Stephen Barbour wrote:
> The labelling of these anglicisms as 'englische Woerter' is highly
> misleading causing huge problems, since Germans who speak English then
> believe they can simply use them without further ado when they speak
> English. 'Handy' for 'mobile', 'mobbing' for 'bullying, harassment' ,
> 'start' for 'take-off' and many others are now rife in Germans' English
> usage, with comic. or even dysfunctional results. The items in question are
> of course not 'Englische Woerter', but 'DEUTSCHE Woerter englischen
> Ursprungs', but it is often very difficult to convince German speakers that
> this is the case.
Very true. Back in the early 70s Tim Buck had an article in *Die Zeit* entitled
"Merkwuerdiges Anglodeutsch", in which he pointed out that words like
"Showmaster" were German coinages which were supposed to look like English but
were unknown in the English-speaking world. As was evident from the angry
correspondence which ensued, he was simply not believed.
But as for the Brits being resolutely monolingual, I note with interest that my
digital TV receiver offers me subtitles in Welsh and Scots Gaelic. Does the
German equivalent provide them in Sorbian?
Howard Gaskill
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