Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Constance, language: English, abstract: [...] The aim of this work will be, on the one hand, to describe the history of German settlement on both continents, and more importantly of the influence of German on American English as well as on Australian English. On the other hand, a direct comparison between the German influences will be made, and hopefully it will prove that even though half the globe separates both continents from each other, there are similarities to be found. It is to be expected though, that if there are analogies, they will be regionally restricted, since both in the United States and in Australia, contact situations seem to be restricted to those areas where Germans settled from the earliest days on. Beside the clarification of some general definitions, which will prove necessary for an understandable analysis, the difficulties in researching this topic will be made evident. One thing that will not be considered in this examination is the influence of Yiddish- German on American English since, one the one hand, it proves hard to differentiate exactly between the German and the Yiddish aspects and on the other hand because the Jewish impact on Australian English is marginal. Therefore Yiddish-German is rather unimportant in the comparison of both varieties. [...]

This unique collection fills a ten-year gap in studies on the nature of Australian English, and it is the first to deal exclusively with varieties of English on the Australian continent. The book contains chapters on the phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the dialect, and chapters on variation within the dialect that include Aboriginal and ethnic varieties as well as regional and generational differences with a focus on questions of Australian identity and intercultural relations. With selected contributions by Australia's leading linguists this volume records the most recent developments in the study of English within Australia.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

Dictionaries usually give only brief treatment to etymologies and even etymological dictionaries often do not lavish on them the attention which many deserve. To help fill the gap, the author deals in depth with several etymologically problematic words in various Germanic, Jewish, Romance, and Slavic languages, all of which have hitherto either been misetymologized or not etymologized at all. Sometimes, he succeeds in cracking the nut. Sometimes, he is able only to clear away misunderstanding and set the stage for further treatment. Usually, he marshals not only linguistic but also historical and cultural information. Since this book also discusses methodology, it has the makings of an introduction to the science, art, and craft of etymology. David L. Gold is the founder of the Jewish Name and Family Name File, the Jewish English Archives, and the Association for the Study of Jewish Languages, as well as the editor of Jewish Language Review and Jewish Linguistic Studies.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

A collection of studies on the role of English in German-speaking countries, covering a broad range of topics.