Capturing the Zeitgeist Native German Loanwords in ... - Skemman

Table 10: The 50 most frequent words in COCA
25 Þorsteinn Hjaltason
Word Word Semantic field BNC COCA Deg. of
class
frequency frequency acc.
1. dollar n Currency 3,640 53,655 4
2. burger n Food 333 5,005 4
3. halt v Mil. 1,469 4,802 4
4. kindergarten n Ed. 99 3,932 4
5. halt n Mil. 1,113 2,959 4
6. hamburger n Food 181 2,882 4
7. bum n Miscellany 510 2,515 4
8. zinc n Chem. 439 1,657 4
9. Reich n Politics 246 1,366 4
10. blitz n Mil. 283 1,008 4
11. angst, ängste n Psych. 111 960 4
12. pretzel n Food 10 808 4
13. fest n Miscellany 7 802 4
14. schnapper/snapper n Ichthy. 75 800 4
15. flak n Mil. 175 649 4
16. plunder v Sociol. 262 630 4
17. quartz n Mineral. 248 627 4
18. waltz v Dance 89 616 4
19. Herr n Miscellany 468 602 4
20. poodle n Zool. 97 582 4
21. spindle n Anatomy 137 548 4
22. hinterland n Geogr. 199 491 4
23. kitsch n Art, Lit. 89 477 4
24. glitzy a Miscellany 71 448
25. hamster n Zool. 159 445 4
26. Gestapo n Politics 95 430 4
27. bum v Miscellany 37 391 4
28. waltz n Music 185 387 4
29. kaiser n Politics 143 367 4
30. kindergartner n Ed. 0 344 4
31. lager n Beverages 560 342 4
32. ersatz n Miscellany 30 340 4
33. spiel n Miscellany 39 332 4
34. Zeitgeist n Sociol. 30 315 4
35. bummer n Miscellany 17 309 4
36. sauerkraut n Food 10 298 4
37. delicatessen n Food 135 261 4
38. doodle/doudle v Music 32 251 3
39. rucksack n Miscellany 313 250 4
40. snorkel n Sports 27 244 4
41. frau/Frau n Miscellany 216 240 4
42. nix adv./v. Miscellany 20 240 4
43. spritz v Beverages 2 226 3
44. gestalt/Gestalt n Psych. 49 223 4
45. Wunderkind n Music 12 201 4
46. mogul n Sports 5 197 4
47. yodel/jodel v Music 20 196 4
48. schnapps n Beverages 29 195 4
49. heil interj. Sports, Politics 31 193 3
50. U-boat n Mil. 110 189 4
When comparing the findings in BNC with those in COCA, one must bear in mind
that the latter corpus is more than four times larger, which of course explains some of
the inequality between the corpora.