Shifts in consonance from English to German
This is a quick note to myself, so I can go back to it.
I am sharing a log of my process there: https://yctct.com/_german-log.txt.
In his English-to-German language course, Michel Thomas explains that in the Middle Ages there’re been a shift in consonance with Germanic language.
I don’t know what this is worth in terms of linguistics (or anthropology of language?), but knowing the correspondences of these shifts has helped me figure the meaning of the German words, or sometimes even make up German words to get by.
MT speaks about three groups which he calls ‘strings’.
1: the “d” string
d [in English] may change to t [in German], or t to th, but in German there are not th, so th becomes s or z.
For example, good becomes gut; the d in English becomes t.
For example, is becomes ist, goes becomes geht; the s ending becomes a t ending.
For example, what becomes was; water becomes wasser; t becomes an s
For example, to drink become trinken; d becomes t (and we add en; all verbs in German end in en)
For example, to eat becomes essen; the t becomes a double s, plus en.
For example, to do becomes tun; the d becomes a t.
For example, the d of had becomes a t : hatte, hatten.
2: the “b” string
b, p, ph, v (pronounced f in German), w (pronounced v in German).
For evening, evening is abend in German; the v becomes a b.
3: the “g” string
g to gh
c to ch to k or ck
For example, to come becomes kommen; cold becomes kalt; c becomes k (and we again find a d which become t)
…
y in English which will be g in German
For example, the y of yesterday becomes g in gestern.
