Всероссийский фестиваль педагогического творчества
(2015/2016 учебный год)
Номинация: «Проектная и творческая деятельность учащихся»
Лингвистика и иностранные языки
Исполнитель:
Мещерягина Дарья Сергеевна, ученица 10А класса
МАОУ «СОШ № 17»
Руководитель:
Жукова Татьяна Михайловна , учитель английского немецкого языка
Iквалификационной категории
МАОУ «СОШ № 17» и
ГО Краснотурьинск

Content
Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 3
1. Theoretical part…………………………………………………………….. 5
1.1. The history of development of English………………………………... 5
1.2. The history of the German languages…………………………………. 6
1.3. Why is German so similar to English? .................................................. 7
2. Practical part ……………………………………………………………..... 8
2.1. Comparative analysis of English and German semantical features …... 8
2.2. Experimental research………………………………………………….
11
3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 13
4. Bibliography……………………………………………………………….. 14
2

Introduction
Nowadays, when science and technical knowledge are progressing so fast, all kinds of specialists need foreign languages in their work – teachers and doctors, politicians and actors, engineers and businessmen, and people from many other professions. Foreign languages are necessary nowadays because of our growing international contacts with foreign countries. There is a good quotation: “How many languages you know so many times you are a man”. I think it is really so. I also think that persons should learn as much foreign languages as possible as it makes the outlook wider. Moreover, knowing several foreign languages brings many opportunities to life. In the modern world you will not make a deep impression only with your knowledge of English, therefore more and more people start to learn another foreign language.
I have always wanted to know several languages. The knowledge of foreign languages will be beneficial for my future career. After I graduate from school, I want to enter a linguistic university to become an interpreter. But that’s not all. After the university, I’d like to continue my studies abroad in the English or German speaking environment. That’s why last year I started learning
German as a second foreign language.
German is also a widely spread language. It is spoken by about 100 million people worldwide, and is the official language of Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland.
English and German seem to be quite different languages. In many ways they are; they have different grammatical rules and structures, and have very different rhythms and pronunciations. However, there are a lot of similarities between the two languages. And these similarities can be very helpful in learning the German language. In my opinion, the theme “Similar semantical aspects of English and German helping to study German as the second language” is of present interest.
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The hypothesis of the research is:
Languages of one linguistic group are similar in some aspects, thus it’s easier to study the second foreign language having found out these aspects.
The aim of my work is to identify the semantical similarities and differences between English and German.
The objectives:
1.
to study history of development of both languages;
2.
to make a comparative analysis of some semantical features of
English and German.
The object of research: the similar semantical features of English and
German
The subject of research: the similarities and differences between the semantical features of English and German
Methods of research:
 comparative analysis;
 classification;
 synthesis
My research is based on the analysis of various sources of information: the internet resources, grammar reference books, dictionaries.
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1. Theoretical part
1.1. The history of development of English
The English language has undergone many changes and developments over the centuries. There are two main reasons for language change or evolution: socio-historical reasons and linguistic reasons. Socio-historical reasons for change are external in influence, such as the effects of migration; linguistic reasons for change in language are those developments that happen naturally over time. [5]
The English language belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-
European family of languages. The closest undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and Frisian. Frisian is a language spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province of Friesland, in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North Sea.
The history of the English language has traditionally been divided into following periods:

Before English (Prehistory - c. 500 AD) - including Indo-European,
Spread of Indo-European Languages, Germanic, The Celts, The Romans.

Old English (c. 500 - c. 1100) - including Invasions of Germanic Tribes,
The Coming of Christianity and Literacy, The Anglo-Saxon or Old
English Language, The Vikings, Old English after the Vikings.

Middle English (c. 1100 - c. 1500) - including Norman Conquest, French
(Anglo-Norman) Influence, Middle English After the Normans,
Resurgence of English, Chaucer and the Birth of English Literature.

Early Modern English (c. 1500 - c. 1800) - including Great Vowel Shift,
The English Renaissance, Printing Press and Standardization, The Bible,
Dictionaries and Grammars, Golden Age of English Literature, William
Shakespeare, International Trade.

Late Modern English (c. 1800 - Present) - including The Industrial and
Scientific Revolution, Colonialism and the British Empire, The New
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World, American Dialect, Black English, Britain’s Other Colonies,
Language Reform, Later Developments, 20th Century.

English Today - including English as a Lingua Franca, Reverse
Loanwords, Modern English Vocabulary, Modern English Spelling. [7]
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1.2. The history of the German language
German is one of the large groups of Indo-Germanic languages, and within this group is one of the Germanic languages, related to Danish,
Norwegian and Swedish, Dutch, as well as to English. With around ninety to ninety eight million native speakers all over the world, German is one of the major global languages. In Europe, it is the most spoken first language. The words and grammar constituting the language are taken from several other languages including Latin, Greek, English, and French. It is used as the Official language for Germany and Austria.
Presently, the language has several forms, which are used in different environments and locations depending on the relationship of the inhabitants with any past or present aspect of the German language and culture. An example is the sub-grouping of the language into several groups namely; standard German, traditional German, and High German.
The German language can be classified into three time periods starting from the year 750. The three groups are;
Old German (from c.750 to c.1050) – The earliest evidence of the language were found at around this time.
Middle German (from c.1050 to c.1500) – The use of a more formal form of German was started, replacing Latin which had been in use until then.
Modern German (from c.1500 to present) – Its ancestor is the middle
German language from which it is formed. This is now the main German dialect that is very common and in use at present. As seen above, the old German languages were only used for a relatively short time until the more refined modern German replaced them.[9]
Modern German was in a great part introduced by writers in the 18th century. Continued use led to the language becoming the official spoken language for the Church, government, and educational institutions. Another
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form of the language, the High German, is mostly used in written material especially in the education sector, in theatres and in broadcasting.
The common form of the language, standard German, was made official in 1901 after a handbook on grammar was written in 1880. The book was called the Duden Handbook. This became the official form of standard German for use in all official matters and institutions. It went unrevised until 1998 when a spelling revision of the language done in 1996 was officially incorporated into the existing German language. Until present, the language has been in a transitional phase where the revisions made are being taught to new and upcoming generations. The previous traditional versions, however, still exist in certain places like the media.[9]
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1.3. Why is German so similar to English?
German is the language most similar to English - more than any other language. About one sixth of all words in English are derived from German.
However, of the words used frequently in English, almost half of them are derived from German. Modal verbs and gerunds also have a German influence.
English grammar is still very similar to German. Let’s compare:
1. Meine Freundin ist neun Jahre alt. – My friend is nine years old.
2. Wir gehen in die Schule. – We go to school.
There are two reasons for the similarity between the two languages: their common ancestry, the tendency of languages to borrow words from each other
Common Ancestry
German is a close relative of English. English and German both belong to the same family of languages. English is a Germanic language like German.A
Germanic language was brought to England by Anglo-Saxon invaders after 500
AD.Germanic Languages, subfamily of the Indo-European languages. They are spoken by more than 480 million people in northern and western Europe, North
America, South Africa, and Australia. In their structure and evolution they fall into three branches:
1.
East Germanic (extinct): the Gothic language and some other extinct languages.
2.
North Germanic or Scandinavian includes Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and
Swedish.
3.
The West Germanic languages are English, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, and
Yiddish.[10]
The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English and German.
All the modern Germanic languages are closely related; moreover, they share some similarities in grammar and vocabulary, but this doesn´t mean they are mutually understandable.
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Borrowing
Almost all languages borrow words from other languages. There are three ways that such borrowing has created similarities between German and
English:
1.
English words borrowed into German (The English word “computer” was borrowed into German.)
2.
German words borrowed into English (The German words “das
Wunderkind ”, “ der Kindergarten” were borrowed into English.)
3.
The words borrowed into both English and German from a third language
(The words “renovieren”/”to renovate” were borrowed, independently, into both English and German from Latin.) [10]
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2. Practical part
2.1. Comparative analysis of English and German semantical features.
To prove my hypothesis I have analyzed some semantical features of
English and German. On the one hand, they are completely different. In my opinion, one of the simplest and most obvious reasons why German and English developed in different directions is the geographical distance between the peoples who spoke two languages. German was spoken in the north of the
European continent. English was isolated on an island some 500 miles away.
English and German differ significantly in some aspects. Some of the aspects in
German that make problems for me as for English speaker are:

Unlike in English, in the German language every noun has a gender. The genders are indicated by the definite articles der (masculine), die (feminine), and das (neuter), which all mean the: der Tisch (the table), die Lampe (the lamp), das Haus (the hause).

Unlike English, which has lost almost all forms of declension of nouns and adjectives, German still inflects nouns, adjectives and pronouns into four grammatical cases. The cases are the nominative (Nominativ), genitive
(Genitiv), dative (Dativ), and accusative (Akkusativ). These cases affect the articles and their resulting adjective ending. In English, there are only two cases: subjective and objective. The forms “the” and “a” do not change when the case changes.

German verbs are conjugated for each person. The conjugation consists of an ending placed on the verb stem. For example: ich bringe (I bring) du brings (you bring) er, sie, es bringt (he, she, it brings) wir bringen (we bring) ihr bringt (you bring) sie bringen (they bring)
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
The German alphabet, like English, consists of 26 basic letters. However, there are also combined letters and four umlauted forms: the Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü, and the ß (double-s). The pronunciation of some of these letters does not exist in the English language.
On the other hand, English and German are similar. As it is necessary for us to remember that the object of the research is the detection of similar semantical features of English and German, the main point of the practice is to find the aspects which will be useful in studying German as the second language. Thus, the lexical and grammatical units are to be found that can ease the process of studying. That’s why I proceeded from the similarities at the following levels: pronunciation, spelling and use of language.

German words may sound similar to English words but are spelled differently: der Arm (arm) die Hand (hand) das Wasser (water) der Sommer (summer) das Buch (book) Die Mutter (mother) der Garten (garden) der Sohn (son) die Katze (cat) die Maus (mouse) die Lampe (lamp) der Busch (bush) das Haus (hause) der Mann (man) der Vater (father) das Bett (bed)

Many words are spelled almost the same way in English and German:
Text – text Park – park Museum- museum April – April
Zoo - zoo
Bus - bus
Motor – motor Figure – figure
Garage - garage Name - name
Ball – ball
Position - position

German months are very similar to English months:
Januar - January April - April Juli - July Oktober - October
Februar- February Mai - May August - August
März - March Juni - June
November- November
September -September Dezember - December

In the English language are many words taken from German without any letter changed:
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German word
Blitz
Kindergarten
English cognate blitz kindergarten
Meaning of German word flash playschool
Kraut
Angst kraut angst cabbage fear / angst
Autobahn autobahn motorway

Some lexical units have similar ways of formation ones in two languages:
Montag - Monday dreizehn - thirteen neunzehn – nineteen

There are several similarities in the use of lexical units in two languages. The word card/Karte, for example. In both languages it has the following meanings:
1) playing card; 2) post card; 3) business card; 4) plastic card but : the German word Karte also has the meaning“the cinema or theatre ticket”, and “card” having this meaning isn't used, the word “ticket” is used for this purpose in English.

A verb in German as well as in English is a word that represents an action or a state of being. The grammatical forms of verbs include number, person and tense. Most verbs, which are irregular in English, are also irregular in
German:
German singen, sang, gesungen trinken, trank, getrunken
English sing, sang, sung drink, drank, drunk kommen, kam, gekommen bringen, brachte, gebracht come, came, come bring, brought, brought

German and English have many of the same tenses as well.
German English
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Präsens/Present
Präteritum/Simple Past
Ich singe
Ich sang
I sing
I sang
Perfekt/Present Perfect
Futurum/Simple Future
Ich habe gesungen
Ich werde singen
I have sung
I will sing

Comparison of Adjectives and Adverbs in German generally work in a way that is similar to English:
Positive neu new gut
Comparative neuer newer besser
Superlative der neuste the newest der beste good better the best
Conclusion:
Although German and English differ significantly in some aspects, they share many similar traits. The languages are closely related because they belong to the same “family” of languages. I found some similar features of English and
German. They seem to be helpful to remember German words and phrases as I know their English meanings and translations.
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2.2. Experiment
When I travelled to Germany last summer, I could understand some
German phrases though I hadn’t studied German before. For example:
Glas Cola Ich habe Probleme Kann ich hier parken?
Glas Milch
Glas Tee
Kafee mit Milch klassische Musik meine Kreditkarte
Ich muss telefonieren
Ich trinke Kafee mit Milch
Der Film ist interessant.
Hier ist meine Adresse.
Hier ist meine E-Mail-
Adresse.
Wo ist das Museum?
Wo ist der Supermarkt?
Wo ist das Theater?
If you’ve never studied German, you may not realize that you already know many German words and phrases. You already know a bit German!
I suggested my classmates to test it themselves. Twenty-three students of the ninth form which had never studied German were submitted to German language test. It involved the following tasks:
1. Translate the German words into English.
Milch studieren gut
Nummer
Oktober parken sitzen braun lang
Vater
Tee
Buch
Maus singen bringen kann lernen beige voll brünett grau
2. Guess the German numerals. zehn neun sechs neunzehn hundert tausend sieben (eine) Million
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3. Complete the sentences.
1) Der Winter beginnt im …
2) Mein Name ist …
3) Der … ist interessant.
4) Mein Bruder kann … gut sprechen.
5) Wir trinken …. mit Milch.
6) Das Auto ist …
1. neu.
2. Englisch.
3. Kaffee
4.Dezember
5. Film
6. Martin
4. Connect the English equivalents with the following German proverbs.
1. Mal lernt, solange man lebt. a) One swallow doesn`t make a summer.
2. Besser spät als nie.
3. Bei Nacht sind alle Katzen grau. b) Rats leave the sinking ship. c) When the cat is away the mice will play.
4. Die Ratten verlassen das sinkende d) Better late than never.
Schiff.
5. Ein Schwäble macht noch keinen e) All cats are gray in the dark.
Sommer.
6. Wenn die Katze fort ist, tanzen die
Mäuse. f) Live and learn.
5. Translate the poem.
Winter kommt, Winter kommt.
Flocken fallen nieder
Es ist kalt, Es ist kalt
Weiß ist alles wieder.
The results, which are given as the round average number of points scored by the students and the average percentage of correct answers, are presented in the table below:
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Type of results Average number of points
44
20
7
6
6
4
Average percentage of correct answers
94% General results
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 5
95%
89%
100%
100%
80%
The results of the experiment met my expectations. All my classmates passed the test though they had never studied German. From the key words similar to English they were able to make out the meanings of the German words. They could use the words similar to English as clues to the meanings of the other German words that are not similar to English.
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Conclusion
The central point of my research is the comparison some semantical features of English and German. They are completely different languages. One of the simplest and most obvious reasons why German and English developed in different directions is the geographical distance between the peoples who spoke two languages. German was spoken in the north of the European continent.
English was isolated on an island some 500 miles away. English and German differ significantly in some aspects. Some of these aspects in German that make problems for English speakers are:
 the four different cases;

the three noun genders;
 differences in the verb tenses;
 differences in alphabet, phonology and vocabulary.
On the other hand, German and English are very similar. As Germanic languages, they are closely related. The similarities between both languages reveal their underlying relationship and make learning German a relatively easy task for English speakers. The following similarities were noticed:

Both languages use the symbols of the Latin alphabet. German pronunciation of the letters is the same as English in many cases;

German words may sound similar to English ones;

Many words are spelled almost the same way in English and German;

Some lexical units have similar ways of formation ones in two languages;

A verb in German as well as in English is a word that represents an action or a state of being. The grammatical forms of verbs include number, person and tense. Most verbs, which are irregular in English, are also irregular in German;

Comparison of Adjectives and Adverbs in German generally works in a way that is similar to English;
18


German and English have many of the same tenses as well.
The results of my research work support the hypothesis that English and
German are very close to each other because they belong to the same family of languages. There are many similarities between them. The knowledge of these similarities can help in learning German as a second foreign language after
English. If you are an English-speaker, you already know more German than you may realize!
19

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