The germanic-languages tag has no wiki summary.
2
votes
1answer
125 views
“Goose”–“geese” vs,. “moose”–“moose”
Why is it that the plural of one goose is geese but the plural of moose is moose? Same goes for house and louse. The plurals are houses and lice, respectively.
1
vote
0answers
84 views
Origin of actual order pattern in English [closed]
It is well-known, or better said, well-accepted, that the ancestral language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was a OV language with a very limited (or nonexistent) use of subordinate clauses. In ...
-2
votes
1answer
512 views
Pronunciation Of Volkswagen and Vento [closed]
Why is "Volkswagen" pronounced as "Folks-Vagen" but "Vento" as "Vento" ? The question came to my mind as both of these are used combined as a name of a German Car and they say that Germans pronounce ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Where do “‑ess” and “‑ine” suffixes come from?
English has a lot of words that end in ‑ess or ‑esse, such as actress, hostess, huntress, finesse, duress, prowess, Lyonesse, and Westernesse.
That looks like a suffix that is also used frequently ...
6
votes
4answers
302 views
Pluralization of Germanisms
The German noun "Ansatz" is widely used (at least) in physics and, less frequently, in math texts in English. I have seen it always in singular though and now I must use its (English) plural. The ...
0
votes
0answers
741 views
Pronunciation of o with umlaut/diaeresis (ö ) [closed]
How is the letter ' ö ' pronounced?
In German it is pronounced as a u and in Swedish it is pronounced as a œ
How Is it pronounced in English?
Why does it need a special symbol at all? Why can or ...
6
votes
0answers
197 views
Examples where English is “more Germanic” than German [closed]
English is a so called a Germanic language, as are German, Yidish, Dutch, etc.
In a way it seems natural to believe that German is "more Germanic" than English. But here it is not clear what "more" ...
19
votes
3answers
658 views
Old English instead of Latin in early Britain
For almost 400 years, Britain was a Roman province. During that period, naturally, Latin was an important language in the region. When the Germanic tribes invaded the British Isles (around the 5th ...
1
vote
1answer
340 views
Where does the phrase “on end” come from?
The phrase "on end" means "without end". It very much sounds like the German "ohn End" which itself is the short form of "ohne Ende".
Is this etymologically the right direction? (Sometimes these ...
0
votes
2answers
396 views
English from Icelandic?
Why is it that so many English words, as one traces their etymologies, run through Icelandic as one goes back?
42
votes
5answers
3k views
What we've gelost — why doesn't English use the prefix “ge-”?
The Germanic languages that I'm familiar with all use a prefix similar to ge- on past participles:
German: Ich habe mir den Fuß gebrochen.
Dutch: Ik heb mijn voet gebroken.
But English ...
4
votes
2answers
135 views
What is the difference between these two “scip”s?
In a question about ships, I added an answer with the etymologies that underpin both ship and -ship.
"Ship" stems from scip: "O.E. scip "ship, boat," from P.Gmc. *skipan (cf. O.N., O.S., Goth. skip ...
9
votes
2answers
893 views
Which native English speakers are linguistically the most “germanic”?
English is a Germanic language. Another significant Germanic language is of course German.
Which native English speakers are the closest to German basing on the following criteria?
accent-wise ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
Why English pronunciation differs so much from written language, compared to German?
Given that English is derived mostly from German, when Anglo-Saxons (German tribes) migrated to Britain, how do you explain that
although German has a strict correspondence between written language ...
