German today, has also been a popular emigration country for more than a century. Among them was Bernhard Förster, who founded Nueva Germania in 1887, which aimed to an "Aryan" settlement. The colony of the anti-Semite, who was married to the sister of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, failed; he committed suicide. A museum recall the town's origins.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Dabrowski
Namibia
Even though Namibia was once a German colony, there are only 20,000 people among the country's 2.5 million inhabitants who speak German today. Traces of the language can still be noticed, such as this concert hall in Lüderitz, a town named after a controversial colonial figure. Beyond this list, the German language is spoken in 45 countries; there are even 100 German speakers in Papua New Guinea.
Image: picture-alliance/Imagebroker/U. Doering
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Cringing with your BFF Babos
In the 21st century, immigrants to Germany and their descendants have had a major role in shaping youth language. The role of German rap music has played a particular role in this, with terms like "Babo" (meaning boss) even winning the title of the annual list of "German youth word of the year."
Heine adds that there is one more trend that has historically been unusual in German youth culture and its influence on language: historically, it was the young mal population coming up with their "babos" and "fuzzis" while perhaps enjoying a "krass joint." But more recently, girls have been responsible for some of the newer terms making their way into everyday use in German language, such as "BFF" — especially on social media, where many think of themselves as "influencers," which has also become a standard German youth term.
And even "cringe" has made the cut and has found its way into German, which is probably exactly the way that young people feel when they read an analytical piece like this on their use of language.
This article has been translated from its German original by Dagmar Breitenbach.
