Monday, September 22, 2008

How similar are the Germanic languages English, Norwegian, German, Dutch, Low Saxon and Swedish to each other?



Luckily there's a site that can answer this that I found a little while ago while searching for something else. It's called Sigurd, and is devoted to increasing the awareness of linguistic similarities throughout Germanic languages in Europe. It has a number of stories that have been translated into each of these language so that you can compare one with the other. For example, here's the first paragraph of a story in Norwegian called De dødes gudstjeneste (the dead people's mass):
De dødes gudstjeneste

Min mor, som var en ærlig kone, fortalte denne historien. Den hendte her i byen, og det attpåtil første juledagsnatt, og den er sann, for det kom aldri et usant ord fra hennes munn.
then Swedish:
De dödas gudstjänst

Min mor som var en hederlig kvinna berättade denna historia. Det hände här i stan och till och med på själva julnatten, och det är sant för hon lät aldrig ett osant ord falla ur sin mun.
now in English:
The dead people’s mass

My mother, who was an honest woman, told this story. It happened here in the city and that even on Christmas night, and it is true, because it never came an untrue word from her mouth.
then German:
Die Totenmesse

Meine Mutter, die eine ehrliche Frau war, erzählte diese Geschichte. Es geschah hier in der Stadt, und das sogar am ersten Weihnachtsabend. Es ist eine wahre Geschichte; denn es kam nie ein unwahres Wort aus ihrem Mund.
then Dutch:
De doden mis

Mijn moeder die een eerlijke vrouw was, vertelde dit verhaal. Het gebeurde hier in de stad en dat zelfs op kerstavond. Het is een waar verhaal; immers, nooit een onwaar woord kwam over haar lippen.
and finally Low Saxon:
De dodenmis

Mi moo, den eyne earlike fraue was, vertellen disse gesjichte. Et passeren hyr in de stad, en dæt sölfs in den eersten karstnacht, en et is wår, wyl der nimmer eyn onwår woord ut hör mond köm.
Anything else particularly interesting on that site? It would be interesting to see a Germanic IAL translation of one of these tales too, or Gothic or another extinct Germanic language. Icelandic too.

7 comments:

  1. English is obviously the most "different" Germanic language because it's been influenced so much by French and Latin. Modern English shares 75% or more of its vocabulary with French! 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. Of course, the Romance languages' noun conjugation is complex, but once the irregular verbs have been learnt, they're easy!

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  2. Tell me about it. I frequently have internet chats with Norwegian, Danish, Dutch/Flemish and German people (being Swedish myself) where we compare each other's languages, engaging in mockery or praise where appropriate, and the few British in our group get left out because they can't understand anything.

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  3. There might be 75% of French words in English, but the most commonly used words in the language are almost all Germanic in origin. In that extract above there is not one French word apart from "city".

    English is a true Germanic language, just like all the other languages listed here.

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  4. You can choose to speak raw Germanic English, or Anglo-Latin. The choice is yours.

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  5. That obviously needs a fair amount of practice - to speak "raw Germanic English", that is - things like saying "forefather" instead of "ancestor". Not everyone can always think of a Germanic cognate or even have the faculties to see what is Germanic and what is not.

    I imagine that learning Old English helps heaps.

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  6. That obviously needs a fair amount of practice - to speak "raw Germanic English", that is - things like saying "forefather" instead of "ancestor". Not everyone can always think of a Germanic cognate or even have the faculties to see what is Germanic and what is not.

    I imagine that learning Old English helps heaps.

    ReplyDelete
  7. markus wallett3/07/2011 02:06:00 PM

    You can choose to speak raw Germanic English, or Anglo-Latin. The choice is yours.

    ReplyDelete