A German Expat in The Philippines - Ein deutscher Auswanderer auf den Philippinen

You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Why did the Germans introduce the English language?

Brian Collins

PhD in linguistics at U of Queensland (2023)

9,163 followers

539 following

I consider myself to be a linguist and a Slavicist. I am interested in dialects and mutual intelligibility, and I am also a fairly big science fiction fan.

The idea that English is a type of German is one of the biggest misconceptions the general public has about historical linguistics.

English is as much a type of German as German is a type of English. They both share a common ancestor. At the time English evolved from Proto-Germanic, there was no ‘German’ ethnic identity, and speakers of Old High German did not call their language ‘Diutisk’ (the word that evolved into Deutsch). In Old High German, that word meant ‘popular/of the people.’

The German and Germanic label was invented by the Romans as a blanket term to describe the people of Germania (which was not a real country, but a region Romans labelled outside of their borders). After linguists discovered genetic relationships between languages, they called the group of languages comprising English, Scots, Yiddish, High German, Dutch, Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Elfdalian, Gutnish, Swedish, Nynorsk, Wymysorys, Norwegian Bokmål to name a few, ‘Germanic.’

This does not mean these languages all evolved from German. They could have called them ‘Barbarian’ or ‘Middle European.’ Just because English is a Germanic language, and the word Germanic comes from ‘German,’ does not mean 1. Germanic languages all evolved from German, 2. German is the prototypical Germanic language that is the most Germanic out of them all, or 3. German is the central language of the family and all the others are offshoots.

No one assumes Polish evolved from Russian, or French evolved from Italian. This is because, by sheer coincidence, linguists named the group of languages comprising Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Russian, Lemko, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Serbo-croatian, Slovenian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, and others ‘Slavic.’ Likewise, they named the group comprising French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, etc ‘Romance.’

Oh and Linguists do also call them Italic but luckily, the general public doesn’t ever use the word ‘Italic’ so no one gets confused thinking French, Spanish, Catalan, and others all evolved from Italian like they do with Germanic languages.

If I had my way, we’d call Germanic languages ‘Middle European’ or something, that way no one would be confused thinking it is a family comprised of languages that evolved from High German. A subset of the family did evolve from Old and Middle High German, but English didn’t.

In reality, the relationship between English and German is more like this:

Just like humans did not evolve from Chimpanzees, and the Chimpanzees did not evolve from humans, German and English did not evolve from each other.

No one consciously invented or introduced English one day. It evolved when settlers from what is now Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark landed on an island mostly populated by Celts. Slowly their speech changed from the mainland as children acquired it from a speech community unique to England.

Of course, it still would have evolved into a very different language from modern German had it remained in mainland Europe. Modern Frisian is very different from modern German.

What is the most German word you know?

Luise

There is absolutely no doubt about it.

It can only be “Kinderfleischwursttreppe”, that means "children's meat sausage stairs".

Because it is deeply rooted in our culture.

You'll see that in a moment, even if you're scratching your head right now.

I don't know if you went to the butcher with your mother.

I did that every Saturday.

And I liked what the butcher did when he saw me.

He would take a slice of meat sausage( sometimes called mortadella, even though it has nothing to do with Italian mortadella) , rolled it up and handed it to me somehow, usually through my mother's detour.

Because the counter was always so high that it reached even my mother up to chest.

Unreachable for me.

The butcher and I, that was the story of the two royal children who could not come to each other because of the adverse external circumstances.

And this is where the "children's meat sausage staircase" comes into play.

Because children's hands and generous butchers, someone had to solve the problem.

Some supermarkets have put them up now, and it's a nasty thing that people are only now coming up with it.

The child climbs up and can receive his own slice of sausage.

In marketing, you'd call that early customer loyalty.

But we, the people, just call it the "Kinderfleischwursttreppe" .

Some strangers say, this it is the reason why they do not learn German.

Cultural philistines, I just say.

Bon appetit!

Saturday, November 4, 2023

How should John Kennedy have said "I am a Berliner" ...

Angela Stockton

native Louisvillian

15,582 followers

26 following

... in a correct way avoiding to be misunderstood or "Ich bin ein Berliner", as he said, is okay even so?

Oh no, not that stupid “I am a jelly donut” urban legend again.

Before John F. Kennedy delivered his speech, the final draft was read by Willy Brandt, mayor of West Berlin and future chancellor of West Germany. Brandt was as fluent in English as he was in German, and Kennedy was his guest and leader of West Germany’s most powerful NATO ally. There was no way he would have allowed Kennedy to embarrass himself by using the wrong metaphor in a speech.

The Berlin Wall had been erected shortly before Kennedy visited West Berlin, an island of democracy inside East Germany, which is why Stalin tried to force the United States, France and Britain to move out and leave Berlin entirely Soviet-controlled. (Denied use of railroads and the Autobahn, the United States retaliated with the Berlin Airlift, which continued for more than a year before Stalin finally gave up.)

The Wall made West Berliners feel even more threatened and isolated than they had been since the Airlift years. From the context of Kennedy’s speech, it was perfectly clear to the West Berliners that when he said “Ich bin ein Berliner,” he was saying that all free people of the world identified with them.

Sturmtief „Ciaran“ verwüstet Europa: Aufnahmen verdeutlichen die Wucht des Orkans

Stand:03.11.2023, 17:08 Uhr

Von: Romina Kunze, Merkur

Meter hohe Wellen an der Atlantikküste, Überflutungen in Italien, Frankreich und Großbritannien. Auch über Deutschland fegt Sturmtief „Ciaran“ hinweg und fordert Menschenleben.