Got A New Favourite German Singer And You All NEED To Listen To Her Songs:

Got a new favourite German singer and you all NEED to listen to her songs:

What makes German a difficult foreign language to learn?*

Phonology / Pronunciation & Comprehension

✳️ accent-based language (accent isn't fixed, rhythm isn't as melodic and forseeable)

✳️ 16 vowel sounds (lots more than the average 5-6!)

✳️ complex syllables

Morphology

✳️ Case system (Kausus) - allows for variable word order but requires lots of inflection on articles, pronouns, nouns and adjectives

✳️ Kasus-choice changing the meaning (esp. Akkusativ/Dativ with movement verbs)

✳️ rule-governed fusion of article and preposition (z.B. zur, zum, hinterm)

✳️ 9 plural markers for nouns

✳️ 3 grammatical genders (with mainly only probabilistic rules of which is which

Vocabulary

✳️ very frequent use of

🔅 composite worde (z.B. das Rathaus, die Weltkarte, die Mitternachtsformel)

🔅 derived words (z.B. laufen -> verlaufen, günstig -> ungünstig)

🔅 conversion of words (z.B. laufen -> der Lauf, hoch (adj) -> das Hoch (N))

Syntax:

✳️ word order is very variable, but there's still lots of rules (keywords: Verbklammer, Satzglieder, topologisches Feldermodell)

✳️ the verb is often split in two with stuff in between its parts

Miscellaneous

✳️ localizing verbs

🔅 mode of movement often in verb itself, direction often in separate word

🔅 position verbs vs. contact verbs (I sit down & I sit on the chair vs. Ich setzte mich hin & ich sitze auf dem Stuhl)

✳️ variety of prepositions (on the table & on the wall vs. auf dem Tisch & an der Wand))

*Disclaimers:

Furthermore of course difficulties that language learning generally has (like vocabulary as a whole, various registers, dialects, etc).

I'm not saying German is more difficult than other languages, just that these are typical difficulties in German (other languages will have many of these as well).

This is also not only from an English-native perspective! (German has 16 vowel sounds + 3 Diphthongs, English 12 vowel sounds + 8 Diphthongs, but Russian, Greek and Spanish for example have only 5 vowel sounds each! so 16 is a lot more in those cases))

German Listening Comprehension: When you accidentally drive to work out of habit by Fabi Rommel

Vedere è seguire con gli occhi

E se vi dicessi che il verbo to see inglese e il verbo seguire in italiano condividono l’origine indoeuropea nel termine *sekw? (L’asterisco serve a indicare che si tratta di una parola non attestata, bensì ricostruita artificialmente, ipotizzata).

Sì, ma qual è il legame etimologico e semantico tra to see e seguire? Semplice.

*sekw, che in indoeuropeo (e quindi in latino) significava effettivamente seguire, in italiano ha mantenuto il significato etimologico. Possiamo dunque vantarci di aver mantenuto intatto il significato di un lessema di origine antichissima, pressoché insondabile se non attraverso atti di speculazione (su cui l’indoeuropeistica tende in parte a fondarsi).

E nelle lingue germaniche (e poi in inglese), quindi?

Semplicemente, il significato etimologico di questo termine si è specializzato, passando da un più generico “seguire” (*sekw) al più specifico “seguire con gli occhi” (to see). E seguire con gli occhi non è vedere, dopotutto?

My English 🇬🇧 Masterlist

Vocab:

English vocab for level B2 and higher #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6

Grammar:

Tenses: present tenses, past tenses, future tenses and expressions with future meaning & differences between the tenses

Differences between "made from", "made of", "made out of", "made with" & "made by"