Franconian Beer Message Board

Genitive in German and English
Posted by barry on 2017-07-11 01:49:47
Unlike German, French, Chinese, whatever, English is a world language, everyone uses or abuses it and, we, the English natives abuse it as much as anyone else!   I have a degree in English, have earned my living writing in English and written two full length books in English but have just had to get used to its abuse by people from Edinburgh to Land's End - or Lands End or Lands' End - who really knows or cares now, Lucknow to Madras, New York to San Fancisco, etc., etc.  I used to get quite upset by it being mangled but now I just accept that it's part of human development.  I can't understand half of the people who purport to speak English (including many from England and most from Scotland!) but that's just life and German speakers have to accept this if you want German to be a world language.  But perhaps they don't and want to keep German for themselves.  

In the 1950s and 1060s, when the porcelain factory in Windischeschenbach was going great guns, it employed loads of Italians from southern Italy.  I understand that they picked up German whilst working and spoke it in a funny sort of way but the people of Eschawo learned to live with this - they had to if they wanted to sell them food etc.  I often wonder about the millions of Turkish people in Germany - do they have to learn to speak German completely correctly or does no one speak to them for the many years that it takes?