Linguistic Kinship and Lexical Divergence: German-English Shared Vocabulary, Borrowing Patterns, and the Mechanisms of Cross-Linguistic Transfer
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69760/egjlle.2602015Keywords:
German-English lexical relations, Proto-Germanic cognates, loanwords, borrowing, historical linguistic, Anglicisms, Germanisms, culturonymsAbstract
English and German, as co-descendants of the Proto-Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, share a substantial stratum of common vocabulary rooted in their shared genealogical heritage. This article investigates the multi-layered lexical relationship between the two languages through three interconnected analytical dimensions: the identification and classification of cognate vocabulary deriving from their common Proto-Germanic ancestor; the systematic analysis of German loanwords in English and English loanwords in German as distinct borrowing streams; and the examination of the sociohistorical, cultural, and ideological mechanisms that have governed the trajectory of cross-linguistic lexical transfer across different historical periods. Drawing on historical linguistics, contact linguistics, and corpus-based lexicography, the study demonstrates that the German-English lexical relationship is neither symmetrical nor static but is structured by asymmetrical flows of cultural prestige, domain-specific borrowing, and degrees of phonological and orthographic assimilation. The analysis identifies academic, scientific, philosophical, and psychological discourse as particularly dense borrowing domains in English, while contemporary English loanwords into German are concentrated in digital technology, popular culture, and commerce. The article further examines the theoretical implications of German-English lexical contact for models of language change, the role of culturonyms in cross-cultural meaning transfer, and the pedagogical consequences of shared vocabulary for language learners navigating the two systems simultaneously.
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