|
By Amber (Ann-Marie) Chalmers
Have you ever come across a word you thought was German but weren't
sure? Have you ever wondered about the meaning of a German word used
in English? Are you a German American? Are you studying German? Then
this book is for you.
Here you will find hundreds of words that have come to English
through German, including sometimes surprising and unexpected
meanings and very many interesting and often humorous examples from
literature, movies, TV, ads, songs and the Internet.
This book was a real eye opener for me! I have been living in Austria
and using German everyday for about 7 years now and never really
bothered to translate the German words I already used in English.
It is a slim book but it is full of interesting German words. I was
familiar with many of the German words eg. Angst, über- etc but
there were some English words that I had no idea came from German eg.
Hamster, Nickel and Pez are German words!
I had to read a few of the entries out loud to my Austrian boyfriend
because he didn't even know where some of the words came from. I
really wanted to mention a few in this journal entry but can't
remember all of the ones that struck me.
I liked how the book had examples of the word usage in books, TV
programmes, films etc which was sometimes helpful and also
interesting. I noticed the same authors appearing throughout the book
and it would be interesting to find out why they use so many German
words in their books. Now I want to make a note of every German word
I find when reading English books :)
What
the author's web site has to say about the dictionary -
This is a dictionary of some German words used in the English
language (Germanisms), each with a literal or German meaning, English
definition and sometimes actual sample sentence(s) from literature
and the Internet.
Some German words like kindergarten are so Anglicized that they are
now considered English words borrowed from German. Such words are
called loan words or loanwords. Loan word itself is a literal
translation of the German Lehnwort, making it a loan translation,
loan translation itself being a loan translation of
Lehnübersetzung. Loan translations are also called calques.
Other German words like Waldsterben are still considered foreign
words used in English and often describe a particular technical term.
Foreign words are usually italicized.
If you would like to read more: http://germanenglishwords.com
or even get your own copy of the book:
Book available from: amazon.com
| amazon.co.uk
| amazon.at
Article Author: Amber (Ann-Marie) Chalmers
Amber (Ann-Marie) Chalmers moved to Vienna from Wales. While working
as a Native English Speaker in a Kindergarten she started her own
Children's English courses and completed her CELTA qualification. For
reprints or permission to use her articles, you may contact her at: amber@virtualvienna.net
| 
