What will German be like 100 years from now?

It may surprise you to find that the German you are learning and using now is different from the German spoken a century ago. Languages are always changing; this includes new vocabulary, pronunciations, grammatical rules, and spelling modifications. What then would the 22nd century German language look like? Let’s consult the crystal ball.

These are five potential changes to German in a century!

🔶 Forecast 1: German discovers fresh linguistic motivation

Many French terms were borrowed by German speakers many centuries ago. For this reason, we refer to french fries as Büros (the German word for bureau) or Pommes Frites. This explains why verbs ending in -ieren, such studieren (étudier) and fotografieren (photographier), exist in German as well: They hail from France! Many terms have been borrowed from English in more recent times. German so refers to a computer as both a baby and a computer.

What language would Germans then go to for new terms next? The proof is in front of us: German is already incorporating Turkish and Arabic terms into its vocabulary! When referring to a buddy, younger German speakers may use Habibi (from Arabic حبيبي), wallah (والله) to indicate I swear, or call a German individual Alman (the Turkish equivalent for “German”).

Currently, using these terms is considered slang. but that is the beginning of linguistic shift! Not only will there be more Arabic and Turkish loan words, but we also expect that they will be regarded as German terms, like Büro!

🔶 Forecast 2: The downfall of Genitive

The four grammatical cases that modern German distinguishes between are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. For students, these can be difficult to get properly (and occasionally even for native speakers). But the wonderful news is finally arrived 😅

We anticipate that the dative will eventually take the place of the genitive case in German, eventually eliminating the genitive altogether 💨 The usage of a dative construction in place of the genitive has already become rather popular; hence, you will hear der Hintern von Duo (the butt of Duo) rather than Duos Hintern (Duo’s butt).

Certain prepositions in German demand that you follow them with the genitive case; in spoken language, we’re already starting to see the dative in certain situations. In the future, we may say and write wegen des Sprachwandels (due of linguistic shift, genitive case) instead of wegen dem Sprachwandel (dative)!

🔶 Forecast 3: Creating space for more pronouns

German does not yet have an equivalent for the pronoun they, which is used for gender-neutral singular purposes in English for a long time. It’s customary to use the person’s name in place of personal pronouns while speaking in German: Instead of saying Das ist Alex und er/sie (he/she) kommt aus Hamburg, you say Das ist Alex und Alex kommt aus Hamburg (This is Alex and Alex arrives from Hamburg).

However, we anticipate changes in the future—in fact, they have already begun! We forecast the emergence of a gender-neutral pronoun in German. As several of the presenters today have previously said, you may also use xier or sier, which is a mix of sie (she) and er (he). Or perhaps they will be borrowed in English! Time will tell…

🔶 Forecast 4: We’re heading somewhere

Our bodies and minds like to carry out tasks in a way that maximizes results while consuming the least amount of energy. Efficiency is a crucial trait, and teenagers who speak German are excellent at it!

This generation reduces sentences using German prepositions to make them more convenient. Sometimes they will say Ich bin noch Schule (I’m still [at] school) instead of Ich bin noch in der Schule, or Wir gehen Stadtpark (We’re going [to the] city park) instead of Wir gehen in den Stadtpark. How effective!

Children whose families immigrated to Germany from Turkey may have had an impact on this evolution of German sentence structure. Turkish uses word ends to convey the same information rather than distinct prepositions like German and English do. Though there can be other reasons, this is the fact nonetheless: A lot of youngsters who speak German are omitting the preposition and the following article. We forecast that this tendency will grow further and transform from young slang into the common vernacular used by all German speakers.

🔶 Forecast 5: A single dialect that governs them all?

There are several dialects among the three standard varieties of German—German, Austrian, and Swiss—that are well-known. Occasionally, the distinctions between them can be rather striking, particularly for those who are learners who are more accustomed to one than the other! Still, certain dialects are already starting to resemble standard types, and not all of them will survive into the next century.

Each country’s standard variety may become increasingly common when young German speakers travel more, settle in urban areas, and are exposed to standard variants through new media. We forecast a decline in robustness and diversity in the German linguistic landscape over the course of the next century. (Those who have actual experience with the various dialects may find this consoling!)