Comparative grammar of the Germanic languages

Professor: Andrei Avram

Accounting for similarities between languages: English and German

Question 1: How can the similarities between English and German be explained?

Four possible accounts:

(i) Coincidence/chance
(ii) Sound symbolism
(iii) Borrowing:
(iv) Common origin

Coincidence/chance
English and German simply happen to be similar, i.e. the similarities are the outcome of
coincidence.

Coincidences between two (or more) languages are attested:

(1) a. German nass [nas] ‘wet’ Zuñi nas [nas] ‘wet’
b. Greek μάτι [mati] ‘eye’ Malay mata [mata] ‘eye’
c. Romanian (a) dori [dori] ‘to wish’ Lau dori [dori] ‘to wish’
Objections
Coincidences between languages: very few, limited to lexical items.

Similarities between English and German: include similarities in their regular, irregular
and exceptional morphology; coincidence/chance cannot account for these similarities.

Sound symbolism
English and German are similar by virtue of sound symbolism.

Objections
Sound symbolism: attested in all languages, essentially limited to onomatopoeia, as
iconic forms [iconic = reflecting extra-linguistic reality].

Onomatopoeia: are not necessarily similar cross-linguistically:

(2) English cock-a-doodle-doo vs. German kikiriki vs. Japanese kokekokko
Onomatopoeia: not part of the basic vocabulary.

Onomatopoeia: not included among the English and German lexical items compared, i.e.
they did not figure among the evidence considered.

1
Borrowing
The similarities between English and German are the outcome of borrowing.

Three potential cases:

(i) English borrowed (heavily) from German
(ii) German borrowed (heavily) from English
(iii) English and German borrowed (heavily) from the same third language L3.

Scale of borrowing
Borrowings can be placed on a scale of borrowing, from the most likely to the least
likely, with reference to the main compartments of a language.

On the scale of borrowing vocabulary occupies the top position (most likely) and
inflectional morphology the bottom position (i.e. least likely):
(3) vocabulary most likely
syntax
phonology
derivational morphology
inflectional morphology least likely
Types of borrowing situations:
(i) Normal
(ii) Exceptional: characterized by intense and prolonged contact between speakers
of the respective languages and by societal bilingualism [= bilingualism at the
level of the society, i.e. a large number of bilinguals]

Speakers of English and German have never been in intense and prolonged contact; there
has never been societal bilingualism involving speakers of these two languages;
therefore, what needs to be examined is what happens in normal situations of borrowing.

Vocabulary (i.e. lexical borrowings)

Borrowing of vocabulary: attested in all languages, i.e. there is no known language whose
vocabulary consists exclusively of native words.

Lexical borrowings: generally limited to the non-basic vocabulary, may include loan
translations [= item by item], also known as calques.

Syntax
Borrowing of syntax: generally limited to a number of constructions.

Phonology
An extremely small number of so-called “imported” phonemes.

Former allophones of a phoneme may become phonemes.

2
Morphology
Borrowing of morphology: limited to derivational affixes; first borrowed together with
the base and then extended to other bases from the native stock as well:
(4) a. attainable, cf. Old French atteindre > Middle English atteynen
b. breakable, cf. Old English brecan
In some cases borrowing of derivational suffixes may lead to the occurrence of (quasi-)
synonymous forms, one from a borrowed base and the other derived from a native base:
(5) edible < Latin edibilis vs. eatable < English eat + -able

Case study: French influence on English, as a normal borrowing situation

French influence on English: starting with the Middle English period.

Vocabulary
Massive lexical influence (approximately 45%), limited to the non-basic vocabulary.
Domains: feudalism, heraldry, military, politics, economics, law, diplomacy, arts,
architecture, cuisine, colours, vegetables, months a.o.

(6) Native stock French-derived

a. calf veal
b. cow beef
c. pig pork
d. sheep mutton

Loan translations of functional words

(7) French à cause de > English by cause of > because of
The initial English form by cause of: a loan translation of the original French à cause de.
(8) French à cause de
English by cause of

Syntax
Old English: the genitive case was marked by specific endings, depending on
grammatical gender, declension class and number (singular or plural).
Only remaining form in Modern English: -s genitive, also known as the “Saxon” genitive.

Contact with French: led to the emergence of the prepositional genitive, also known as
the “Norman” genitive:
(9) the door of the house
Prepositional genitive: modelled on the French construction with the preposition de.
(10) French la porte de la maison
English the door of the house

3
Phonology
“Imported” phonemes
A single “imported” phoneme: the voiced alveo-palatal fricative /ʒ/, whose distribution is
limited to French loanwords.
(11) a. genre
b. beige
Former allophones becoming phonemes
Old English: the voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/ had two allophones, [f] and [v], both
spelled with <f>.
Complementary distribution: voiceless [f] in word-initial and word-final position (11),
voiced [v] in word-medial position, between voiced sounds (12):
(11) a. word-initial position
Old English fēdan [fe:dan] ‘to feed’
b. word-final position
Old English lēof [le:of] ‘beloved’
(12) word-medial position
a. between vowels
Old English gifan [ji:van] ‘to give’
b. between a voiced consonant and a vowel
Old English seolfor [seolvor] ‘silver’
The French loanwords entering English beginning with the Middle English period
included, however, many words with [v] in word-initial position:
(13) a. Middle English veel ‘veal’ < Old French veal
b. Middle English venison ‘edible meat of an animal’ < Old French veneison
c. Middle English verray ‘very’ < Old French verai ‘true’
Consequence: [v] now occurs in word-initial position as well, in which it could not have
appeared in Old English; this leads to the existence of minimal pairs:
(14) feel [fi:ɫ] vs. veal [vi:ɫ]
Outcome: the former allophones [f] and [v] of the phoneme /f/ have become phonemes,
/f/ and /v/.

Old English (15) vs. Modern English (16):

(15) Old English, one phoneme /f/, with two allophones [f] and [v]
[f] in word-initial and word-final position
/f/
[v] in word-medial position, between voiced sounds
(16) Modern English, two phonemes /f/ and /v/
/f/ in all positions within a word
/v/ in all positions within a word

4
Morphology
French influence: limited to a number of derivational affixes; these include prefixes (17)
and suffixes (18); these affixes also attach to bases from the native stock.
(17) a. disown
b. endear
(18) a. -age
leakage
b. -ance
hindrance
c. -ess
goddess
d. -ment
fulfillment
Conclusions on borrowings in normal situations
(i) Vocabulary borrowing: non-basic lexical items
(ii) Borrowing of regular morphological paradigms: unlikely.
(iii) Borrowing of irregular morphological patterns: more unlikely.
(iv) Borrowing of exceptional morphology (suppletion): most unlikely.

English and German: share basic vocabulary items, regular paradigms, irregular
morphological patterns, and even exceptional morphology (suppletion); therefore,
borrowing cannot be the explanation for the similarities between English and German.

Common origin
At some point in time, English and German must have had a common origin; the
ancestors of English and German must have been dialects of the same language.
(18) L (= common origin)
1
Old English Old High German
f h
Middle English Middle High German
f h
Modern English Modern German
In the earliest written records available in English and German, the similarities are even
clearer, whereas the differences are smaller, i.e. Old English and Old High German are
much closer than Modern English and Modern German.
English and German: originally dialects of the same language; communicative isolation
and passage of time led to discrete variation, i.e. these former dialects turned into two
distinct languages (see also handout “Accent, dialect, language”).

Answer to Question 1: English and German exhibit similarities because they have a
common origin.