Handbook of Business Communication

Martin Herles

21The language of accounting

1.Introduction

2.Literature review

3.Accounting language and standardisation

4.IFRS and their consequences

5.Conclusion

1Introduction

Accounting terminology, like that of finance, is rightly seen as one of the central elements of modern business language. This special status of accounting within the various functional fields of business is also reflected by the fact that accounting itself is frequently referred to, metaphorically, as a language. Indeed, it is quite common – if just a bit clichéd – to refer to accounting as “the language of business” in popular parlance, while it is difficult to imagine this honour being bestowed on other fields such as human resources or distribution.

An important field ...