The One Standard German Axiom (OSGA) is a concept used to describe the ongoing scepticism in German dialectology and linguistics towards the idea of multiple standard varieties (in German "Axiom des Einheitsdeutschen",[1] though the English name is more commom). While multiple standard varieties are commonplace in English, Portuguese and Dutch today (e.g. American English, Brazilian Portuguese or Belgian Dutch), among many others, German scholars have repeatedly expressed their doubts about the idea or vitality of pluricentric languages in relation to the German language.[2][3][4] The term One Standard German Axiom was first used by Austrian-Canadian UBC linguist Stefan Dollinger in his 2019 monograph The Pluricentricity Debate: On Austrian German and Other Germanic Standard Varieties[5] and has since attracted debate, both in the scholarly and public domains. Dollinger argues that by downgrading or even negating the relevance of national standard varieties of German, especially Standard Austrian German, the implied underlying modelling of the German language today has not changed to the time around 1850,[6] before the unification of Germany without Austria, as visualized in Figure 1.
Development
The argument for the One Standard German Axiom is built on a common observation, which Martin Durrell frames in the terms that "German" as a name for the standard language is historically misleading and has led to powerful "myths established by earlier linguistic historiography about the relationship of the Germans, their name and their language are immensely powerful and persist in popular imagination".[7] Durrell sees the cause for this power imbalance among German standard varieties in this fact, which would explain the common perception that the "real" German is only spoken in Germany. In this context, the One Standard German Axiom is introduced:
Given the continued appeal of the idea of one Standard German, a German that ties all German speakers together, the One Standard German Axiom can be seen as an unreflected political concept underpinning linguistic approaches that negate the existence of Standard Austrian German.
— Stefan Dollinger, The Pluricentricity Debate: On Austrian German and Other Germanic Standard Varieties, p. 14
If this observation is correct, it would suggest the presence of hegemonial concepts in German dialectology and a case of unarticulated "language making", in this case "language unmaking",[8] resulting in the preventing of the development of newer standard varieties of German.
The claim is further made that "pluri-areal" features "emptiness as a concept, ... asocial dimensions and, inevitably, ... colonial reverberations",[9] while De Cillia & Ransmayr consider the "pluri-areal" as a "linguistic counter position [to pluricentricity], although the term has not (yet) seen [since the 1990s] theoretical specification, respectively no systematic inventory of terms that is comparable with pluricentric approaches".[10] As a term it counters "pluricentric" conceptions of German (visualized in Figure 2); it is theoretically empty and synonymous with geographical variation.[11] Dollinger stresses that linguistic feature overlap, as shown in the overlap of the standard variety pyramids in Figure 2, are an integral part of pluricentric theory since Michael G. Clyne's work.[5]
Scholarly Reception
OSGA has resonanted in studies on Catalan - where it inspired a "One Standard Catalan Axiom"[12] - and Croatian, where a One Standard Axiom was proposed for the former Yugoslav Federation.[13]
In German linguistics the uptake has been expressly critical, however. Some proponents of German dialectology have in a letter petition publicly rejected the existence of such One Standard German Axiom,[14] and Germanist Nils Langer sees in a rather harsh review little virtue in Dollinger's book, considering a verdict of "not publishable" still "rather very mild" ("noch sehr milde").[15] Dollinger offers a discussion of Langer's review on his website, arguing that "non-linguists seem to get it [the problem]" and therefore that "linguists should get it too"[16] and published a clarification in response to the letter petition, in which he states the "structural" nature of the problem in the field of German dialectology.[17]
Not all Germanists respond negatively, however.Julia Ruck sees a lot of merit[18] in the concept of a One Standard German Axiom, likewise Austrian Studies scholar Hermann Möcker. Historian Annelise Rieger reviews the German book[19] on the concept very favourably because it includes "also methodological reasonings about perspective in German Studies and here, especially, the standardization process" ("auch methodische Überlegungen, zur Frage der Perspektive beim Betreiben der Germanistik und hier insbesondere dem Standardisieren zu bieten") hat.[20] Möcker confirms that in his view the "influence of statedom on Austrian German ... [should] be denied, respectively abolished" ("Einfluss der Staatlichkeit aufs österreichische Deutsch ... geleugnet bzw. beseitigt werden" (p. 9) soll).[21] De Cillia and Ransmayr summarize the German debate with recourse to OSGA, stating that "in the last instance, the approach [of pluricentric sceptics] is rooted in 'the One German Axiom or the One Standard German Axiom'", which triggered a "partly very emotional and polemic response" by the "opponents of the pluricentric concept".[22]
Work on OSGA was awarded with a 2023-24 UBC national Killam Faculty Research Prize, quoting "the widening gap in decolonization efforts in English - however suboptimal these may currently be - and the categorical rejection of ideological bias in the construction of "standard German" in German dialectology".[23]
Public Debate
The concept has garnered considerable interest in the Austrian media landscape. Contrary to the scholarly uptake, public media reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Coverage of the concept includes the Ö1 Mittagsjournal[24] (National noon radio news) and Kontext[25] (monthly book reviews show), Vienna TV station Puls 4,[26] or daily newspapers Der Standard,[27][28] Die Presse,[29] or Wiener Zeitung. In Wiener Zeitung, Robert Sedlaczek discussed the Axiom and summarized the problem as being rooted in differences in socialization in Germany versus Austria or Switzerland.[30] The philologist Peter Wiesinger strongly disagreed in a letter to the editor the following week.[31]