" English speakers who know German or are at least laboring under the illusion that some language school taught them enough to get by may well ask themselves if they have wasted their Zeit and Geld when they visit Germany these days! English words crop up in the vocabulary of even those Germans intent on sparing their language this particular foreign influence.
Only the playful side of the matter, newspapers and magazines positively teem with personal ads written in Engleutsch, Denglisch, Gerlisch, or Neu-Deutsch, (to mention but a few of the more unfavorable nicknames given this language by those who take occasional offense at it).
A Girl on the dating scene may choose to go to a Single-Treff (singles bar) where she hopes to meet the right Boy. The two then come together and share the Taste of a Cocktail at Happy Hour. For the younger generation, what Kids do, ⌠es muß Fun machen■ because they are the Fit-For-Fun People.
... When meaning fails to be transported along with an Anglicism, a German ecologist trying to differentiate between öko-audit and öko-controlling is in trouble. And everybody may understand Recyclebarkeit (⌠recyclability■), but wouldn▓t it look better to Germanize the spelling? I.e., risaikeln or at least recykeln?
...In Germany, Managers now have Jobs and attend Briefings and Workshops, take Trips on InterCity trains, having bought a Ticket with Cash, before perhaps attending a Meeting on Total Value Management. Alternatively, Base Zero Budgeting notwithstanding, they may be whisked Up, Up, and Away, First Class, of course, because they are taking part in a Refreshing(!) Course to learn how to run a Sponsoring Event.
...Nietzsche gave to the language spoken by soldiers in barracks; he called it a ⌠barbaric retrogression,■ which was arguably the case, though German language and literature seem to have survived its ⌠evil■ influence!
Of course, no nation is free of the attraction to lacing one▓s speech with foreign words, where would the Anglo-Americans be≈and the rest of the civilized world for that matter≈without Schadenfreude and Weltanschauung, not to mention the nastier concepts Lebensraum or Blitzkrieg? (Or is that Gesellschaft?)
It is interesting that the influence of German on English seems to be largely restricted to two main areas≈war and the mind. At first glance, one wonders if there is nothing between the psyche and the sword that has left its imprint upon Shakespeare▓s tongue. But one in-between area, the stomach, has been affected. In the culinary realm, Sauerkraut is one ⌠German■ item that has taken root outside of Germany, as has an Americanized liverwurst and a few other comestibles that immigrés couldn▓t do without.
We still wonder, though, why the enormity of the influence of English on the German language? Are young people eager to show they are as ⌠cool■ as the next Kid? Are adults showing off in some way, or are they genuinely interested in intercultural issues and conscious of such enrichment in their lives because of the best of Neu-Deutsch? "
By Jennifer Becker
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