In Germany in recent days we are discussing the possibility of modifying the German phonetic alphabet, that is, the one that by convention associates the letters of the alphabet with a word that begins with the vowel or consonant. This was proposed by Michael Blume, head of the commission against anti-Semitism of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, according to which some terms of the phonetic alphabet have a racist and anti-Semitic meaning.
In the 1930s, the Nazis had systematically eliminated some names or words of Hebrew origin to impose terms that reflected their ideology. Now scholars from the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), which deals with the definition of standards – from technology to industry – are working to find new terms that represent the German language more equitably.
Phonetic alphabets were created to more clearly identify the letters that make up a word and thus make radio communications easier, especially in the military and aviation fields. There are many versions and they should not be confused with theinternational phonetic alphabet, or the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which instead is the internationally recognized system for indicating the phonetic transcriptions of each word and defining the correct pronunciation of the thousands of written languages that exist in the world. The most famous is theNATO phonetic alphabet, which has been used in the United States and Europe since the 1950s and which, to be clear, is the one identified by the “a” of alfa, the “b” of bravo, the “c” of Charlie and so on. This alphabet is known and used for example by the police also in Italy, where there is no equivalent phonetic alphabet and we are more accustomed to using the names of cities or objects to indicate vowels and consonants.
The first version ofGerman phonetic alphabet it dates back to 1890, when a number was associated with each letter in the Berlin telephone directory; to simplify things, names were introduced in 1905 to indicate the letters more clearly and make them understandable even to those who could not read: “A for Albert“, That is” A like Albert “, and so on. There were some variations by region – for example, in Germany the “K” was denoted as “Kauffman“(Merchant) while in Austria with”Konrad”- but in the Nazi period the changes became more marked.
The Nazis abolished 14 words, including several proper names that had Hebrew origin and were widespread in Germany. David, Jacob, Nathan, Samuel and Zacharias were replaced with “more German” names: for example “David” was replaced with “Dora“And” Samuel “with”Siegfried“. In addition to personal names, some terms were also introduced that are considered even more problematic: in particular, “North Pole“(North Pole) instead of” Nathan “and”Ypres“Instead of” Ypsilon “. For the Nazis, “North Pole“Indicated the supremacy of the Aryan race, while”Ypres”Came from the name of battle fought near the Belgian town during the First World War, when the German army attacked the French one with chlorinated gas.
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After the Second World War, terms such as “Samuel” e “Ypsilon“And there were other small changes, but in the phonetic alphabet there are still some terms considered problematic, for example”North Pole“. Blume said that we should stop to “automatically continue to use the version introduced by the Nazis, who deleted the Hebrew names”; however, according to him, many Germans are opposed to change, also because the phonetic alphabet is often used to make people learn words through spelling even at school.
However, the German Institute for Standardization has already been working to develop a new version of the phonetic alphabet, which is expected to be presented in the autumn of 2021 and become official by the end of 2022. Julian Pinnig, spokesperson for the Institute, has explained that choosing personal names may be more complex than using German city names, not least because the choice of proper names may not reflect the ethnic diversity of the nation. According to the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, “it is time to free ourselves from the language of the Nazis and their legacy”. Before becoming official, the new phonetic alphabet should be placed side by side with the old one for a period, to document its anti-Semitism.
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