Comparing Germanic and Romance Languages German and Spanish

Comparing Germanic and Romance Languages (German and Spanish) By Annis Cordy, Jessica-Alice Cunliffe, Heidi Dobson, Rhys Jervis and “Daniel Webb”

Spanish: Where is it spoken? • The language is spoken by between 322 and 400 million people natively • This includes people from countries such as : Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela

Where Is German Spoken? • German is the tenth most widely spoken language in the world, with a total of 123, 527, 178 speakers worldwide. The countries in which it is a native language include not only Germany and Austria, but also Switzerland (4. 6 million speakers) and Liechtenstein (32, 000 speakers). Other countries where it has official status as a widely spoken language are Luxemburg, Italy and Belgium. Smaller German speaking communities also exist in North and South America, South Africa and Australia.

Variations of Spanish • Me gusta ver la tele. (I like to watch the television) • Due to massive emigration from Andalusia to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and elsewhere, many American Spanish dialects share some fundamental characteristics with Andalusian Spanish, such as the use of ustedes instead of vosotros for the second person plural, and the widespread use of seseo.

Variations Of German English Hochdeutsch Austrian In the morning Am Morgen In der Früh Noodles Die Spätzle Das Nockerl Whipped cream Die Schlagsahne Das Obers A German person [disparaging term] Deutsche Der Piefke

The Origins of the Spanish Language • Although Spanish is a ‘romance language’ it was influenced by the Visigothic language (an East Germanic Language). • It also has Arabic influence dating from 711 CE. • Shortly before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americans, Spanish settlers were introduced to a host of native languages and adopted a number of words from them.

The Origins of the German Language Proto-Germanic /I West Germanic North Germanic East Germanic /I/ Anglo-Frisian Netherlandic German W. Scandinavian E. Scandinavian I Gothic ///I/ English Frisian Netherlandic German Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish

Word Order and Translation I like it Ich mag das I like that Me gusta Me it pleases

I have a yellow house Ich habe ein gelbes Haus I have a yellow house Tengo una casa amarilla I have a house yellow

I go to London because I like shopping Ich fahre nach London, weil ich einkaufen mag I travel to London because I to shop like Voy a Londres porque me gusta ir de compras I go to London because me it pleases to go of purchases

I can see him Ich kann ihn sehen I can him to see Puedo verlo I can to see him

I have eaten it Ich habe es gegessen I have it eaten Lo he comido It I have eaten

Similarities between German and Spanish English Spanish German Hammo amacca Hängem ck atte

Spanish Phonology

German Phonology

Conclusion After making these comparisons, we can conclude that some similarities lie within the East Germanic origins of both languages, although the impact of these on the languages –particularly Spanish- could be seen as negligible. The differences between the languages outweigh the similarities, which would explain why they belong to different language families. There are, however, several Germanically-derived words in Spanish which correspond quite closely to words in modern Hochdeutsch, for example: • East. In Spanish ‘oeste’, in German ‘Ost’ • Soup. In Spanish ‘sopa’, in German ‘Suppe’. • Mascot. In Spanish ‘mascota’, in German ‘Maskotte’. However, it is debatable whether these words have the same Germanic origins, or are simply just derived or loaned from another language such as English.