English is a Germanic language. Its core grammar and vocabulary are inherited from the Proto-Germanic languages, which are “reconstructed from the “East Germanic, Old Norse (ON) representing North Germanic, and Old English (OE), Old Saxon (OS), and Old High German (OHG) representing West Germanic” (A Grammar of Proto-Germanic, P. Lehmann).
Though there are clear Latin and Greek influences in English (also known as the Romance languages), most of our vocabulary can be drawn back to the Proto-Germanic.
German words in English
If you’re a word nerd (like me), it may behoove you to learn that common words and nouns in English, like foot, mouse, shelf, and child are all etymologically German.
Irregular nouns like tooth, foot and goose, (which turns to teeth, feet and geese as plurals, respectively) all use a German inflection known as the I-umlaut or I-mutation.
Etymonline describes the “umlaut” (pronounced like uhm–lout) as,
The systematic vowel alteration in the root of a word to indicate shades of meaning or tense,” a characteristic of Indo-European languages, 1845, from German Ablaut, literally “off-sound”.
Admittedly, this sounds complicated, but I promise it’s not. We see it in the swapping of inner vowels (like o in the singular to e in the plural; e.g., goose = geese, tooth = teeth). It’s basically how old Germanic languages modify nouns from singular to plural, or conjugate verbs to show tense (for verbs it’s called the ablaut).
We can debatably attribute some of English’s most irregular noun forms to the Germanic umlaut/ablaut:
Another irregular German noun switch:
The switch from -f to –ves is also German, and exists in a ton of ordinary English nouns:
- scarf – scarves
- calf – calves
- half halves
- self – selves
- shelf – shelves
- elf – elves
- hoof – hooves (or hoofs)
- dwarf – dwarves
- knife – knives
- loaf – loaves
- life – lives
- wife – wives
- thief – thieves
- leaf – leaves
- wharf – wharves (or wharfs)
Still, pay attention, since not all nouns ending in ‘f’ or ‘ff’ will invariably switch to –ves. From those listed above, some accept both a standard plural form (by adding an ‘s’), and the –ves modification. Also, words such as roof is roofs plural, cliff is cliffs, and so on
