Hailey Heseltine
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Many people think of English as one of several Romance languages, a group of languages that emerged from Late Latin in Europe, some of which are Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese. However, that is not the truth. Though it has significant roots in Latin, English is not a Romance language at all—it is Germanic, and many of German's influences in it are still visible today if you know where to look.
Germanic languages are divided into the categories of North, West, and East. English is specifically West Germanic, along with a few others, such as Dutch, Yiddish, Frisian and Modern German. This means that English originated from Anglo-Saxons who migrated from the modern-day Northwest Germany area to Britain around the 5th Century AD. These languages feature similar grammatical structure, lexical, phonological and morphological features. This is why it is often easier for English speakers to learn a West Germanic language than others.
Of course, English still borrowed from Latin significantly. English has always been a melting pot of a language, implementing more loan words and borrowed elements than original ones. Despite not being a Romance language, much of English is taken from either Latin or its descendants, such as French, of which English is approximately forty-five percent. Eighty percent of modern English is taken from other languages, and German accounts for around twenty-six percent.
Despite the seemingly small percentage, German's influence over English is clearly seen today. There are many words you use every day that you may not realize come directly from German-- doppelganger, kindergarten, angst and even bagel. The farther back you go, the more evident it is. Consider Elizabethan English, spoken from 1500 to 1750, also known as Early Modern English. Famous examples of Elizabethan English can be found in Shakespeare's works, which you may know as the lament of high schoolers across the country. A frequent complaint is that it is “like another language,” because it is. The differences in grammar and words are extremely Germanic, and some of it is even identical to Modern German.
For instance, a word you may run across often when reading a passage in Elizabethan English is “hast,” the equivalent of “have” used when addressing another person, like “you have” versus “thou hast.” This word is identically used in German today in sentences such as this one: “Du hast einen Hund.” (You have a dog.) Many other identical verbs can be spotted in Elizabethan English and Modern German. In other words, if you struggle to understand works by Shakespeare or other writers of the time, having basic knowledge of German will make it much more comprehensible.
In general, acquiring broader knowledge of languages is helpful for enriching our understanding of and gaining appreciation for both literature and spoken word, not just in other languages, but in our own English, too. So if you are struggling to choose a language from the endless options to pick to learn, consider German—you never know what dots you may connect.