There should be a word for this in every language (nappers of the world, unite!). Muesterchen/Muesterkens (translation: little patterns) are the marks fabrics leave on your face while you are asleep. While researching words for this list, I was also shocked to learn that my Oma (Grandmother) had probably made some of my favorite words up.įor example, I was unable to include ‘Muesterchen (Muesterkens)*’ because I couldn’t prove that this word exists outside my immediate family. I’ve tried to avoid slang words or words unique to one of the many regional dialects.

I’ve confined myself to words readily available in German dictionaries. Pronunciations provided thanks to the nice people at. Here are some of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) German words… feel free to add your own in the comments section below! Growing up, I was accustomed to my parents switching back and forth between English and German (particularly when they were excited). Some people make fun of it, but I grew up listening to my family speak it so it reminds me of holidays, house parties, and home. I also have a love for the German language. They moved to Canada and then had me, so I’m about as German as a Canadian can be – which probably explains my weakness for sauerkraut, oom-pa-pa, and marzipan. A reformulated list was published posthumously in 1971.Both my parents were born in Germany. Subsequently, it was reduced to 207, and reduced much further to 100 meanings in 1955. Starting in 1950 with 165 meanings, his list grew to 215 in 1952, which was so expansive that many languages lacked native vocabulary for some terms.

He then used the fraction of agreeing cognates between any two related languages to compute their divergence time by some (still debated) algorithms. To be able to compare languages from different cultures, he based his lists on meanings he presumed would be available in as many cultures as possible. Using vocabulary lists, he sought to understand not only change over time but also the relationships of extant languages. Presentation For further information, including the full final version of the list, read the Wikipedia article: Swadesh list.Īmerican linguist Morris Swadesh believed that languages changed at measurable rates and that these could be determined even for languages without written precursors. This is a Swadesh list of words in German, compared with that of English.

German words in english list