AMD 5

For my fifth AMD I read the Wikipedia article "Denglisch." "Denglish (English spelling) is a portmanteau of the German words Deutsch and Englisch (English). The term is used in all German-speaking countries to refer to the increasingly strong influx of English or pseudo-English vocabulary into German." 

While I was reading this article, I was actually very surprised. I had no idea how much influence the English language actually had on German-speaking countries. I would think that a native German speaker would try to create new words, rather than borrowing terms from English. In addition to loanwords, Germans also take English words and put a new meaning on them. These words are called pseudo-anglicisms. German pseudo-anglicisms usually have no meaning in (real) English. For example, "Beamer" in German, is a digital projector and "Handy" is a cell phone. These words are both derived from English words, but have a completely different connotation than their English meanings. In my opinion, I think that it is quite absurd that Germans would even think of this. Why wouldn't they simply create a new word, rather than taking an English one, if they are just going to make the word mean something completely different.

On top of the loanwords and pseudo-anglicisms, German speakers have also adopted English grammar and English idiomatics, "where literal translations of popular English expressions slowly but insistently replace the correct German words and idioms." For instance, Germans  may say "Was passierte in 2005?" (What happened in 2005), when formally it would be "Was passierte 2005?" or "Was passierte im Jahre 2005?".