No more Fräulein - BIG GOOF

No. I am in Switzerland. Das Wort 'Fräulein' ist verboten. Danke vielmal. High German is one of the four national languages, and adheres to the rules of the language. Even the Swiss-German dialects do not use the word anymore.

Languages change for whatever reason over time. Even English. Fräulein is just not acceptable anymore. If they ever invent a comparable word for Ms. then they'll probably switch to that if people get used to it. It's just the way it is.

In Germany, as in many other countries, for example France, there are official language authorities.

Ever since we lost visual signals for the marital status of a person (like our Middle European version of the hijab, the Kopftuch or certain other parts of our clothes that indicate social status like apron colour, hairdo etc) we women tend to prefer a neutral address, which would be Frau. Fräulein, especially since it is grammatically bound to a neutral voice (it) is a tat disrespectful and condescending.

Or in other words: there are no visible signs nowadays to discern if a person of either sex is married or in a legal (same sex or different sex) partnership or living unmarried with another person, seeing someone on a loose or regular base or even interested in partnership in either way. So how would you like to discern if this "young woman" in front of you is married (defined by her association with a man) or unmarried and therefore deemed to be titled as Fräulein? And how old does a woman have to be to loose the appellation "young woman"? Under twenty? Over? Over thirty? And how do you know how old she is? Do you ask? Or just assume?

You see, the definition of Fräulein is based in a rather strict social system which a) deemed women to be less than man (there is no male equivalent for Fräulein) and b) which does not exist any longer. We are quite enlightened, thank you very much, and don't need this kind of address any longer. It is obsolete.

Which, by the way, happened over time, by itself, through people and not an institution.

I'd say it would translate/compare to calling an adult man "little man".

A hotelier or "night manager" of cause wouldn't use "Fräulein".

It's not a bad or mean word by intent, it just has no place where equal rights are supposed to be in effect.

Italians for example still use the term signorina, but it hasn't the "little/lesser" meaning of Fräulein.

Finally someone with a bit of sense. I, too, am German, although I've lived abroad for the last 30 years. Until I saw this thread I would never have considered "Fräulein" to be rude in any way, and actually I still don't. I looked it up in the "Duden" and although it states that the word has fallen out of fashion and "Frau" should be used, nowhere does it say that "Fräulein" is forbidden to be used.