Asterisk, colon, inland I? A Germanist at the TU Braunschweig has a simpler solution.
Would you like to speak in a gender-sensitive manner, but still struggle with asterisks, colon and internal I? Then I would like to draw your attention to an alternative that has so far been neglected, a kind of barrier-free gender in easy language. The method comes from Thomas Kronschläger, Germanist and language teacher at the Technical University of Braunschweig; In short, it works like this: Add a “y” to the stem of the word when designating a person, and put a neutral “that” in front of it, and everyone will feel that they are being included. Gender until the doctor comes!
Kronschläger works in teacher training and gives examples from everyday school life in his essays and YouTube videos. “The pupil” becomes “das Schüly”, “the teacher: in” becomes “das Lehry”, “the professor” becomes “the professory”. To form the plural, just add an »s«: »die Schülys«, »die Lehrys«, »die Professorys«.
Kronschläger is free to decide whether gender should also be used within words. The advantages, however, are obvious. A word monster like »citizen masters assistants« purrs together to »Bürgymeistygehilfys«. You save three art pauses in speaking and writing almost half of the keystrokes and you may even have a few lachies on your side.
Kronschläger draws attention to other advantages. A “Drucky”, for example, is now without a doubt a person who works in a print shop, whereas “a“ printer ”is the device used there.
In addition, you can gender names that end in “-ling”: the Liebly, the Lehrly, the Widerly, the Schädly. That doesn’t work with the gender star. Kronschläger calls his method “Entgendern nach Phettberg” after the Viennese artist Hermes Phettberg. He wrote about “Lesys” and “Followys” in his columns years ago without anyone complaining.
Monday I was at the bakery, Tuesday at the hairdresser’s – “Entgendern nach Phettberg” is really foolproof.
I have to admit that I like the thing. I suspect it’s because of the cute and gender fluid ending. The fact that “dummie” can mean both men and women was already in the Duden dictionary before the debate about gender language even started there. And whether “Wickie” is a boy or a girl is a much discussed question for those who grew up with children’s TV in the 1970s. So especially for those middle-aged white men today who are assumed to somehow not take the issue of gender-sensitive language seriously enough.
The accusation that gender-equitable German sounds academic, bureaucratic and conceited would in any case be dealt with. I tried Kronschläger’s method. She’s really foolproof. Monday I was at the bakery, Tuesday at the hairdresser’s. I wrote to colleges, phoned informants and met an old friend. I only continue to address the spouse in the feminine.
