Would you like to learn German?
To be able to speak a second or third language is really cool. There are people out there that can speak as many a 10 languages or more fairly fluently and perhaps even a few not as fluent. Such people are known as Polyglots and its is believed that the greatest Polygot who ever lived was an Italian priest known as Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti. In fact he was more of a hyperpolyglot than just a polyglot because he spoke as many as 70 languages. With the Internet turning the world into a global village I have found that knowing several language helped in getting better search results and opened an entire new library of books to me because I could make sense of a lot more than just English.
Learning a new language can be quite challenging and should be tackled in small steps, after all, when you learnt your very first language you just listened to whatever was said for close to a year and a half before you could even utter your first sentence. However, many people expect too much of themselves, in too short a space of time and become despondent way to quickly and give up hope of ever learning their chosen language. But there are shortcuts. Some of which will be discussed in successive blogs.
LEARNING GERMAN
Afrikaans is the youngest Germanic language that descended from Dutch and is generally considered as the language of the oppressor by non-white South Africans. Yet, Afrikaans is predominantly spoken as a second or third language in South Africa and Namibia, and by those communities who emigrated to other parts of the world. Afrikaans is closest to the variety of Dutch spoken in Zoetermeer South Holland as such, there is a degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in its written form. When looking at the vocabulary of West Germanic languages of Flemish, Dutch, German and English one can see that they have the same root system. But it appears that Dutch (Anglo-Frisian dialects) is closer related to English than German since they both stem from Istvaeonic (low Franconian).This places South Africans who speak both English and Afrikaans in a very fortunate position linguistically because they speak two West Germanic languages, and for them to transcend to the German language would in fact be child's play since it is a third West Germanic language. So what we will start of with is consonant shifts that took place with Old High German.
In English when a vowel is duplicated to make it long, 'o' becomes 'oo'. In German a long vowel 'o' can be either 'o', 'oo' or 'oh' and a long 'i' can be 'i', 'ih', 'ie' or 'y'. The 'g' in Dutch and English beomes 'ch' in German but "k" in Afrikaans. Often "ss" is German becomes a "t or d" in Afrikaans. In German "sp" at beginning of word becomes "shp", and "st" becomes "sht", "th" becomes "t". The German "v" is sounded like the English" f" and it "w" sounds like an English "v" and its "z" is pronounced "ts".
unter - onder - under ( t changes to d )
Rettich - radys - raddish mitternachts - midder nag - midnight
Bett - bet - bed
schlafen - slaap - sleep - ( f changes to p )
rufen - roep - call - ( f changes to p )
helfen - help - help
kaufen - koop -buy
hoffentlich - hopelik -hopefully
NB! The "ss" in German is written as ß , as can be seen in the following sentences, however I wrote them as ss in order to demonstrate the concept.
- Ich weiß nicht. / Ek weet nie. / I dont know.
- Wie heißen Sie? (Wie heißt du?) Hoe is jou naam. / What's your name?
- Die Küche ist groß. / Die Kombuis is groot. / The kitchen is big.
German - Afrikaans - English
wasser - water - water - ([ß] ss changes to t or d )Mittagessen - middag eete - lunch
essen - eet - eat
müssen - moet - must
lassen - laat - let
vergessen vergeet - forget
wissen - weet - know
fressen - freet - eat (refering to animals)
vergessen - virgeet - forget
beschliessen - besluit - decide
German - Afrikaans - English
geben - gee - give - ( b changes to v or f )haben - het - have
Sieben - seve - seven
schreiben - skryf - write
sterben - sterf - die
Abend - aand - evening
lieben - lief - love
Making the mental transitions with the consonant shifts highlighted above is relatively easy which can soon be mastered by repeating and memorizing the following word similarities.
German - Afrikaans - English
Wörterbuch - Wordeboek - Wordbook (Dictionary)Aussprache - Uit spraake - remark
Geschenk - Geskenk - Gift (present)
Eisig - ysig - Icy
Buch - Boek - Book
Schere - Sker - Scissors
Lineal - Liniaal - Ruler
Schwer - Swaar - Hard
Architekt - Argitek - Architect
Zahnarzt - Tandarts - Dentsit
Arbeiter - Arbeider - Labourer
Reisen - Reis - Journey
Haus - Huis - House
Flughafen - Vlieg hawe - Airport
Schwarz - Swart - Black
Gardine - Gordyn - Curtain
Jährlich - Yaarlik - Yearly (Annual)
As can be seen Germans word is either close to English or close to Afrikaans. But this is just a few to get the principal accross. Most German nouns would have the definite article "der" or die ir "das" in front of it like in "der Woche" (the Week) "die Schwester" (the Sister) or "das Wetter" (the Weather) which is gender sensitive. But more about that later. Tschüs!
