Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Denglish!


Here's a goofy song about the growing influx of English words into the German language. Although it's penned in a joking manner, it still brings to light an important concern– with all of the cross-cultural interaction these days, what will the German language be like 25, 50 years down the road?

Some argue that the use of English words is unnecessary, as they already have their own German equivalents, while others argue that using English shows an "international openness".

Either way, this issue causes one to ask themselves– when does a word from another language become part of ones own? For example, in English "gesundheit" is as common as saying "bless you" after someone sneezes, yet "gesundheit" is most definitely also a German word.
Just the same, "cool" has a place in the German vocabulary just as much as it does in English. These words seem to have become parts of their respective "new" languages, but what separates them form any other? And how long will it take for more words to do the same?

1 comment:

  1. Also, here's an article I found pertaining to this subject– pretty short but still interesting!

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denglish-now-verboten-2171795.html

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