German and English being languages that have huge prominence in the whole world, tend to have a lot of similarities between them. Let us look at some of the surprising connections between English and German. When you learn through German Language Classes in Chennai, you will get to know on the connections between German and English.
Basics
England had an invasion by French-speaking Normans in 1066. As they came in, they brought in a set of French and Latin words to England. England already had Germanic tribes who spoke a kind of Old English. They used words like finde, Hand which are still in usage in German language. The original English language known as Anglo-Saxon got its name through the Germanic tribes. The Germanic tribes continued to speak their own version of English. The majority of most common English words has a Germanic origin. Some of the most frequently used words in German and English are from the same roots. The basics in the language of German are almost same with that of English.
Structure and Word Order
The languages, English and German also are quite similar in their word order and sentence structure. During the olden times, English had undergone a transition from Middle English to Modern English. Many old Germanic rules were dropped and our modern vocabulary was being created. The adjective, verb or noun could be changed position to insist on its importance like in current day’s German.
Pronunciation
Many people feel proud that they have a good amount of command over the language of German because it is considered to be a notoriously hard language. The language has 14 vowels and 18 cases. Words in the language of English and German are fabulously similar in pronunciation. In the past, consonant sounds had minutely changed between English and German. After that, it remained the same. To look into a good example, the German letter P changed to F about 1500 years ago. This resulted in the words like ‘Ship’ being pronounced as ‘Schiff’. The umlaut in German clarifies the sounds that we don’t have in the language of English in order to avoid any confusion in the process of pronouncing. As English is not a phonetic, it can sound different than how it is written. But German doesn’t have this problem. This is because of the umlaut. German pronunciation is not that difficult to learn because of its logical structure and similarities with English. If you want to improve your German pronunciation, get coaching through German Classes in Chennai.
Inflection
The biggest gap between German and English is mainly caused by those word endings. German is a language that has retained its inflections. This indicates that German words change based on order, tense, gender and number. English is known to have simple inflections as it doesn’t have any strict structure and gender. There is no need of much worry in case of German.
Outside Influences
The languages have had a lot of outside influences. Normans, Germanics had a great role in influencing the language of English. Many Celtic, Norse and Latin words have been moved between German and English.
After reading this article, you would have felt surprised to know about the connections between German and English. Learn more about both the languages, German and English, through German Courses in Chennai.