Zur Schreibung türkischer Familiennamen in deutschen Zeitungstexten

Abstract German and Turkish differ (slightly) in terms of their grapheme inventories. This leads to variation in the spelling of many Turkish names in German: Either the Turkish letters are used (e. g. the lowercase letters ç , ğ , ı , ş ) or integrated alternatives ( c , g , i, and s ). This article analyses how common Turkish surnames are written in German-language newspaper texts (e. g. Gündoğan vs. Gündogan ). It is shown that the use of Turkish letters tends to increase, that ç is used much more frequently than the other letters, and that there are significant differences between the newspapers analysed. The change in favour of the non-integrated variants is then explained (on the basis of metalinguistic comments) with their indexical potential: the non-integrated spelling is typically interpreted as correct and respectful and serves to indicate linguistic knowledge.