I don't care how much the inflections are taken off, how much different words are used, how different the accent is. It WOULD NOT change the language that much! There are to many words, that are to similar to very related words in other Germanic languages.
Does English sound like other Germanic languages?
Sure there are. I'll prove it. You say that after you see this. Look at when this post was posted. Then look at when the next post was posted. - And none of this is made up!
house - Haus
cold - kalt
word - Wort
hop - hoppen
boat - Boot
shine - scheinen
long - lang
side - Seite
glass - Glas
wolf - Wolf
cow - Kuh
man - Mann
ground - Grund
winter -Winter
fall - fallen
green - gruen
cold - kalt
word - Wort
hop - hoppen
boat - Boot
shine - scheinen
long - lang
side - Seite
glass - Glas
wolf - Wolf
cow - Kuh
man - Mann
ground - Grund
winter -Winter
fall - fallen
green - gruen
All those words have at least one meaning that is identical to what it is in English.
That's not all though. About 55-60% of German nouns, only counting the base word with no attachments and no compound words, look like English words written slightly differently. This is the same for the verbs, taking off the -en at the end and only counting the "infinitive." That's the only word there is for it. It's the form of the word like when it's not used in a sentence, like in "to do" or "He has to do it." Hard to explain - doesn't really matter here. Maybe that's not the right word.
If you already speak German, let me say I don't pretend to speak it well at all. However, I do know what I'm talking about when I say this. If you already speak it, though, you must see how many words look so similar and have such a similar meaning.
To get back to the main subject, though, it seems logical to assume that if a word has sounds between two words that mean the same thing and are cognates in different related languages, then it must sound between these two words. That's what I was trying to show with that one post comparing German, English, and Dutch. That's pretty much gibberish, but read on. Now compare these words in German, Dutch, English, and Norwegian. They're in that order here.
Haus - Huis - House - Hus.
Wort - Woord - Word - Ord.
Boot - Boot - Boat - Båt.
Seite - Zijde - Side - Side.
Glas - Glas - Glass - Glass.
Wolf - Wolf - Wolf - Ulv.
Kuh - Koe - Cow - Ku.
Mann - Man - Man - Mann.
Winter - Winter - winter - Vinter.
Granted, I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce all these, but look at the similarity. For these words, I'd say most of the time English looks like it's between the others, and when it's not, how different could it be? Only one sound is different. Plus, there's probably some dialect that would pronounce it as it is in the other languages. That's the case for "winter." Many people might pronounce it "vinter," and it would still be perfectly intelligible. What I'm saying is that these particular English words must sound Germanic, because they are just to close to their cognates in other Germanic languages, and sometimes between them.
To get back to the main subject, though, it seems logical to assume that if a word has sounds between two words that mean the same thing and are cognates in different related languages, then it must sound between these two words. That's what I was trying to show with that one post comparing German, English, and Dutch. That's pretty much gibberish, but read on. Now compare these words in German, Dutch, English, and Norwegian. They're in that order here.
Haus - Huis - House - Hus.
Wort - Woord - Word - Ord.
Boot - Boot - Boat - Båt.
Seite - Zijde - Side - Side.
Glas - Glas - Glass - Glass.
Wolf - Wolf - Wolf - Ulv.
Kuh - Koe - Cow - Ku.
Mann - Man - Man - Mann.
Winter - Winter - winter - Vinter.
Granted, I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce all these, but look at the similarity. For these words, I'd say most of the time English looks like it's between the others, and when it's not, how different could it be? Only one sound is different. Plus, there's probably some dialect that would pronounce it as it is in the other languages. That's the case for "winter." Many people might pronounce it "vinter," and it would still be perfectly intelligible. What I'm saying is that these particular English words must sound Germanic, because they are just to close to their cognates in other Germanic languages, and sometimes between them.
...but this thread is about the sound of the English language overall, and not its Germanic-based words.
<<...but this thread is about the sound of the English language overall, and not its Germanic-based words. >>
English is a Germanic language, so naturally the native element will sound like other Germanic languages--
But when you compare foreign elements in English--and these are made up largely of words of Romance and Latin origin, you find too that they have the same Germanic sound in English as the native ones do:
*Native Eng - Foreign
seller - cellar, stellar
hate - state, plate, communicate
bless - dress
knowledge - college
drain - train, grain, complain
sound (body of water; healthy) - sound (noise)
yellow - cello
storm - inform
honey - money
strain (lineage, breed) - strain (stress)
straight - strait
few - pew
fly - cry, ply, apply
boy, toy - employ, destroy
latter - matter
latch - catch
race - chase, base, space, vase (Amer pronun)
room, womb - tomb
write - trite, quite
And other words as well
shoe - canoe (< Amer Indian)
sunk - skunk
dream - theme
English has a tendency to naturalise its pronunciation to an English-Germanic sound, even if not fully doing so in its spelling
English is a Germanic language, so naturally the native element will sound like other Germanic languages--
But when you compare foreign elements in English--and these are made up largely of words of Romance and Latin origin, you find too that they have the same Germanic sound in English as the native ones do:
*Native Eng - Foreign
seller - cellar, stellar
hate - state, plate, communicate
bless - dress
knowledge - college
drain - train, grain, complain
sound (body of water; healthy) - sound (noise)
yellow - cello
storm - inform
honey - money
strain (lineage, breed) - strain (stress)
straight - strait
few - pew
fly - cry, ply, apply
boy, toy - employ, destroy
latter - matter
latch - catch
race - chase, base, space, vase (Amer pronun)
room, womb - tomb
write - trite, quite
And other words as well
shoe - canoe (< Amer Indian)
sunk - skunk
dream - theme
English has a tendency to naturalise its pronunciation to an English-Germanic sound, even if not fully doing so in its spelling
>> ..but this thread is about the sound of the English language overall, and not its Germanic-based words <<
English is a Germanic language, so by definition, it sounds like a Germanic language. All of the Germanic languages sound different, so you would have to ask "does English sound like Norwegian?" for example.
Does German sound like a Germanic language?
English is a Germanic language, so by definition, it sounds like a Germanic language. All of the Germanic languages sound different, so you would have to ask "does English sound like Norwegian?" for example.
Does German sound like a Germanic language?
<<Does German sound like a Germanic language? >>
To me, German does not sound like the *other* Germanic languages, but as you state above, by definition German sounds Germanic.
German sounds different in its clear and short vowel sounds, which are very sharp, level and precise. Other Germanic languages tend to sound more laxed, more open in their vowel sounds, using the "aw" sound which grades into "o" a lot.
German just sounds sharper, and more crisp: biting even.
In my opinion, when a German/Austrian speaks English with a German accent, it is harder to understand than when a Dutchman or a Norwegian speaks English with an accent, because the accent of how German is spoken tends to be further away from English--at polar extremes, but this is just my opinion
To me, German does not sound like the *other* Germanic languages, but as you state above, by definition German sounds Germanic.
German sounds different in its clear and short vowel sounds, which are very sharp, level and precise. Other Germanic languages tend to sound more laxed, more open in their vowel sounds, using the "aw" sound which grades into "o" a lot.
German just sounds sharper, and more crisp: biting even.
In my opinion, when a German/Austrian speaks English with a German accent, it is harder to understand than when a Dutchman or a Norwegian speaks English with an accent, because the accent of how German is spoken tends to be further away from English--at polar extremes, but this is just my opinion
German actually sounds way more like Dutch than English does. For German natives, it's very easy recognizing cognates without even knowing some Dutch. I observed that it's quite a different matter for native speakers of English.
I think, German also sounds in some way similar to Swedish.
I think, German also sounds in some way similar to Swedish.
As a group though, German is quite distinct.
Nevermind cognates for a minute, just hearing someone speaking Dutch at a distance you could easily mistake it for English, because of the way it *sounds*
Never so with German.
Neither does German *sound* like Dutch. The difference is so great (and this is constantly being confirmed by native speakers of both) that Dutch could even be said to sound more like French than German hehe ;)
To me Swedish doesn't sound like German. It LOOKS like German when written, because of all the umlauts.
Nevermind cognates for a minute, just hearing someone speaking Dutch at a distance you could easily mistake it for English, because of the way it *sounds*
Never so with German.
Neither does German *sound* like Dutch. The difference is so great (and this is constantly being confirmed by native speakers of both) that Dutch could even be said to sound more like French than German hehe ;)
To me Swedish doesn't sound like German. It LOOKS like German when written, because of all the umlauts.
>> To me Swedish doesn't sound like German. It LOOKS like German when written, because of all the umlauts <<
Yeah, it's pretty hard to get past the fact that Swedish is pitch accented, whereas German is not.
Yeah, it's pretty hard to get past the fact that Swedish is pitch accented, whereas German is not.
Sorry to change the subject. Keep going if you want.
Here's my question. What else, other than Germanic, does English sound like?
Here's my question. What else, other than Germanic, does English sound like?