|
 |
Learning German aids in reading English | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Snesgamer Groupie Afghanistan Joined 6610 days ago 81 posts - 90 votes  Studies: English*, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Scottish Gaelic | Message 1 of 6 28 December 2009 at 12:24am | IP Logged | ||
|
Older forms of English, I mean (didn't have the space in the subject line to type that). I was semi-surprised, after studying for a while in German, that several passages in Early Modern and Middle English become easier (you know, like in Shakespeare or Chaucer and the the like).
For example, there is a word in older English - "height" meaning to be called, that is similar to the German "heissen". Or basic grammatical things like "thou" being compared to "du", especially in phrases like "thou hast" vs. "du hast". The older English counting system (as in "four and twenty blackbirds", etc.) is very similar to the modern German counting system (vier und zwanzig, respectively). I just find it very interesting, that talking in modern German kind of feels like speaking a variant of medieval English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kf4ebp Newbie United States Joined 5604 days ago 13 posts - 18 votes Studies: English*, German | Message 2 of 6 11 January 2010 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I have noticed the same thing.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kaikai Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5754 days ago 27 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 3 of 6 12 January 2010 at 5:12am | IP Logged | ||
|
what materials are you using for comparison? I am studying German and would love to check it out.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7145 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 4 of 6 12 January 2010 at 6:32am | IP Logged | ||
|
Yes, I have noticed this and been intrigued.
When we were in Germany I saw many old documents and the further back you go, the more that English, German and Dutch seem to merge.Modern German still has many rules and forms which were common in English four or five hundred years ago. You will find much in the King James translation of the Bible that resembles German usage. Any sentence that doesn't begin with the subject reverses the subject and verb as they do in German. The King James has Paul saying, I wist not it was the high priest, meaning, I didn't know it was the high priest. That would be the modern German construction. Learning German gave me insights into English I had never had. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 6 12 January 2010 at 9:56am | IP Logged | ||
|
Yep. Lately I've been comparing the major Germanic languages in their historical and present-day forms. It's amazing how much I've learned about English and German just by learning some rudiments of older languages.
Snesgamer, if you're interested more in the subject, you would do well to research the consonant shifts and the Great Vowel Shift, along with the various laws such as Verner's Law and Grimm's Law. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ninja Bunny Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5791 days ago 42 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Danish, Mandarin, Afrikaans, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 6 12 January 2010 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
Old English and Old German are basically dialects of each other; if you get an Old English speaker in a room with an Old German speaker and they could understand each other reasonably well. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
