Language across Time Essay

The first loanwords of the German language come from the 16th century. During this period, words related to trade, military affairs, the names of some plants, the words describing the people, and others were borrowed. For example: halt, lance-knight, kreuzer, junker.
Already in the 16th century an active development of ore deposits and metallurgy begins in England. Germany was an advanced country of mining and metallurgical industry at that time. Mining experts started to come to England from Germany. During the reign of Elizabeth Tudor the two industrial companies were built and led by the Germans. It is very likely that as a result of direct contact with German speaking people, there first was an oral borrowing of German words. In written documents, these words appeared not earlier than in the 17th century. Such terms of Mines as: zinc, bismut, cobalt and others came into English from German.
In the 17th century, the new borrowings from the sphere of trade and military affairs appeared. Those loanwords included: groschen; drillinq; plunder; staff; fieldmarshal and others (Algeo 2009).
In the 18th century, the influence of the German language was weaker than in the previous century. This is obviously due to a general political and economic decline in Germany after the Thirteen Year War.
In the second half of 18th century there were borrowed a lot of words related to geology, mineralogy and mining, such as: iceberq, wolfram, nickel, qletscher, bismuth, cobalt, gneiss, quartz, zink. The serious influence of German is noticed in mineralogy.
Mineralogical and geological terms became particularly numerous in the 18th century; they made more than a half of all German borrowings of that period. In addition to already metioned words, there were also spathic, feldspar, sinter, wolfram, hornblende, speiss.
In the 18th-19th centuries the following words of German origin were borrowed: hetman, jaeger, landsturm, etc.
In the 19th century, the sphere of borrowing was much wider. There were some borrowing from the humanities, social life and politics. There were also borrowed many terms from the field of chemistry and physics, philology, art. Many of these loans were tracing, or were international words. Words related to lexicology, were, for example: ibdogermanic (Indogermanisch), Middle English (Mittelenglisch), umlaut, ablaut, grade (Grad), breaking, folk etymology (Folksetymologie), loanword (Lehnwort).
In the 19th century, the words, such as gangue, loess, spiegeleisen, kieselguhr, etc were borrowed.
A few words of German origin are the names of foods and beverages, for example stein, lagerbeer, sauerkrauft. These words are less numerous than the French borrowings in the same sphere and are distinguished by a lesser degree of assimilation in comparison with the latter.
A small number of German borrowings are used in the everyday lexicon: carouse, waltz, junker, lobby, kinchin, zigzag, and iceberg.
The modern German language presented such borrowing words as: rucksack, zappelin, as well as some musical terms, for example kappellmeister, leitmotif, and zither.
To the military sphere we can address such words as lansquenet, sabre. The word “plunder” has been enrolled in English in the 17th century by soldiers who served under the command of Gustavus Adolphus.
The borrowing German words meaning foods and household items are: marzipan, kohl-rabi, schnapps, kummel, kirsch, vermuth.
The borrowing German words from the field of music are: leitmotiv, kapellmeister, claviatur, humovresgue.
There are also some German loanwords meaning animals: spits, poodle.
For German loanwords of the 20th century is common the relatedness directly or indirectly, to the war. That time a lot of loanwords were related to Hitler regime. The most famous of them are: Black Shirt (Schwarhemd), Brown Shirt (Braunhemd), der Euhrer, gauleiter, Gestapo, Hitlerism, Nazi, Stormtroopers (Stumabteilung), the Third Reich (Third Reich), blitzkrieg, bunker, Luftwaffe, Wehrmacht (Pfeffer 2010).

Conclusion:
As a conclusion there is a need to say that the modern language is a product of long historical development, in the process of which the language is changed due to various reasons. Changes affect all aspects (levels, tiers, aspects) of linguistic structure, but operate them differently. The historical development of each level depends on the specific causes and conditions that promote changes in the lexical structure of language, its phonetic (phonemic) organization, in its grammatical structure.
The development of the language is characterized by the processes of growth and decay. Thus, an analytical form, a complex system of verb formation are developed in the English language, but the system of inducement splits and personal verb endings drop words from the vocabulary, new borrowing or by tumors.
The number of borrowings in the English language is sufficiently high compared with other languages. It was calculated that there are 70% of borrowings in the English language, and the rest are native English words. The reason for such “absorbency” of foreign vocabulary of English language lies in the historical development of the language. Numerous Alien conquests of the British Isles, trade, cultural impact of the continental countries – all these contributed to the emergence and consolidation of loans in English.

English in the early middle Ages took a lot of borrowing from the Scandinavian languages (including such basic words as skin, ill, and even she). The most massive flow of borrowing is a medieval, after the Norman Conquest, from Old French; as the result of it, almost half of English vocabulary became of Romanesque origin.

German also had a significant impact on English. There are about 820 words of German origin in English. Especially, there are a lot of German loanwords in the mining industry, chemistry and physics, philology, art, trade and military affairs, in the names of animals and plants. Borrowings in the English language don’t cause it harm, but rather enrich its vocabulary and help the development of word formation.

References

Algeo, John., Pyles, Thomas. (2009). The Origins and Development of the English Language. Vol. 1. p.254.

Bjorkman, Erik. (2008). Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English. Vol.1. p. 30.

Mencken, H. L. (2010). The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development English in theunited states. Pp. 406-407.

Pfeffer, J. Alan., Cannon,Garland. (2010). German Loanwords in English: An Historical Dictionary. Pp. 101-103.

Tottie, Gunnel. (2002). An introduction to American English. Pp. 122-123.