The Washington times., 1895-06-19
English German
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NGLISH-speaking people when study
" ing German soon find out that
IL many German words have the
same, or nearly the same form
as the corresponding English words.
In fact, the English language of to-day
comprises for the greater part words of
Germanic origin. George Perkins Marsh,
the renowned dAmericanlnguist, after count
ing all the words used by the greatest Eng
lish writers from the XIII to the XIX cen
tury, found that in every 100 words used
by the different authors, there Were of Ger
manic origin the following proportions:
XIII century. in Robert OF Gloucester's
"Chronic," 90 per cent.
XIV century, in Piers the Plowman's
''Visions," so per cent.
XIV century, in Chaucer's poems, 80 per
cent.
XIV and XVI centuries, in Thomas Morn's
writings, Sd per cent.
XVI century, in Sponsors Fairy Queen"
SO per cent.
XVI century, in the New Testament, 90
per cent
XVI century, in shakespeare's "Othello,"
80 per cent
XVIcentury, inShakespeare's" Tempest"
So per cent
XVII century, in Millions "P aradise
XVIII century, in Pope's poems, so per
cent
XVIII century, in swifts writings, so
per cent
XVIII century, in the Letters of Junius,'
76 per cent.
XVIII century, in Gibbons History Of
the Roman Empire" 20 per cent.
XIX Cpptmry in WHShiDUtnn ITViuU's
writings, so per cent.
XIX century, in Macaulay's History OF
England" 10 per cent
XIX century, in Cullan Bryant's poems,
92 per cent
XIX century. in Tennyson, poems, SO
per cent
XIX century, in Longfellow's poems,
81 per cent
The fact that in counting the contents
of Webster's unabridged dictionary the
proportion of Germanc to ROInanic words
was found TO be only 30:12, is but a
seeming contradiction to the above state
meut. Wemust trememberthatinconn
speech just those words which are fire.
quently repeated and which can be least
dispensed with, such as the articles, pro-
nouns, auxiliary verbs, conJunCtiOns,
nearly all propositions, all numerals, with
the one exception OF second are German.
Every experienced teacher OF German
knows what little skill is required to form
long sentences consisting entirely of Ger
man. English cognates, practice impossible
with the Romanic resources of English.
1t is also well-known fact that of the 66
words of the Lords Prayer in English
60 are German, the only Romanic deriva-
tives being temptation" debt" debt
ors," and glory
The distribution of words in English with
ri To or Poi nj cri-
gin is quite interesting. In German we
''eat" (essen) bread (Brotl, butter (Butter),
apple (Apfell, pear tBirne), cheese (Kaese),
we make-fire tmachen Feuer) and cook the
meal tkocheu die MahlZeiO, we drink
(triuken), water (Wasser}, beer tBier),
wine tWein), we go (gehen), we sing and
spring (singen und springenl, we rest
(rastenl, we lie in 10th senses tliegen and
luegeu), we sleep (schlafen). and dream
(traeumenl; from German come the English
words for soul" (Seelel and heart"
(Herz), aud for their affections such as
love" tLiebe). ''hatred1 (HasS}, fear
(Furcht), and hope (Hoffnung); German
re all words for natural phenomena, as
cheat" (Hita|, cold (kaelte), rain (Regen),
sunshine (Sonnenschein), hail (HageD,
now (Schnee), and dew (Tau); from
German we have borrowed the names of
parts of our body, from head tHaupO,>
to "foot" (Fuss), c. g., arm (Arm),
finger (FiDger), nose tNase), hand (Hand),
neck (Nacken), ear tOhr), eye (Auge),
chin (Kinnl, mouth (Mund), tongue (Zunge),
toe (Zehe). knee tKnie) etc, from German
come the names OF articles we wear and
the material of which they are made; Ger
man are the names OF the agricultural
implements; German are the names of the
various kinds of ships and of their parts;
German are the words Signifying relation
ship within the family. from great-grand-
child: German are the names of animals
raised to be killed, viz: Ok tOchSel,
cow (Kuh), calf (Kalb), sheep tScha0,
swine (Schwen) 10 which may be added
roe" (Reh), while their respective viands
are served under the more fashionable
ROmauic names beef, veal, mutton,
pork" and "venison."
As rule we find that the names for the
individuals are German, While the abstract,
general or generic notions, are Romanic.
Thus native" is a Romanic word, but
sun (Soune), noon (Mond), star (Stern),
earth (Erde), grass (GraS), sea (Sce), sand
(Sand), bird (Brueter), fowl CYogeD, fish
(Fish), cat (KatZe), fox (Fuchs), wolf
(Wolf), worm tWurm), and thousand other
individual objects are German. Further,
when talking of red, green, blue, brown,
yellow, swarthy, gray" we use German
adjectives (rot, gruen, blau, braun, gelb,
schwarZ, grau) }, while the Romano word
color serves as the abstract, general or
generic signification.
Since the German conquest OF England,
in other words within the last l 500 years,
the German spoken in England has naturally
greatly changed from the German as spoken
in the old home country. In nearly all
words the vowels, as the less characteristic
components of words, have changed, and,
this, too, in a more or less arbitrary way.
SO we find:
English-stick, master, kiss, storm, long,
old, broad, free German-StoCk, meister,
kuss, sturm, lang, alt brett, frei. The
! consonants, too, have changed, but ac-
cording to certain la VS., by the application
of which it is an easy task to reconstruct
from a given German Word its English
Cognate As it would be conflicting with
the purpose and limits of this article to
enumerate here all these rules-a dozen in
all-only a few examples viii be given to
illustrate the application of the principles
underlying the Interchange OF consonants
in German and English.
The German consonart z, is almost in
variably represented by in English, e, G.
German: zu, Zehn zwanZig, Zunge, zange.
English: to (too), ten, twenty, tongue, tongs.
German: zweig, zeitung, salz, lenz, scmerz,
ETC. English: twig, tiding, salt, lent, smart
The English tn appears in German as d;
thus we have: English: thou, three, thick,
thin, thorn, thistle. German: du, drel,
dick, duenn, dorm, distel. English brother,
leather, death, path, to seeth, etc. German:
Bruder Leder, Tod, Pfad, sieden.
The German gutterals, k, OK and ch ap-
pear in the English cognates as C, k, ch, gh