The Increasing Use of English Words in German

Abstract

The influence of English on the German vocabulary is a linguistic phenomenon of long standing that has been the subject of a number of investigations' in the past. One of the most comprehensive of these is Agnes B. Stiven's Marburg dissertation, Englands EinfluB auf den deutschen Wortschatz,2 in which she points out that this English influence experienced an unusual growth from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the 1880's and even increased in the three decades (1885-1914) before World War I (p. 78). A. J. F. Zieglschmid also mentions the use of English words in German before 1914 in his article Englisch-amerikanischer EinfluB auf den Wortschatz der deutschen Sprache der Nachkriegszeit and adds that gleich nach dem Kriege eine neue starke Welle der Engliinderei und des Amerikafimmels iiber Deutschland und fiber die deutsche Sprache hereinbrach ... (p. 25). It is interesting to note that this linguistic invasion took place although a determined campaign had been waged against foreign words during the war (Z 25). During Hitler's reign, 1933-1945, opposition to the use of foreign words repeated itself, but since the end of World War II the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction again; it is apparent in Germany today that the presence of thousands of English and especially of American military and civilian personnel has made an impact upon German life and the German language. Germans have adopted some