Germanism (linguistics) - Derivations of German Words

Derivations of German Words

Germanisms in foreign languages may have gone through a change of meaning, appearing as false friend to the learner's eye. For instance, in Russian language, a галстук galstuk is not a scarf (German literally: "Halstuch"), but a tie; nor would a парикмахер parikmacher (German literally: "Perückenmacher") be a "wig-maker", but actually denote a hairdresser.

Likewise, in Japanese, a messer is not a knife, but a scalpel. Two more examples would be Japanese アルバイト (transliterated to "arubaito", derived from German: Arbeit and abbreviated to "baito") and リュックサック (transliterated to "ryukkusakku"; derived from German "Rucksack"; abbreviated to リュック ).

Read more about this topic:  Germanism (linguistics)

Famous quotes containing the words german and/or words:

    “I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.”
    —Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)

    “The expressions of the poet cannot be analyzed; his sentence is one word, whose syllables are words. There are indeed no words quite worthy to be set to his music. But what matter if we do not hear the words always, if we hear the music?”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)