Why German Is Once Again Becoming The Language Of Science?

By Author: Shreya Gupta
Total Articles: 50
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Once upon a time, German was the world language of natural science and humanities. With several breakthroughs in scientific research, German scientists presented their research in their native tongue. Spoken by over a 100 million people, German was one of the major languages of the European Union. It was said that every science scholar should learn German. Friedrich Wohler, the father of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, was a German and therefore the nomenclature and molecular configurations were all first written by him in German and had to be translated or incorporated into the English language to widen their usage.

Till 1914, the German language enjoyed a prestigious place in scientific research papers, technical innovations and engineering inventions.
The scenario changed after the two World Wars. In the early 20th century, German was criminalized. Scientists fled Europe and immigrated to the United States and had to start communicating in English. In contemporary times, most scientific papers and research are published in English making it the undisputable ‘lingua franca’.

Surprisingly only 5% people’s native language is English. Scientists struggle to learn English and are therefore unable to translate and express correctly. Clear, fluid thoughts seem coherent when conceived but when translated into English, the logic is lost. Thus it is required that researchers in Germany elucidate fluently in their native language and then the German to English translation service can logically and accurately translate their papers to English for a wider reach.

Science is a universal subject and requires collaborative endeavours and sometimes collective efforts to reach its zenith. If the scientist is not a native speaker of English, he/she may be unable to express nuances of his/her original thoughts. After all, every idea needs factual and precise presentation to make sense. This is where a good translation service comes handy. ‘Working group for German as a Language of Science and Scholarship’ was founded in 2007. It is committed to preserving linguistic diversity by encouraging scientists and researchers to publish and speak German. The group focuses on science, computer technology and medicine. Thus, at international conferences or to aid visiting scientists and scholars, professional interpreters are used.

Multilingualism in scientific and scholarly committees has resulted in the need of highly qualified linguistic translators. German is also increasingly being used in public relations leading to the internationalization of German language and culture.

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