SANGUEJOVEMDOSSANSTOS
SANGUEJOVEMDOSSANSTOS
noun modifies the category given by the second: Hundehütte ("dog hut";
specifically: "dog kennel"). Unlike English, whose newer compounds or combinations
of longer nouns are often written "open" with separating spaces, German (like some
other Germanic languages) nearly always uses the "closed" form without spaces, for
example: Baumhaus ("tree house"). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long
compounds in theory (see also English compounds). The longest German word verified
to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which, literally
translated, is "beef labelling supervision duties assignment law" [from Rind
(cattle), Fleisch (meat), Etikettierung(s) (labelling), Überwachung(s)
(supervision), Aufgaben (duties), Übertragung(s) (assignment), Gesetz (law)].
However, examples like this are perceived by native speakers as excessively
bureaucratic, stylistically awkward, or even satirical.
Verb inflection
Main article: German verbs
The inflection of standard German verbs includes:
two main conjugation classes: weak and strong (as in English). Additionally, there
is a third class, known as mixed verbs, whose conjugation combines features of both
the strong and weak patterns.
three persons: first, second and third.
two numbers: singular and plural.
three moods: indicative, imperative and subjunctive (in addition to infinitive).
two voices: active and passive. The passive voice uses auxiliary verbs and is
divisible into static and dynamic. Static forms show a constant state and use the
verb ’'to be'’ (sein). Dynamic forms show an action and use the verb "to become'’
(werden).
two tenses without auxiliary verbs (present and preterite) and four tenses
constructed with auxiliary verbs (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect).
the distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of the
subjunctive or preterite marking so the plain indicative voice uses neither of
those two markers; the subjunctive by itself often conveys reported speech;
subjunctive plus preterite marks the conditional state; and the preterite alone
shows either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal)
alternative for either reported speech or the conditional state of the verb, when
necessary for clarity.
the distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has, at every stage
of development, been a productive category of the older language and in nearly all
documented dialects, but strangely enough it is now rigorously excluded from
written usage in its present normalised form.
disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly
generated by common prefixes (blicken [to look], erblicken [to see – unrelated
form: sehen]).
Verb prefixes
The meaning of basic verbs can be expanded and sometimes radically changed through
the use of a number of prefixes. Some prefixes have a specific meaning; the prefix
zer- refers to destruction, as in zerreißen (to tear apart), zerbrechen (to break
apart), zerschneiden (to cut apart). Other prefixes have only the vaguest meaning
in themselves; ver- is found in a number of verbs with a large variety of meanings,
as in versuchen (to try) from suchen (to seek), vernehmen (to interrogate) from
nehmen (to take), verteilen (to distribute) from teilen (to share), verstehen (to
understand) from stehen (to stand).
Other examples include the following: haften (to stick), verhaften (to detain);
kaufen (to buy), verkaufen (to sell); hören (to hear), aufhören (to cease); fahren
(to drive), erfahren (to experience).
Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In
finite verb forms, it is split off and moved to the end of the clause and is hence
considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen, meaning
"to go along", would be split, giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?";
Idiomatic: "Are you going along?").
Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb
and its complement (ankommen = to arrive, er kam an = he arrived, er ist angekommen
= he has arrived):
Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem üblichen Ärger, der ihn
schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude
auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich
zu Hause an.
A selectively literal translation of this example to illustrate the point might
look like this:
He "came" on Friday evening, after a hard day at work and the usual annoyances that
had time and again been troubling him for years now at his workplace, with
questionable joy, to a meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already put on the
table, finally home "to".
Word order
German word order is generally with the V2 word order restriction and also with the
SOV word order restriction for main clauses. For yes-no questions, exclamations,
and wishes, the finite verb always has the first position. In subordinate clauses,
the verb occurs at the very end.
German requires a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) to appear second in
the sentence. The verb is preceded by the topic of the sentence. The element in
focus appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary,
these are several possibilities:
Der alte Mann gab mir gestern das Buch. (The old man gave me yesterday the book;
normal order)
Das Buch gab mir gestern der alte Mann. (The book gave [to] me yesterday the old
man)
Das Buch gab der alte Mann mir gestern. (The book gave the old man [to] me
yesterday)
Das Buch gab mir der alte Mann gestern. (The book gave [to] me the old man
yesterday)
Gestern gab mir der alte Mann das Buch. (Yesterday gave [to] me the old man the
book, normal order)
Mir gab der alte Mann das Buch gestern. ([To] me gave the old man the book
yesterday (entailing: as for someone else, it was another date))
The position of a noun in a German sentence has no bearing on its being a subject,
an object or another argument. In a declarative sentence in English, if the subject
does not occur before the predicate, the sentence could well be misunderstood.
However, German's flexible word order allows one to emphasise specific words:
Der Direktor betrat gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Büro.
The manager entered yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand his
office.
Object in front:
Sein Büro betrat der Direktor gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
His office entered the manager yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the
hand.
The object Sein Büro (his office) is thus highlighted; it could be the topic of the
next sentence.
Adverb of time in front:
Gestern betrat der Direktor um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Büro. (aber
heute ohne Schirm)
Yesterday entered the manager at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand his
office. (but today without umbrella)
Both time expressions in front:
Gestern um 10 Uhr betrat der Direktor mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Büro.
Yesterday at 10 o'clock entered the manager with an umbrella in the hand his
office.
The full-time specification Gestern um 10 Uhr is highlighted.
Another possibility:
Gestern um 10 Uhr betrat der Direktor sein Büro mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
Yesterday at 10 o'clock entered the manager his office with an umbrella in the
hand.
Both the time specification and the fact he carried an umbrella are accentuated.
Swapped adverbs:
Der Direktor betrat mit einem Schirm in der Hand gestern um 10 Uhr sein Büro.
The manager entered with an umbrella in the hand yesterday at 10 o'clock his
office.
The phrase mit einem Schirm in der Hand is highlighted.
Swapped object:
Der Direktor betrat gestern um 10 Uhr sein Büro mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
The manager entered yesterday at 10 o'clock his office with an umbrella in the
hand.
The time specification and the object sein Büro (his office) are lightly
accentuated.
The flexible word order also allows one to use language "tools" (such as poetic
meter and figures of speech) more freely.
Auxiliary verbs
When an auxiliary verb is present, it appears in second position, and the main verb
appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many
word orders are still possible:
Der alte Mann hat mir heute das Buch gegeben. (The old man has me today the book
given.)
Das Buch hat der alte Mann mir heute gegeben. (The book has the old man me today
given.)
Heute hat der alte Mann mir das Buch gegeben. (Today has the old man me the book
given.)
The main verb may appear in first position to put stress on the action itself. The
auxiliary verb is still in second position.
Gegeben hat mir der alte Mann das Buch heute. (Given has me the old man the book
today.) The bare fact that the book has been given is emphasized, as well as
'today'.
Modal verbs
Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the
English sentence "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should
he (to) home go?" (Soll er nach Hause gehen?). Thus, in sentences with several
subordinate or relative clauses, the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare
the similar clustering of prepositions in the following (highly contrived) English
sentence: "What did you bring that book that I do not like to be read to out of up
for?"
Multiple infinitives
German subordinate clauses have all verbs clustered at the end. Given that
auxiliaries encode future, passive, modality, and the perfect, very long chains of
verbs at the end of the sentence can occur. In these constructions, the past
participle formed with ge- is often replaced by the infinitive.
Man nimmt an, dass der Deserteur wohl erschossenV wordenpsv seinperf sollmod
One suspects that the deserter probably shot become be should.
("It is suspected that the deserter probably had been shot")
Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel hatte machen lassen
He knew not that the agent a picklock had make let
Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel machen lassen hatte
He knew not that the agent a picklock make let had
("He did not know that the agent had had a picklock made")
The order at the end of such strings is subject to variation, but the second one in
the last example is unusual.
Vocabulary
Latin words were already imported into the predecessor of the German language
during the Roman Empire and underwent all the characteristic phonetic changes in
German. Their origin is thus no longer recognizable for most speakers (e.g. Pforte,
Tafel, Mauer, Käse, Köln from Latin porta, tabula, murus, caseus, Colonia).
Borrowing from Latin continued after the fall of the Roman Empire during
Christianisation, mediated by the church and monasteries. Another important influx
of Latin words can be observed during Renaissance humanism. In a scholarly context,
the borrowings from Latin have continued until today, in the last few decades often
indirectly through borrowings from English. During the 15th to 17th centuries, the
influence of Italian was great, leading to many Italian loanwords in the fields of
architecture, finance and music. The influence of the French language in the 17th
to 19th centuries resulted in an even greater import of French words. The English
influence was already present in the 19th century, but it did not become dominant
until the second half of the 20th century.
As in English, there are many pairs of synonyms due to the enrichment of the
Germanic vocabulary with loanwords from Latin and Latinized Greek. These words
often have different connotations from their Germanic counterparts and are usually
perceived as more scholarly.
Historie, historisch – "history, historical", (Geschichte, geschichtlich)
Humanität, human – "humaneness, humane", (Menschlichkeit, menschlich)[nb 5]
Millennium – "millennium", (Jahrtausend)
Perzeption – "perception", (Wahrnehmung)
Vokabular – "vocabulary", (Wortschatz)
Diktionär – "dictionary, wordbook", (Wörterbuch)[nb 6]
probieren – "to try", (versuchen)
The size of the vocabulary of German is difficult to estimate. The Deutsches
Wörterbuch (German Dictionary) initiated by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm already
contained over 330,000 headwords in its first edition. The modern German scientific
vocabulary is estimated at nine million words and word groups (based on the
analysis of 35 million sentences of a corpus in Leipzig, which as of July 2003
included 500 million words in total).[65]
The Duden is the de facto official dictionary of the Standard High German language,
first published by Konrad Duden in 1880. The Duden is updated regularly, with new
editions appearing every four or five years. As of August 2017, it was in its 27th
edition and in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects such as loanwords,
etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, and so forth.
The first of these volumes, Die deutsche Rechtschreibung (German Orthography), has
long been the prescriptive source for the spelling of German. The Duden had become
the bible of the German language, being the definitive set of rules regarding
grammar, spelling, and usage of German.[66]
Orthography
Main articles: German orthography and German braille
In German orthography, nouns are capitalised, which makes it easier for readers to
determine the function of a word within a sentence. This convention is almost
unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxembourgish
language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), but it was
historically common in other languages such as Danish (which abolished the
capitalization of nouns in 1948) and English.
Present
Before the German orthography reform of 1996, ß replaced ss after long vowels and
diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word endings. In reformed
spelling, ß replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs.
Since there is no traditional capital form of ß, it was replaced by SS (or SZ) when
capitalization was required. For example, Maßband (tape measure) became MASSBAND in
capitals. An exception was the use of ß in legal documents and forms when
capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, lower case ß was
sometimes maintained (thus "KREßLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN"). Capital ß (ẞ) was
ultimately adopted into German orthography in 2017, ending a long orthographic
debate (thus "KREẞLEIN and KRESSLEIN").[68]
Umlaut vowels (ä, ö, ü) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts
are not available on the keyboard or other medium used. In the same manner, ß can
be transcribed as ss. Some operating systems use key sequences to extend the set of
possible characters to include, amongst other things, umlauts; in Microsoft Windows
this is done using Alt codes. German readers understand these transcriptions
(although they appear unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are
available, because they are a makeshift and not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and
Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel
lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ˈraːsfɛlt], Coesfeld [ˈkoːsfɛlt] and Itzehoe
[ɪtsəˈhoː], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-
day spelling of words other than proper nouns.)
Written German also typically uses an alternative opening inverted comma (quotation
mark) as in „Guten Morgen!“.
Past
A Russian dictionary from 1931, showing the "German alphabet" – the 3rd and 4th
columns of each half are Fraktur and Kurrent respectively, with the footnote
explaining ligatures used in Fraktur.
Further information: 2nd Orthographic Conference (German), Antiqua–Fraktur dispute,
and German orthography reform of 1944
Until the early 20th century, German was printed in blackletter typefaces (in
Fraktur, and in Schwabacher), and written in corresponding handwriting (for example
Kurrent and Sütterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different
from the serif or sans-serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and the handwritten
forms in particular are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms,
however, were claimed by some to be more readable when used for Germanic languages.
[citation needed][69] The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher because
they were considered Aryan, but they abolished them in 1941, claiming that these
letters were Jewish.[70] It is believed that the Nazi régime had banned this
script,[who?] as they realized that Fraktur would inhibit communication in the
territories occupied during World War II.[71]
The Fraktur script however remains present in everyday life in pub signs, beer
brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain
rusticality and antiquity.
A proper use of the long s (langes s), ſ, is essential for writing German text in
Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces also include the long s. A specific set
of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but nowadays it is rarely
used in Antiqua typesetting. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable
would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation
of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in
differentiating between the words Wachſtube (guard-house) and Wachstube (tube of
polish/wax). One can easily decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation,
(Wach-ſtube vs. Wachs-tube). The long s only appears in lower case.
Consonant shifts
Further information: High German consonant shift
German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sound, which the
English language still has, disappeared on the continent in German with the
consonant shifts between the 8th and 10th centuries.[72] It is sometimes possible
to find parallels between English and German by replacing the English th with d in
German: "Thank" → in German Dank, "this" and "that" → dies and das, "thou" (old 2nd
person singular pronoun) → du, "think" → denken, "thirsty" → durstig and many other
examples.
Literature
Main article: German literature
The German language is used in German literature and can be traced back to the
Middle Ages, with the most notable authors of the period being Walther von der
Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Nibelungenlied, whose author remains
unknown, is also an important work of the epoch. The fairy tales collected and
published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century became famous throughout
the world.
Reformer and theologian Martin Luther, who was the first to translate the Bible
into German, is widely credited for having set the basis for the modern Standard
High German language. Among the best-known poets and authors in German are Lessing,
Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Hoffmann, Brecht, Heine and Kafka. Fourteen German-
speaking people have won the Nobel Prize in literature: Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf
Christoph Eucken, Paul von Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Spitteler, Thomas Mann,
Nelly Sachs, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Elfriede
Jelinek, Herta Müller and Peter Handke, making it the second most awarded
linguistic region (together with French) after English.