Second, the firm . If this is true, it contrasts with the opinions of other language researchers who have long suggested English descends from Anglo-Saxon. The answers aren't above anymore. A fellow Germanic language, Swedish has some vocabulary common with English (mus for "mouse," kung for "king"), and a similar syntax, too. The Italic and Celtic languages are similar in many respects to Germanic, Venetic, and Illyrian. While German and Dutch are quite similar in terms of vocabulary, they do differ significantly grammatically. The article shows a "simplified family tree" of Germanic languages with Anglo-Frisian as a direct ancestor of Old English and Old Frisian. One of the most obvious similarities between German and English is the fact that both languages utilise the same 26 letters which form the Latin alphabet. Der Dschungel. Similar in nature are the dialects of Heerenveen and Kollum, of the middle section of the island of Terschelling, and . In 2016, English vocabulary is 26% . Closest (Definitely Distinct) Language: Frisian. This maybe the strangest comparison our readers will think of - Irish and Spanish. Similar languages to Irish list no. German has a famous example of this. The Norwegian alphabet is a based on the Latin script and has 29 letters. I know, this also genuinely surprised me at the start. The rise in importance of the city of Rome was paralleled by a spread of the Latin language. The languages spoken by the people of the Nordic region are also pretty similar. Furthermore, the use of . For example, Germanic languages all use the same alphabet, share similar sentence and word structure, and use many of the same words to describe the same thing. Buch - book. However, that does not mean that they are all completely the . One common similarity of all Germanic languages is the strong stress that falls on the first root syllable. Perhaps the most crucial point to make is that English is a language which originally derived from West Germanic more than 2,000 years ago. Their grammars are at least as similar as the grammars of French, Spanish and Italian. Dutch is the German language. When it comes to vocabulary, however, they are more different from each . There are many similarities between German and other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. @phipsgabler That's a Germanic word (possibly of ultimately Celtic origin, but definitely Germanic in the first instance), borrowed into Finnish from Swedish läkare and into Common Slavic from some Germanic form as well (not sure precisely which) in pre-written times. It's a West Germanic language that shares 80% lexical similarity with English. The Latin Linguistic Family: The Latin linguistic group is also known as Romance languages. German has a famous example of this. German is quite close to other Germanic languages such as Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. Hebrew is an Afro-Asiatic language and Germanic languages are European . These two languages were very similar and used by religious leaders to translate the Christian bible. "Modern English is a direct descendant of the language of Scandinavians who settled in the British Isles in the course of many centuries, before the French-speaking Normans . Cases are a pattern of declensions that nouns take on depending on their role in a sentence. French is better at casting a wide net into both the Romance and Germanic languages by having similarities in both groups. Still it should be pointed out that there are roughly 10 times more native speakers of German than there are of . Frisian is a group of three languages spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. Eisberg. Old English died out. Also, English has 60% words of German roots, and only around 30,000 French words have enlisted in the English language. However, Dutch belongs to the West Germanic language, along with German and English whereas Danish belong to the North Germanic languages Norwegian and Swedish. . Other German words in English that we use every day. The proximity meant that the vernaculars had each other to get influenced by and as a result, did not develop too many differences. She successfully grouped English, High German and Low German together and Romance languages too. Another characteristic of German is that the first letter in a noun is always capitalized; that's why Handy, Schiff, and Buch are all written with a capital letter. Advertisement created completely from scratch), and a-posteriori vocabulary . Indo-Iranian, Greek, and Armenian display a considerable number of isoglosses. Study now. It's mainly used for literary effect. This is because Dutch has evolved to have a 'simpler' grammar structure for a learner. Share this blog. Various professionals have commented on the similarities between some . First, a sense of deep respect and emotional warmth towards the millennia-old history of the Indo-Germanic language family, its similarity and intellectual closeness, all linked to mother language Sanskrit. 9. 5. Apfel - apple. If Italian is the most similar romance language to vulgar Latin, French is one of the least similar. This is a major plus point, as it makes it easy for English speakers to start writing in the German language straight away. These same words in the German language are all very different. From Old English we can follow the development of the language directly, in texts, down to the present day.". When starting to learn German, concentrate on the basics and remember that they're almost the same as their English counterparts. The proximity meant that the vernaculars had each other to get influenced by and as a result, did not develop too many differences. As the Roman armies occupied the greater parts of . Copy. This can easily be done by comparing root words, which are very similar in both languages. German. In fact, the hardest things to change in a language are its grammar; words are stolen every day, but grammar changes like groweth to grows happen once a century or so, and so gradually nobody notices. However, just because the words look alike, it doesn't mean they're mutually intelligible. Continue Reading Quora User 2. VOCABULARY. German has four grammatical cases, whereas Danish has none. In English, The word 'angst' expresses depression and anxiety. Allein (Alone) Bärchen (little bear) Mausebär (mouse bear) Schnecke (snail) Schnucki (no English translation) Perle (pearl) Liebling (darling) It is considered a "peripheral" romance language. In a similar vein, there are many similar innovations in Germanic and Balto-Slavic that are far more likely areal features than traceable to a common proto-language, such as the uniform development of a high vowel (*u in the case of Germanic, *i/u in the case of Baltic and Slavic) before the PIE syllabic resonants *ṛ, *ḷ, *ṃ, *ṇ, unique . It is not so close to English, although both languages share some common vocabulary. For an English speaker, Swedish is without doubt the easier language to learn. Five of them are North Germanic languages and descended from Old Norse. The lexical similarity between German and Dutch is roughly as similar as that between Spanish and Italian. 6. Compared to 61, the rate is 4%. German to English Cognates: 37 Everyday Germanic Words in English. In the case of English, it developed from Proto-Germanic, alongside German, Dutch, Yiddish, and a few other languages. Hittite-Luwian displays significant parallels with Tocharian. The Germanic branch is one of the ten or so Indo-European subfamilies. Copy. Both languages have very similar words for "book": Italian: libro. These same words in the German language are all very different. The Scandinavian languages are a subgroup of the North Germanic languages. spellings, and syntax are the most similar of all Germanic languages. Around the 5th century the Second Germanic Sound Shift took place when some consonants changed (e.g. In spite of the linguistic similarities of the Slavic languages in culture, religion, history, and political tradition, these countries and peoples have . The reason why Dutch is so similar to English and German at the same time can be found if we study histroy of language. . Norwegian vocabulary is rather similar to German vocabulary. The Modern German language was not standardized in writing until the late 18th century. They don't have similar words, other than a very few words borrowed from German into Hebrew. The Sanskrit word it is derived from is Jungala which . Like. It's died out in German in favour of Arzt (and in Dutch), but still exists in the other Germanic languages. All the Scandinavian languages are mutually understandable, their official languages such as; Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. Being a West Germanic language, German is similar to Dutch, so learning German makes it relatively easier to learn Dutch later on. English vs. German - How similar are these West Germanic languages? 10 German nicknames to call your sweetheart Maus (mouse) Mice aren't exactly the sweetest creatures around. German (along with Dutch and most other Germanic tongues) is, like English, profoundly shaped in its vocabulary by Latin and the Romance languages, a fact that often goes unappreciated, and 2 . We have an exciting new career opportunity for a German speaking Customer Support Consultant in Cape Town, South Africa to join an international super-fast growing tech company that are revolutionising hoteliers around the globe.Your ideas and performance will be making a big difference in their organisation and the global hotel industry. There are many similarities between German and other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. As Watkins explains: "Although English is a member of the Germanic branch of Indo-European and retains much of the . 1. The word Dschungel comes from the word 'jungle', used in Hindi and other South-Asian languages to describe dense forests. The main languages of this group are French, Italian, Provencal, Spanish, Portu­guese, Catalan and Romanian. German is only similar to Danish in some degree (once you know it), but apart from some individual basic words ( being a Germanic . It's also similar in that it shares many of the same words as English, words such as 'open' 'sorry' and 'week'. You might have heard once that English is a "mix of German and French". 10 similarities in German and English. 3. Germanic Languages are spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people and by 2 billion as total (natives and second language speakers) around th. EXPLANATION Similarity VOCABULARY: Percentage of vocabulary that isvery similar in both languages. Modern English shares 75% or more of its vocabulary with French! Look at the sample sentences and see how many words you can recognize: 1. Words like man, woman, house, child . Afrikaans is closer to English and Dutch than it is to German. This is an added advantage for English speakers as they can start writing in German effortlessly and without working too hard. German has four grammatical cases, whereas Danish has none. Have a look at these two sentences: Der Hund beißt den Mann. The Dutch language is very similar to various West Germanic languages, for instance, German and English. Similar Scandinavian Languages Though technically considered a Northern Germanic group, Scandinavian languages are much more similar to one another than they are to other Germanic languages. Table of contents 1. A major difference between Danish and German grammar is cases. The German word 'Hund' and the Dutch word . Although there are significant differences between each of the Germanic languages, they are all origins of the Proto-Germanic language tree and therefore share many similarities. Clearly the OP prefers their own interpretation of history and language evolution. For both Swedish and German, there are no shortage of native speakers to practice the language with. Instead, it is considered Germanic. This is the main difference between Dutch and Danish. Cases are a pattern of declensions that nouns take on depending on their role in a sentence. I thought this was a bit easy and found random videos of the spoken language. By the way, the scientific term of the "Indo-Germanic language group" itself can be traced back more than 200 years. During the 1500's, the evolving Modern German language was still divided across the region, although two types emerged: Protestant German and Catholic German. However, that does not mean that they are all completely the . Once you master it, though, the language is very melodic. In this video, we'll compare 40 words with native speakers of German and English.English. German and Dutch is said to be partially intelligeble with eachothers, and Dutch is mutally intelligible with . Scholars often divide the Germanic languages into three groups: West Germanic, including English, German, and Netherlandic (Dutch); North Germanic, including Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Faroese; and East Germanic, now extinct, comprising only Gothic and the languages of the Vandals, Burgundians, and a few other . The small lexical distance between Germanic languages means that they share a large number of cognates or words with similar roots. This would later evolve into the use of unstressed syllables, which denotes the drastic change in terms of the grammatical system. West Germanic languages, group of Germanic languages that developed in the region of the North Sea, Rhine-Weser, and Elbe. They are quite similar in terms of grammar. Dutch is similar to English in the sense that it doesn't have cases, and thus writing the language is far easier than German. Have a look at these two sentences: Der Hund beißt den Mann. I did not expect those two languages in the same breath when comparing similar languages. English is a Germanic language. Translating one Nordic language to the other requires a skilled and experienced translator that understands the nuances of both the source and target language. In the meaning of 'attention,' this word is well-known all over the world, so many English speakers and natives started using it. German has three genders, whereas Swedish has two, and while German has four cases, Swedish has none. Esperanto is a constructed language with a-priori grammar (not similar in any way to any existing language, i.e. Norwegian (North Germanic language) ALPHABET. This essentially means that English belongs to the Northern Germanic language group, similar to Danish, Swedish, Faroese, and Norwegian. Angst. Generally for these two languages, French is considered to be easier to learn than German. Finally, Swedish with its "singing" pronunciation-style with its many vowels is very different from the monotonous German. Indeed, both the German and English languages are considered to be members of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language . English is obviously the most "different" Germanic language because it's been influenced so much by French and Latin. The Germanic family itself has subgroups; English is in the West Germanic branch along with . Since vocabulary is the hardest part of learning a language, I'd say that the Romance languages are easier to learn than the Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages are all closer to English, Franconia languages; and to Low German than to High German. German (Deutsch, pronounced ()) is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Central Europe.It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol.It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a national language in Namibia. It gave rise to many other creole languages, including one of the official languages spoken in South Africa, Afrikaans. The difference between these two languages is that English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic Languages, whereas French is a Romance language, so it is related to Spanish and Italian. Language structure also tends to be similar. Yiddish comes from Medieval High German, as official German is High German, this is arguably the closest language to give you your answer, assuming something like Hessian or Luxembourgish hasn't been given language status. Besser - better. The languages spoken by the people of the Nordic region are also pretty similar. Germanic languages are English's distant cousins, so to speak. 1. So while Germanic languages don't share much mutual intelligibility, they still share some vocabulary and grammar rules that make them similar. A major difference between Danish and German grammar is cases. Another difference is that in English, the definite article is "the," and the indefinite article is "a" or "an.". Germanic languages, branch of the Indo-European language family. The language samples were Lord's Prayers spoken in stereotypical accents for the language (for French, it was Parisian accent, for English RP etc). Furthermore, the use of . See answer (1) Best Answer. It takes 50 years to write Dutch and German. These three pronouns are also the only ones to get the 'sind' form of 'to be.' Amongst important languages, Dutch is the closest. So English is a rather irregular Germanic language, having gained 50% or so . Five of them are North Germanic languages and descended from Old Norse. But while English is Germanic, it has acquired much of its vocabulary from other sources, notably Latin and French. If you're looking for the closest relative to English that is definitely a distinct language, the answer is Frisian. Likewise, only 'I,' 's/he,' and 'it' get different 'to be' conjugations; everything else gets 'are.' Conversely, in German, only 'Sie,' 'sie (pl),' and 'wir' get the - en verb endings and everything else gets a special ending. So no, Germans will struggle to understand Afrikaans. Although many people assume that Dutch and Danish are very similar since they are both Germanic languages, they are not mutually . Check out these everyday Germanic words in English. . Dilemma Gorilla Marathon Palimpsest Palindrome Paranoia Phantom Saxophon (e) Theologie (y) Therapie (y) Topos .as well as many other lexical borrowings which are spelled less similarly by the two languages. Dutch school pupils learn foreign Germanic languages much more easily when teaching is based on understanding a language rather than speaking and writing it. The main reason English seems closer to Romance languages than it does other Germanic languages is because its vocabulary has been highly influenced by Romance languages over the years. . Achtung. Dutch is similar to English in the sense that it doesn't have cases, and thus writing the language is far easier than German. Here are some of the most obviously Greek-derived words that are sprinkled throughout German and English. What Languages Are Similar To German? German has 4 cases while Dutch has none. 8. Like Dutch, German is also a West Germanic language that is closely related to English. German isn't mutually intelligible with that of the Low German, so it definitely even difficult to understand . However, in German, the definite article can be der . Latin: liber. Can German Understand Dutch? Grammar of the Slavic Languages. 1: Spanish and other Romance languages. In addition, the Balto-Slavic languages share many features in common with the Indo-Iranian languages. French. It's also similar in that it shares many of the same words as English, words such as 'open' 'sorry' and 'week'. What language is closest to old German? The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa.The most widely spoken Germanic language, English, is also the world's most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers.All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic, spoken in . Despite the name, this is not Frisian at all but a variety of Dutch strongly influenced by Frisian. This stress is used to emphasize the syllable, which bears the importance of the semantic element. Pronunciation may be a struggle at first, with nine vowels (like ö or å) and the sje- sound, which is unique to Swedish. Yiddish is a Germanic language with a strong Slavic influence and loanwords from Hebrew. Hundreds of languages compose the Indo-European family, so linguists divide them into closely related subfamilies. about 20 % comes from Germanic languages (German and English), and the rest comes mainly from Slavic languages (Russian and Polish) and Greek (mostly scientific terms Hase (bunny) As you can imagine, "Hase" is also more commonly used for women than men. Everyday German phrases and German to English cognates (basically word cousins) are super prevalent in our daily language and will really help you jump headfirst into the language. Wordminds linguists pride themselves on being fluent in all Nordic languages. Not quite similar, but related. This is one of the reasons, aside from vocab, that German is a somewhat easier language to learn for English speakers, and vice versa. Since they are related to one another, German and English have a fair number of structural similarities. PRONUNCIATION. Out of the West Germanic languages, I would say that Swedish is the most similar to German which is not intelligible with Swedish but if I hear people speaking German I can at least get a good hint about what they are talking about.