Linguata
Introduction to the German language
Our shared Indo-European heritage means that English speakers will immediately guess the meaning of many ancient German words, such as some of those for family members e.g. Mutter, Vater, Tochter, Sohn, Bruder, Schwester; parts of the body - Arm, Hand, Fusz; natural phenomena – Sonne, Mond, Licht, Wind, Eis; animals – Wolf, Otter, Fuchs, Kuh, Ochse; animal products – Milch, Leder, Wolle, Honig, Horn. We also share a common cultural heritage so German and English have absorbed many foreign words which, because they come from the same sources, will often also be recognisable. Some of these go back to Roman times e.g. Kaiser (Caesar), Markt (market), Pfund (pound), Frucht (fruit), Keller (cellar), Socke (sock), Kessel (kettle); many words were introduced later which reflected the role of Latin as the universal language of West European Christianity e.g. Bischof (bishop), Schule (school), Psalm, Kappelle (chapel; later ‘orchestra’), Rose; Latin again provided many new words a few centuries later through the activities of Renaissance scholars for whom it was the language of science and the humanities: Professor, Doktor and Student belong to this phase as does a wide range of medical and legal terms such as Medizin and Medikament, Advokat and Delinquent.
Romance languages such as Italian and French contributed easily recognizable words: Bank, Kredit, Kompasz, Kavallerie, Marzipan, Tenor, Konzert, Sonate, then from the middle of the eighteenth century English loan words began entering the language in ever-increasing numbers: from Gentleman, Humor and sentimental all the way to the present with words like Computer, PC and Laptop, and Fitnesstraining.
One other point: some of the resemblances between English and German are obscured by what is known as the Second or High German Sound Shift. This is the name given to changes which affected the pronunciation of some consonants in High German. These changes took place over several hundred years and are thought to have begun before the ninth century AD in southern German dialects, their effects becoming less pronounced towards the north and west. An examination of the following simplified Sound Shift table makes it easier to grasp some of the ways in which English and German are cousins within the same family group:
|
Sound Shift |
English |
German |
|
|
T→Z¹ |
T en; heart ; |
Z ehn; Herz ² |
|
|
T→S(S) |
Wat er; eat ; street |
Wass er; ess en; Straß e³ |
|
|
TH→D |
T he; broth er; bath e |
D ie; Brud er; bad en |
|
|
D→T |
D oor; d o; God |
T ür; t un; Gott |
|
|
P→PF¹ |
P ound; app le; p epper |
Pf und; Apf el; Pf effer |
|
|
P→F |
Rip e; help ; op en |
Reif ; Hilf e; off en |
|
|
F(V)→B |
Lif e; giv e; hav e |
Leb en; geb en; hab en |
|
|
K→K¹ |
K ing; falc on; |
K önig; Falk e; |
|
|
K→CH |
Wak e; mak e; cook |
Wach en; mach en; koch en |
1).These changes occur at the beginning of words, after l,m,n,r, and with double consonants.
2). German nouns are written with an initial capital.
3). ß, known as ‘ligature beta’, is equivalent to -sz which is sometimes used instead. It is pronounced like a double ‘s’. It is the only letter from the old Gothic type still in everyday use.
From these introductory notes it will have become clearer that German, particularly in its written form, provides numerous islands of meaning for the English speaker. However these islands will become larger and more frequent if some basic grammar is mastered. The basic difference between the two languages is that German is a more inflected language and has retained grammatical features that were gradually lost during the transition from Old English to Modern English. German nouns and pronouns have three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, which affect the endings of adjectives and articles that are associated with them. German verbs have also retained more inflections than their English equivalents, but to a lesser degree. They will be looked at later.
Introducing the Umlaut
The Umlaut is a diacritical mark indicating a changed vowel sound. It shifts vowel sounds further forward and up in the mouth. The umlaut plays a key role in many inflectional changes. The vowels affected are a, o and u: ä ö and ü do not have exact English equivalents, so it is best to listen to Linguata at this point for examples. Ö and ü are well represented e.g. in At the Restaurant; ä occurs less often on its own though you will find good examples in Food 1 and the People sections.
Nouns – the three declensions
German nouns have different endings according to three main patterns. To know how a noun declines, you need to know its nominative and genitive singular, and its nominative plural. If you know these, you can work out the rest with the help of a few guidelines, which the following tables illustrate:
All plurals are the same as the nominative plural, except for the dative plural, which always ends in –n.
Most masculine and all neuter nouns form their genitive singular by adding –s or –es to the nominative.
The commonest plural ending is –e. Plurals ending in –e are generally formed by modifying the preceding (root) vowel with an umlaut.
|
Masculine monosyllables |
||
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
|
Nom. (subject) |
Ball |
Bälle |
|
Acc. (object) |
Ball |
Bälle |
|
Gen. (of) |
Balles |
Bälle |
|
Dat. (to) |
Balle |
Bällen |
Most nouns ending in –e in the singular are feminine and add –n in the plural. Feminine nouns do not vary in the singular (most masculine nouns with a nominative ending in –e add –n in the singular as well as the plural and, like feminine nouns, they do not have a separate singular genitive form).
|
Most Feminine nouns |
Most Masculine nouns ending in -e |
||||
|
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
||
|
Nom. |
Blume (flower) |
Blumen |
Knabe (boy) |
Knaben |
|
|
Acc. |
Blume |
Blumen |
Knaben |
Knaben |
|
|
Gen. |
Blume |
Blumen |
Knaben |
Knaben |
|
|
Dat. |
Blume |
Blumen |
Knaben |
Knaben |
Some common feminine monosyllables behave as follows:
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
|
Nom. |
Hand |
Hände |
|
Acc. |
Hand |
Hände |
|
Gen. |
Hand |
Hände |
|
Dat. |
Hand |
Händen |
e.g. Angst, Braut (bride), Kraft (strength), Luft (air), Lust (pleasure), Frucht, Wurst, Stadt
Plural endings in -er are always formed by modifying the root vowel (plurals ending in –n or –en never modify their root vowel in this way and words of more than one syllable seldom do).
|
Most Neuter |
monosyllables |
A few Masculine |
monosyllables |
|
|
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
|
|
Nom. |
Dorf (village) |
Dörfer |
Mann (man) |
Männer |
|
Acc. |
Dorf |
Dörfer |
Mann |
Männer |
|
Gen. |
Dorfes |
Dörfer |
Mannes |
Männer |
|
Dat. |
Dorfe |
Dörfern |
Manne |
Männern |
Most nouns ending in –el –en –er show minimal changes:
|
Masculine |
Nouns ending in |
–el, -en, -er |
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
|
Nom. |
Onkel |
Onkel |
|
Acc. |
Onkel |
Onkel |
|
Gen. |
Onkels |
Onkel |
|
Dat. |
Onkel |
Onkeln |
Most nouns with these endings are masculine. A few in this group, such as Vater (father) and Bruder (brother) take an umlaut in the plural i.e Väter, Brüder.
Nouns ending in the diminutives –chen and –lein are neuter and behave as above. Most other neuters (except those ending in –el, -en, -er, -chen, -lein, -tum, and –um ) behave as follows:
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
|
Nom. |
Metall |
Metalle |
|
Acc. |
Metall |
Metalle |
|
Gen. |
Metalls |
Metalle |
|
Dat. |
Metall |
Metallen |
Genders
By now it may have struck the student that it is not always easy to guess the gender of a noun from its meaning. In its vocabularies Linguata provides the definite article of each i.e. der, die or das, indicating masculine, feminine and neuter respectively. It makes sense to learn any word that interests you with its article.
The definite and indefinite articles will be the subject of a separate ‘Notes’.