Why do we English use so many German words?

Question

I am interested to know how come the we use so many German words in our language, and how come if a place is called Munchen in Germany that we call it something totally different..Munich? Languages fascinate me but having never studied the history of any language, I am totally without knowledge.

Answer 1

well, we use a lot of english words in german too, it's a two way street. for starters, both german and english are germanic languages, so they have a lot in common anyway. actually, if you go back about a thousand years to old english, the two languages were practically the same, it's only the french influence after 1066 that makes them so different from each other now. if you're talking about modern german and modern english, it has a lot to do with concepts that didn't exist in the language before. there is, for instance, no real german translation for "computer", so we use the english word instead. in english, on the other hand there has never been a proper translation for "tischfussball", so you use the - misspelt - german word "foosball" instead. basically, words from other cultures enter a language when they embody a concept that hasn't existed in the host language before. that's why we have such a load of hindi words in europe too, pajama, shampoo, jodphurs etc, all these things and their names were brought to europe from india in colonial times. does that make sense to you?

Answer 2

Besides the fact that English is a Germanic language (low german, like Dutch or Frisian), many, many Americans are of German ancestry--in the 1990 census, 28% of all Americans claimed at least one German ancestor, and, in some parts of the country it was much higher. Most of these words entered English in the last half of the 19th century
Deli--from Delikatessen or good eating (loosely translated)
Kindergarten--children's garden (children bloom and grow like flowers
other words entered English through Yiddish, which has strong German influences. (spiel--in German, play, in English, a standard speech--I don't know what it means in Yiddish)

Answer 3

English is a Romance language, and has many words from many languages.

City names are different in different languages for various reasons. With specific reference to Munich, both Munich and Munchen are variations on the original name, Munichen.

Answer 4

First and foremost because English is a Germanic language.

Answer 5

Don't forget all of the French words in English.