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

1 Introduction
1 Þorsteinn Hjaltason
When asked to name a few German loanwords in English, most people come only up
with a few ones, perhaps angst or rucksack and many mention some stereotypes known
from World War Two, such as Gestapo, U-boat or Blitzkrieg. Similarly, most scholars
pay little attention to this part of English vocabulary. See for instance the discussion in
Jackson and Zé Amvela (47). Further references for a detailed historical overview over
the research on German loanwords are provided in Pfeffer and Cannon's German
Loanwords in English 1 (xix) and in Stanforth (4).
Nevertheless, in their dictionary, which is unquestionably the most comprehensive
study to date on this subject, Pfeffer and Cannon collected 6,001 loanwords that have
entered the English language from the 14 th century onwards (GLIE 3). The authors use
the term loanword in its broadest sense, i.e. both as loan (angst), loan translation (beer
garden as a translation of G. Biergarten) or even as partial translations (alpenglow).
Furthermore, Pfeffer and Cannon accept all words that are standardly accepted as part of
German vocabulary, thus counting numerous Greco-Latin technical terms (e.g.
glycerose from Gk. glykerós 'sweet'), most of them dating from the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
This methodology violates the concept of etymology in my opinion for there is no
distinction made between the native German loanwords, like angst and the Greco
glycerose on the other hand. When doing research on the origin of words, one must
tackle the task with precision and diligence, and a clear distinction must be made
between cultural and etymological influences on a language. Therefore, I think the
discussion about German loanwords should focus more on the etymology of the
vocabulary in question, and whether they are native German or not.
My intention in this paper is twofold: First to find out which German loanwords are
truly standard "High German 2 ". In order to do this, I have filtered out the native German
loanwords in GLIE as well as gone through some lists with German loanwords, like
Knapp's German English Words (2005). If the word is attested in Early High German
1 Hereafter referred to as GLIE.
2 This does not mean that the dialectal forms are of no importance. Some dialects may give an important
insight into “German” influence on English, and perhaps in a different context. However, in a short
essay like this, the material must be restricted and for that reason, I have chosen to restrict myself to
standard High German.