Duden

The Duden (/du:d(ə)n/) is a German dictionary, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880.

Currently the Duden is in its 23rd edition and published in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects like loan words, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, etc. The first of these volumes, the "Rechtschreibduden" (Spelling Duden) has long been the prescriptive source for the spelling of German.

The Duden is updated regularly, with new editions appearing every four or five years.

History

Konrad Duden

In 1872, Konrad Duden, headmaster of a gymnasium (secondary school) in Schleiz (Thuringia), published a German dictionary called the "Schleizer Duden", the first Duden. In 1880 he published the Vollständiges Orthographisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache ("Complete orthographical dictionary of the German language"), which was declared the official source for correct spelling in the administration of Prussia the same year. The first edition of this Duden contained 28,000 entries.

From 1901 to 1996

In 1902 the Bundesrat confirmed the Duden as basis for the official German spelling, and Austria-Hungary and Switzerland soon followed. In the decades that followed, the Duden editors de facto continued to prescribe German orthography. After World War II this tradition was continued separately in East and West Germany in Leipzig and Mannheim. In West Germany, some publishing houses began to attack the Duden monopoly in the 1950s, publishing dictionaries that contained alternative spellings. In reaction, in November 1955 the ministers of culture of the German bundesländer confirmed the normative status of the Duden spellings in all cases of doubt.

The reform Duden

Main article: German spelling reform of 1996

External link

• www.duden.de