The Pronounciation of German Loanwords in English. An Analysis of Phonological Differences

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2, University of Marburg (Fremdsprachliche Philologien), course: Contrastive Linguistics, language: English, abstract: This paper will present the most frequently used German loan words in English and focus on their pronunciation. First, a list of items will represent my data collection via the Oxford English Dictionary. It will refer to the study of the etymology of the words. After that, the paper will show the results of the recording of native speakers of English. Then the words will be analysed with respect to phonetic realization. Finally, I will emphasise the main differences between English and German phonology. "English does not have many German loanwords - at least not many of common use - but those it does have are a rather more mixed bunch than such stereotypic lists might imply." (Stubbs 1998:19) With his statement, Stubbs refers to those linguists who claim that the small number of German loanwords in English only originate from specific historical contexts. In his paper, he wants to revise this belief and show that also more general terms are adapted from German to English.