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Reverse spelling of the word »employee« (symbol image)
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
It is important to »counteract an uncontrolled coexistence of the most varied of variant spellings«: The gender star will not be included in the official German language rules until further notice.
According to the dpa news agency, this emerges from an interim report decided by the German Spelling Council.
Accordingly, the panel of experts will initially continue to monitor the development of writing use.
The paper states that the Council wants to base its assessment of gender-equitable spelling on legibility and comprehensibility.
The aim is to »maintain the uniformity of spelling in all German-speaking countries«.
More and more companies, universities, city administrations and authorities are using new linguistic forms such as the gender star (»students«) or the underscore (»citizens«).
As an alternative to the generic masculine used, the gender-equitable forms should ensure that women are explicitly mentioned in the language and at the same time address people who do not feel they belong to either the male or the female gender.
However, according to the spelling council, the use of such special characters can lead to subsequent problems and grammatically incorrect solutions.
Since 2004 the Council for German Spelling has been the authoritative body in matters of orthography.
It has around 40 members from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol and the German-speaking Community of Belgium.
The venue is usually the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim;
there is the office of the council.
fek / dpa