hank32
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The Power of Language
Many paople overhere lament that our language is heavily packed with english expressions, so much that just about a new dialekt is coming to life the so called "Denglish". Here now is an article complaning the other way around i.e. the danger to "germanize" English. I hope you have as much funf reading it as I did. It´ll take some patience though.
Hank
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,ra4m1/kultur/361/311284/text/
Last edited by hank32, 9/29/2008, 8:30 am
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9/29/2008, 8:27 am
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meredith2kp4
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Re: The Power of Language
In English, first there are scientific terms such as 'Bremsstrahlung' and the linguistically-mixed 'eigenvalue.' Then there words that entered American English from the very large number of German immigrants here it the past (such as some of my ancestors). The word 'frolic' comes to mind. The suffix 'fest' attached to many words is also from German. The German article listed many more words. In the past in the US the word 'Dutch' was colloquially used to mean "German,' obviously from 'Deutsch.'
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10/1/2008, 11:32 am
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NOMISYRRUC
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Re: The Power of Language
The two examples of bad English that have got me going lately were during the olympics.
First the frontman asked one of the pundits if an athelete could win said pundit replied, "It´s a big ask."
Second BBC news kept saying that the British athelete failed to meddle. How will we feel in 2012 if the Chinese team meddles in our internal affairs. And if we wanted to meddle why didn´t the British Olympic Committee send a team of mother-in-laws...
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10/2/2008, 2:49 pm
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Nicci72
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Re: The Power of Language
By the way: Lower German (not High German - what is commonly known as "German") is not only very near to Dutch (I mean now the language of the Netherlands) but also near to English. No wonder when you recognize that England was occupied by Anglo-Saxon tribes from what is now Northern Germany in the early middle ages.
The pronounciation of the words is of course much different in English and in Lower German. But if an English native speaker would hear English outspoken in a German way he would have difficulties to understand her or his own language - but for a Lower German speaker it would be not a big deal.
I don´t believe that the Brazilian writer of these article knows something about this language relationship because a lot of words which he uses in the sense of being only funny are close to that.
If you really want to put away all words with non-German roots from the German language you couldn´t speak German. And English is nothing else than a colourful mixture: a Germanic language mixed from the languages of two Germanic tribes which partially are still living in Northern Germany - pressed in a strict and very logical grammatical structure based on the Latin language of the former Roman conquerors of Britain - and a pronounciation formed through the influence of the Normannic and French conquerors of the late middle age. So take away from the English language what is not English and no English language would remaining.
Language is the main part of human communication - and insofar something living or not existing. And life is movement. Language purists want to have something what is impossible: That something should live and be fixed once and forever.
That will not work.
Love,
yours Nicci
Last edited by Nicci72, 10/6/2008, 1:58 am
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10/6/2008, 1:37 am
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meredith2kp4
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Re: The Power of Language
Once when I was in Germany in the army I spent a long train ride sitting next to a German who spoke Plattdeutsch (Low German). I found him easier to understand than most speakers of Hochdeutsch (High German).
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10/6/2008, 4:10 pm
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