BORROWINGS AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND GERMAN THROUGHOUT HISTORY
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Abstract
The article examines the historical dynamics of lexical and cultural exchange between English and German, two closely related West Germanic languages whose contact spans more than fifteen centuries. The study applies a diachronic analytical framework to trace five major phases of borrowing: the common Proto- Germanic heritage; the early medieval period of parallel West Germanic development; the Early Modern era of scholarly and religious contact; the 18th-to-20th-century influx of German loanwords into English in science, philosophy, and military discourse; and the contemporary dominance of English-origin Anglicisms in modern German. The results demonstrate that borrowing between these languages has never been unidirectional – it reflects recurring episodes of cultural prestige exchange, political contact, and technological transfer. The study concludes that English-German lexical exchange constitutes a mirror of broader European cultural history and carries significant implications for historical linguistics, cultural studies, and foreign language pedagogy.
How to Cite
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lexical borrowings, language contact, Anglicisms, Germanisms, diachronic linguistics, cultural exchange, West Germanic languages, loanwords.
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