On 11/20/2012 11:20 AM, Lindy Mayfield wrote:
And another thing which is curious, given how close English and
German are from the time they began to break apart, there are very
few loan words in English from German.
I used to know a few, but Schadenfreude is the one I always
remember.
It depends on your definition of "few". Anglophones use many words of
Germanic origin, but frequently mispronounce them - especially "angst".
If you look, you'll find plenty: kindergarten, Frankfurter, Hamburger,
Autohaus, knockwurst (Knackwurst), ad nauseam.
And there are words that may or may not be loan words, depending on your
interpretation; is "beer" a loan word?
And I agree with Mr. Gilmore on "new" words in German. In the fifties a
computer was a Rechengehirn (calculating brain), but these days it a
Komputer. Ditto for many PC related terms.
Gerhard Postpischil
Bradford, Vermont
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
