German Language
Most people are familiar with the word Kindergarten (literally child’s garden) and even some of
you may know the word Schadenfreude (literally pain-joy meaning taking joy in someone’s
misfortune) but there are many other German-derived or adopted words that we use everyday in
America. Please share with us the words you know along with an explanation or source. This
way, everyone learns something, and of course we’ll say what we learned in kindergarten:
Dankeschön!
What about the prefix in words such as or >uber-diva>
Kaputt - out of order, broken
‘Angst’ is pretty popular.
Some others that come to mind: ‘Gestalt’; ‘-fest’, used as a suffix, e.g. “The marathon turned into a sufferfest at mile 20″.
By the way, are you lumping yiddish under german? I think ’schlep’ is generally considered of yiddish origin, even though it is the same word in german.
The German work I like angst. It works well in English.
There is the expression, ‘be a mensch’. It’s also one of those that is thought to be yiddish.
There are also traces of German words and grammar that must have been brought in by German immigrants, but have been Englishized. Some of them are more non-standard English, but still not uncommon:
“This here” sounds a little odd or “hick” in English, when used to point out something, but it probably was misunderstood from “Dieser”.
“Go to the house” or “take it to the house” sounds a little odd in English compared to “go home”. It probably came from the German way of expressing it with “nach hause”.
I also used to hear a phrase that was popular with young people of the 1970s era that sounded odd in English: “Go ahead on”. It may have come from some German separable-verb grammar that got carried over into English by an immigrant.
What about Doppelganger? I have heard it used a few times.
Volks-wagen -> folk and wagon/ waggon
Here some important facts about the `real connection` bt. German and English L.;
Both Languages belong to the West Germanic Languages!
Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, is the language spoken in England during the early Middle Ages, i.e., from around the fifth century through the eleventh, more or less. With the Norman Invasion in 1066, the French influence on English increased, and by around 1100 it had evolved into Middle English. Be especially careful to limit the term “Old English” to this period from around 500 to 1100. Shakespeare, who wrote around 1600, wrote in early Modern English, not Old English. “Thee” and “dost” lasted well into the Modern English period.
Although it’s an ancestor of Modern English, to twentieth-century eyes Old English looks less like English than like its German origins, as this extract from “Cædmon’s Hymn,” the earliest surviving English poem, demonstrates:
Nu sculon herigean heofonrices Weard
Meotodes meahte and his modgethanc
weorc Wuldor-Fæder….
(A translation literal enough to let you see the relationship with some Modern English words: “Now [nu] we shall [sculon, pronounced shoolon] praise the ward [Weard] of the kingdom of Heaven [heofonrices], the Creator’s might [meahte] and the plans of his mind, the work [weorc] of the Father of Glory [Wuldor-Fæder].)
The words “Brat” or “Brats”, short for Bratwurst has become very familiar to NFL football fans. Sports announcers discovered the Bratwurst in Green Bay , Wisconsin, home of the American Football team the Packers ( Packers meaning Meat Packers) when
fans of German origin began cooking Brats on grills outside the stadium, usually 3-4 hours before the start of the game in what is known as ” Tailgating”. Other popular food items of German origin are the Weiner,Frankfurter, ( hot dog) and the
Hamburger (ground beef patty). Every Sunday on National Television when the Sports announcers come to Green Bay, Wisconsin, they show footage of Brats cooking in the Parking lot on fan’s grills. They have become the favorite sausage of Football announcers.