Flowers and pearls - the column. This time: "Deng│lish, the [noun, neuter]"

Risk groups

Younger people, in acute group situations. Older people who want to prove their youth and world experience or professionals who want to give their bullshit an international touch. Furthermore: Low-status, half-strong wannabe gangsters.

Immunity

People with a genuinely English-speaking background or who have spent a long time in the English-speaking world appear to be less affected or even immune. Researchers suspect that the obvious absurdity for these people protects them and the disease therefore falls on fertile ground (so-called cringe factor).

Symptomatology

The symptoms include: Pretending that you can only think of the much cooler and obviously more appropriate English term for everything. German is perceived as a foreign body, sometimes leading to a lack of understanding of terms, difficulty finding terms, the incorrect English pronunciation of German expressions or literal translations of English phrases. In extreme cases: Complete loss of linguistic sense of taste. Making people aware of their illness can also lead to aggression and shoulder shrugging.

Variants

In addition to classic Denglish, in which English expressions are sprinkled into German sentences, there are now different variants in circulation. In "false friends", similar-sounding terms are used in English to replace German ones, but they mean something different. For example, "eventuell" is replaced by "eventually" or "bekommen" by "become", etc. This behavior ridicules those affected and can lead to social isolation in extreme cases. An older variant are pseudoanglisms: terms that do not exist in English or are understood differently than in Denglish. For example, home office, cell phone, public viewing. However, this variant is so widespread that it is no longer considered pathological. A variant that mainly affects working office gums is business English: meetingscancellen, einander alignen or ein Call vereinbaren are common examples here and underline the pseudo-importance of those affected.

Contagion

Denglish is transmitted both orally and in writing. The incubation period for initial infection lasts from a few minutes to several months, depending on exposure and adaptation pressure.

Progression and prognosis

The disease progresses gradually. Initially, denglish tends to occur in stressful situations - for example, when those affected want to appear particularly competent or youthful. Over time, however, the disease becomes chronic. If left untreated, this can lead to a progressive loss of reality, with those infected convinced that they will no longer be taken seriously without Anglicisms. The prognosis is mixed: while mild cases remain stable, severe cases can lead to irreversible language impoverishment.

Healing and prevention

A cure is considered largely impossible. Disease-delaying therapies are therefore used. These include deliberate avoidance, even in heavily contaminated environments, as well as regular consumption of German literature to maintain the immune system, conversations with people who are fluent in the language and conscious observation of one's own expression.

Outlook

Experts are watching the further spread with concern, but point to historical parallels: Every language goes through waves of attack that sooner or later die down. Whether this will also be the case with Denglish remains to be seen. At present, however, there is little to suggest that it will subside any time soon.