Latin in German 2
MORE LATIN • 1 | 2 | 3: Latin Loan Words | 4 | 5 | 6
All of this also happens to have some practical benefits for the language-learner. Since many of the Latin-based terms in German are similar or identical to Latin-based vocabulary in English, we often see non-Germanic similarities between the two. Take a look at the following examples:
| LATEIN | DEUTSCH | ENGLISCH |
| familius | die Familie | family |
| fenestra | das Fenster | window (fenestration) |
| schola scholasticus |
die Schule die Scholastik |
school scholastics |
| See many more examples in our annotated Latin Loan Words in German glossary. | ||
In addition to common family, housing and scholastic words, another obvious category is the names of the months. The reason that it is so easy to identify the German months is because they all came from Latin, just as the English terms did.
But both German and English borrowed heavily from Latin in other areas as well. Latin makes up a large part of the Wortschatz in these fields: agriculture (fruits, viniculture), construction/housing, the military, administration, trade and the household. Some of the Latin borrowings were from Vulgärlatein (vulgate or "common" Latin), while other Lehnwörter entered German later from "classical" Latin.
Another important Latin factor was Humanismus in the 15th and 16th centuries. (The term humanism itself is Latin.) As Latin became the language of science, trade and literature, most German (and other European) scientists, authors and other notables of that period were better known by their Latin or Greek names. The Bavarian astronomer and mathematician Johann Müller (1436-1476) was better known as Regiomontanus. The German Protestant reformer Melanchthon was actually Phillip Schwarzert (1497-1560). They and other humanists of the time usually published their learned works in Latin. Most German words ending in -ieren are of Latin origin (some via French) and were largely added to German during this period, as were those with the suffixes -anz/enz, -ian or -tion, which came from Latin words ending in -antia, -ianus, or -tio.
NEXT > 3: Latin Loan Words • 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
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