World: InshAllah, meaning “if Allah wills it,” was added to Germany’s Duden dictionary – essentially the country’s Merriam-Webster – in 1942, the dictionary announced on its Twitter account.
Previously, some media reports had said that the word was newly added to the dictionary’s listing. The word is written as “inschallah,” noting that it is a term used in the Muslim world when referring to the future.
The Duden is the most authoritative and popular dictionary of German language; it has long been the prescriptive handbook for German grammar and spelling – Germany’s Merriam-Webster of sorts. It’s been issued since 1880 and is now in its 27th edition.
Although some social media users in Germany said this signified the natural development of their language, others contended it actually represented the increasing Islamization of Germany.
“Now you can all use it in schools/companies and if somebody doesn’t know it, he should learn it as soon as possible,” one commenter wrote sarcastically. “We live in Germany and want to speak German!”
Another said: “It is getting serious with the Islamisation.” A third user wrote that the word is simply “not German”.
This is not the first time that words from the Muslim world have entered the dictionary in recent years. The commonly used “oha” in Turkish made it into the dictionary as well, as it grows in popularity as an expression of astonishment or surprise.
Germany, a country of over 81 million people, has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the country’s nearly 4.7 million Muslims, 3 million have Turkish roots. Many Turkish Germans are second- or third-generation descendants of Turkish immigrants, who moved to the country during the 1960s.
