The Oxford English Dictionary shows that "television" is first recorded in 1900.“Television” consists of “tele” and “vision,” a combination of Greek “telos” (far) and Latin “visio” (see).
A German word for “TV” is “fernseher.” It is the word combined with “fern” (far) and “seher” (seer). German and English belong to the same language family as West Germanic (“the Germanic group”), so that their basic words are often identifiable.
What we found here is that, on arrival of a new word, German has retained method of word formation by replacing “television” with their own lexical stock. English would also have done the same thing, and put it “ferseer,” but instead they borrowed “television” just as it is, adapting a continental vocabulary.
It is interesting to observe the different stance towards borrowing. One of the contributing factors that led English to a common international language would be the borrowing of diverse words regardless of regions and nations. This is not to say German is not appropriate for global language, but flexible nature of English in adapting multiple languages would undoubtedly have been and is a necessary step to the present global status.
Works Referred
Horobin, Simon. How English Became English: A Short History of a Global Language. Oxford University Press, 2016.
A German word for “TV” is “fernseher.” It is the word combined with “fern” (far) and “seher” (seer). German and English belong to the same language family as West Germanic (“the Germanic group”), so that their basic words are often identifiable.
What we found here is that, on arrival of a new word, German has retained method of word formation by replacing “television” with their own lexical stock. English would also have done the same thing, and put it “ferseer,” but instead they borrowed “television” just as it is, adapting a continental vocabulary.
It is interesting to observe the different stance towards borrowing. One of the contributing factors that led English to a common international language would be the borrowing of diverse words regardless of regions and nations. This is not to say German is not appropriate for global language, but flexible nature of English in adapting multiple languages would undoubtedly have been and is a necessary step to the present global status.
Works Referred
Horobin, Simon. How English Became English: A Short History of a Global Language. Oxford University Press, 2016.
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