german and english we are family
TRANSCRIPT
English and German vocabulary
We are family
Learning a language isn't only about learning vocabulary and grammar.
It's also about understanding where it comes from, because languages are organic
and always on the move.
Language exists within a
national,
political
and cultural context.
It is spoken by people, after all!
So in these slide shows you'll be discovering enticing titbits of information ranging from
interesting facts about language,
to who is who in the German-speaking VIP world,
to the all-important little traffic-light man,
right over to the meaning of life.
Well, maybe not of life, but the meaning of so many things it's going to feel like it.
So what about German?
Ok, lets do the easiest thing and start by comparing it to what we know: English.
English and German are both part of the
“West Germanic Languages” branch.
This might all be Greek to you, but what it
means is that these two languages are actually
pretty closely related.
A bit like Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert, if you like...
If English and German are closely related, we should be looking out for similarities...
For example:
- Hand -
Any guesses what this could be....?
Yes.
Hand is ...hand.
Pretty easy...
What about:
- Schule -
???
Ok, not too difficult:
Schule is....school.
School Schule
hand Hand
But what about:
- Schiff -
???
Schiff is … ship.
And what is:
- Tür -
???
It's...
...door
ship Schiff
door Tür
Not so similar anymore...
So what's happened here?
How come some words
are nearly identical and
others only vaguely similar?
The
- High German consonant shift -- High German consonant shift -
or
- Second Germanic consonant shift -- Second Germanic consonant shift -
is what happened. Get it?
No?!?
Doesn't it mean anything to you?
Don't worry, that's not surprising.
This is pretty specialised linguistic stuff andmany sophisticated brains racked themselvesfor some time before they came up with it inthe 19th century.
Nevertheless, if we have a quick look at what
this “consonant shift” is about, it will help you
keep an eye open for German words you might
be able to understand on your own.
So, to make a mole hill out of a mountain, this is what this “consonant shift” is about*:
*please keep in mind that this a very simplified explanation and that some stages of this shift will have been left to one side for the moment. There's no point in leaving you traumatised...
As mentioned previously, German and English are part of one language branch.
So that means that at some point the ancestors of the German and English we now speak must have been more like brothers and sisters than cousins.
At some point between the 3rd and 5th century, the consonants in some words of the German language “shifted”, that is to say, changed into other consonants.
These shifts didn't take place in the English language.
So this “consonant shift” is one of the major stages where English and German branched off from each other.
Here are a few examples of the consonants which shifted in German:
p turned into, or “shifted” to f
In English however, the p felt perfectly
happy as it was, so stayed as p.
That's why we now have:
ship and Schiff
And then there was the t who felt it needed
a walk on the wild side, so it became an s.
Whereas in English, the t didn't care much for change.
whatwas
Finally, there was the d which felt bored
and became a t.And yes, the English d just decided to stay put.
door Tür
red rot
P → f ship Schiff
d → t red rotdoor Tür
t → s what was
This shift doesn't apply to all German and
English words, but knowing about it will help
you spot similarities.
So think of yourself as a detective, keeping
your deduction powers alert and aware at all
times to not miss a f which might have been a
p at some point...