The standard German used in the German Empire as a prestigious target standard language in Prague's German literary circles in the early 20th century. Franz Kafka as an example
Abstract
The article investigates Franz Kafka's language management during the process of writing and publishing fiction against the background of the divergence of language standards in German speaking countries around 1910. Referring to Ulrich Ammon's concept of a social network formed by codices, language experts, standard authorities and pattern speakers/writers which defines a standard variety of language, the model character of standard German as used in the German Empire for those German writers in Prague who had the ambition of publishing on an international level will be shown by Kafka as an example.
By means of five regionally defined language forms belonging either to the Austrian ('vergessen an' + acc.) or the Prague ('paar' without article) standard German, representing a borderline case of Austrian standard (subjunction 'bis' expressing anteriority) or becoming regionally antiquated (comparative particle 'als' after adjectives in the positive form, linking morpheme -n- in the noun 'Einzelnheit') it is the aim is to make clear that Kafka felt obliged to implement corrections in his future literary German work suggested by language experts who were friends or editorial interventions of the German publishers who published his prose writings - though not applying this to every negatively sanctioned linguistic form.