I have an entirely English sounding surname, but it's definitely a rare one. We did our family tree in 2019 and found out my surname was anglicised by my great-great-grandfather; his grandfather was the one to emigrate to England. Turns out my dad's ancestry is in total about 50% from this other country, and only about 50% English. We had no idea about any of this, so personally I feel 100% English and don't feel any connection to this other country or to my family's former surname, but I was curious if anyone else was in a similar boat but felt otherwise, and if so, why?
I'd also be interested in hearing from any more recent immigrants too, if there are any here. Have you anglicised your name, and why/why not?
Hello all,
Iโd love your feedback and tips on a project Iโm trying just for fun.
Iโm experimenting with a new technique of language learning in which a sort of intermediate is created between two languages to highlight similarities while allowing the learner to get a better instinctual understanding of the flow, grammar, and vocabulary.
Really what Iโm talking about in practice is anglicising German while keeping true to both the German language and itโs grammar. I suppose itโs almost like a dialect.
The way I want to do this is to create a list of cognates between German and English as the basis.
I would create a hierarchy of these words with absolute similarities being at the top, with less accessible cognates further down.
After this, I would create intermediary words to be used sparingly in order to give the learner a chance to learn via exposure while also creating a strong sense of the wordโs meaning and origin.
The way I would create these intermediate words wouldnโt be totally consistent. Iโll aim for legibility. Some words like Handschuhe could be written as Handshoe in a different colour to indicate their constructed nature with a side note to clarify. The second time, it could be written in the original German. Other techniques could be minimising sound shifts or something similar.
Of course, there is a great deal of German that has cognates but favours another form. I think that writing texts while using this list would create an opportunity to use both while referring to something, thereby emphasising the words in their context.
Naturally, there are so many basic German words that shouldnโt be altered because they are fundamental to the language. I want to use a frequency list to determine which words would be best preserved.
https://preview.redd.it/rtw7v8huin351.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=330845887853aa1cd0a984b37ef07ebc5833c4e1
Hi folks,
British expat living here for a couple years and I've been craving some 'Chinese' food recently. Specifically, the way it tends to be in England. With salt and pepper chips and sweet chili chicken dishes (they tend to come with a sticky red sauce thing?). Any suggestions? Bonus points if I can get it delivered!
Thanks!
My estranged wife is Jewish, and she named our daughter โAvigailโ. She is incredibly incredibly proud of her Jewish roots, and whilst I am also Jewish, we are from different backgrounds (Ashkenazi Vs Iranian).
I am much more secular and โwesternโ than my estranged wife, and as such I wasnโt overly keen on my daughters name. However, she really loved it and I accepted it at the time as we were already heading towards a separation and I was trying to pick my battles.
My daughter is 2 now and it looks like her mother and I are truly over. Iโm incredibly upset over that but itโs a different matter entirely. Going forward, I would prefer to call my daughter โAbigailโ which is also an accepted Hebrew name, just much less โJewishโ I guess. It fits in with who I am and feels so much more right than โAvigailโ ever did. My mother feels like Iโm rocking the boat and would prefer me to leave it alone so Iโm not an asshole.
https://preview.redd.it/h20y1q7cy5651.png?width=1256&format=png&auto=webp&s=a1b0499648d5b7010cc788fa1fbb065fc4b3b59c
*-indicates names that were reconstructed phonetically, usually via shared proto-indo european roots
We tend to pronounce more familiar place names in a more anglicised manner - "Frahnce" and "PAR-iss" instead of "Frongss" and "Par-EE", foe instance.
Yet Calais, a city that was English for centuries, is pronounced "CAL-ay", pretty much as per French.
in answer to the germanised lunderground map: https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/dt7p0l/london_underground_if_english_was_a_dialect_of/, this is a map showing how things could have been if berliners had always spoken a wayward dialect of english (but largely based on the current modern german names). even names of slavic (crimson) etc. (black) origin have been reconstructed anglically, by returning to shared proto-indo-european roots (then coming back via proto-germanic all the way to modern 'english'). some more explanation is in the top left. other etymological sources are included all over the map.
this involved examining etymologies for each station name, using German wikipedia, local government websites, Albrecht Greule's Deutsches Gewรคssernamenbuch: Etymologie der Gewรคssernamen..., attempting to underpants proto-slavic sound changes at resources like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_sound_laws#cite_note-Verner-3
(things are kept more recognisably standard english this time, based on previous feedback!)
I want to be able to write and speak like a German and not like an English speaker who is learning German, if that makes sense? I need to have that German way of thinking but don't know how to get to that level. Any advice please?
in answer to the germanised lunderground map: https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/dt7p0l/london_underground_if_english_was_a_dialect_of/, this is a map showing how things could have been if berliners had always spoken a wayward dialect of english (but largely based on the current modern german names). even names of slavic (crimson) etc. (black) origin have been reconstructed anglically, by returning to shared proto-indo-european roots (then coming back via proto-germanic all the way to modern 'english'). some more explanation is in the top left. other etymological sources are included all over the map.
this involved examining etymologies for each station name, using German wikipedia, local government websites, Albrecht Greule's Deutsches Gewรคssernamenbuch: Etymologie der Gewรคssernamen..., attempting to underpants proto-slavic sound changes at resources like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_sound_laws#cite_note-Verner-3
(things are kept more recognisably standard english this time, based on previous feedback!)
