According to an article in "Die Welt" gender-neutral language endangers the coherance of society.
Demands "no ideology-driven language".
The linguist Peter Eisenberg takes the current project-focus of the German TV-station ARD with the title "'WE' wanted - What holds us together?" as an opportunity to once again criticize the practice of gender-neutral language in public broadcasting.
"The use of the gender-star and other non-standard symbols is an unmistakable sign that the broadcaster is helping in disintegrating the standard German language," says Eisenberg. "Language, however, like nothing else, makes up what we define as WE, which in turn is needed for social cohesion, its development and discourse."
Of the approximately 6,000 language communities on earth, only a few have an established standard language. Eisenberg emphasizes the importance of such a uniform and standardized language for science, education and society. Eisenberg sees in the artificial gender rules nothing less than the destruction of this standard language.
It is the task of the "Council for German Spelling" on behalf of the "Conference of Ministers of Education" to ensure uniform spellings. However, they are currently not achieving this if individual federal states allow or even demand gender asterisks or colons in the public space and in schools, he crticises.
"If things continue down this path, the Council will one day have to reconsider the significance of its work," says Eisenberg. In public service broadcasting, standard, not ideologically charged, language should be considered the norm, he continues. Furthermore their use ran contrary to the broadcaster's mandate of public service, and all too often the language was left to the arbitrariness of individual journalists.
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