German Borrowings in English

The influence of German on the ordinary vocabulary of English is not very considerable. The total number of Ger­man borrowings is about 1500 words.

The majority of borrowings are in the sphere of termi­nology (75 %). The process of borrowing from German began in the XVI century in connection with the establishment of cul­tural and economic ties between England and Germany. The le­vel of economic development of the two countries was rather high and German borrowings penetrated into the spheres where the contacts were close.

From the sphere of geology, mineralogy, mining industry came about 280 words: “bismuth”, “calcite”, “cobalt”, “field-spat”, “limonite”, “magnetite”, “ozocerite”, “zink”, “nickel”, “wolfram”, “quarz”, etc.

In the sphere of biology we deal with the following German borrowings: “anlage”, “biology”, “crowberry”, “cyclotomy”, “dahlia”, “kohlrabi”, “plankton”, “voller”, “zinnia”, etc. (about 120 words).

The sphere of chemistry the vocabulary was enriched by: “alkaloid”, “aspirin”, “caesium”, “polymer”, “saccaharine”, “tita­nium”, “uranium”, etc.

About 40 words were borrowed from the sphere of physics, mathematics, astronomy: “eigenvalue”, “eigenstate”, “func­tion”, “infinitesimal”, “monad”, “satellite”.

Only 40% are fully assimilated words: “bower”, “dollar”, “halt”, “lard”, etc.

Partially assimilated words constitute 60% of the to­tal number of German borrowings. Loan words from German taken from the sphere of every­day life are not numerous: “sauerkraut”, “lagerbeer”, “vermouth”, “schnaps”, “poodle”, “kirsch”, “kummel”, “marzipan”, “carouse”, “waltz”, “swindler”, “lobby”, “vaneer”, “iceberg”, “kindergarten”, “rucksack”.

German borrowings are practically devoid of synonyms and are not characterized by changes in their semantic structure (exceptions are very few: German “Fraulein” - an unmarried woman develops in English into “Fraulein” - a governess of Ger­man origin); here we deal with specialization of meaning.

16% of borrowings from German are involved into deriva­tion through affixation (-ism, -ish, -lc, -lee, -ly), 2% are capable of conversion (“to plunder”-“plunder”, “blitz” – “to blitz”).

Though the number of German borrowings can’t be compared with borrowings of Romanic origin, the influence of German is obvious in the XIX-XX centuries and the fact should not be overlooked.

A great number of German borrowings are words denot­ing social, political, and philosophic concepts: “objective”, “subjective”, “determinism”, “intuition”, “transcendental”, “constant value”, “class struggle”, “world-view-determinism”, “idea”, “form”, “obscurant”, “dialectics”, etc.

During the Second World War German loan-words characterizing the fascist regime, the army and the new social “order” of the country entered the English vocabulary: “wehrmaht”, “blitzkrieg”, “luftwaffe”, “fau”, “bunker”, “panzerdivision”, “sitz­krieg”, “volkssturm”, “gestapo”, “nazi”.

Translation loans are quite numerous among German borro­wings: “Blood and iron” (Blut und Eisen); “iron rations” (Eiserne Ration); “mailed fist” (gepanzerte Faust); “superman” (Übermensch); “thing-in-itself” (Ding an sich); “place in the sun” (Platz an der Sonne); “song without words” (Lieder ohne Wörter); “home­sickness” (Heimweh); “time-spirit” (Zeitgeist); “masterpiece” (Meisterstück).

98% of German borrowings are nouns. Phonetic assimila­tion of German loan-words is impeded by their written cha­racter.