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German Etymologies: Lesson Four

Lesson 4: Miscellaneous Correspondences
Other correspondences between German and English are the result of varied sound shifts and pronunciation changes.

In Middle English, the gh's in words like "thought" and "bright" were pronounced like the German ch sounds in "ach" and "ich". If you have ever memorized the beginning to the prologue of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, you have an excellent example to prove this:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote...

English spelling retained these gh's, even though we don't pronounce them any more:
 

German:	der Knecht	die Tochter	nichts	die Nacht
English:	the knight	the daughter	naught	the night

Other correspondences are f-p and g-y:
 

German:	die Seife	reif	offen	schlafen
English:	the soap	ripe	open	to sleep

 

German:	sagen	mögen	der Hagel	der Regen
English:	to say	may	the hail	the rain
Note:	Middle English spellings were hayl and rayn.

Learn these correspondences in addition to the ones in the preceding lessons, and you will have a broad base from which to discover hidden relationships between German and English words.
 

This page last updated March 12, 2002.
© 2002 Jennifer Bjornstad