Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:54:20.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The English of shop signs in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2002

Maria Schlick
Affiliation:
University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Abstract

A case study of foreign and especially English influence on the language of shop signs and shop windows in three European cities.

PEOPLE have always worried about language purity: ‘No greater harm can be done to a nation than taking away its national character and the idiosyncrasies of its language’ (Immanuel Kant, over 200 years ago). ‘Kein Denglisch in deutschen Wörterbüchern’ is a citation of the German Verein zur Wahrung der deutschen Sprache e.V. (‘Association for the Protection of the German Language’)1, founded in 1997. Theirs is a struggle to keep German free of too much foreign-language influence: most notably English.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)