CUNDA, KNÖS AND KNASPELHUTSCHE
In Search of Company Vocabulary

When people “speak the same language,” this means far more than merely being able to communicate with each other. In societies, clubs, and peer groups a common “jargon” often develops. Those who speak it belong. Such a jargon also exists in a company context. In the seventeenth century, the tüötten, traveling pedlars from Westphalia, a group to which the ancestors of the Brenninkmeijer family also belonged, even used a secret language of their own: the Humpisch or Bargunsch. At C&A as well, there evolved in-house language conventions which became characteristic for the company.   

In search of company vocabulary, the exhibition in DAS Forum sets out to uncover the functions of special languages, and not only in the case of C&A. Such languages create an identity, conceal meaning, and serve a practical purpose.