"Schlagbaum" means barrier or tollgate in both Russian and German. German culture was particularly admired in Japan in the 19th century In her book "Ausgewanderte Woerter" ("Migrated Words"), Jutta Limbach from the German Language Council said there are many German words used in Russian today, though not always with the same meaning as in German. Russian royalty was often of German descent, such as Prussian-born Catherine the Great who reigned in Russia from 1762 to 1796. Subsequent generations traveled frequently to Germany, bringing back German culture and vocabulary. In Russia, he added, "it was exclusively the prestige of the German culture" that brought over vocabulary from the German language.Įighteenth- and 19th-century Russians were often bilingual and many studied in Europe.
"These are countries where the ruling class was traditionally German," he said.
The Czech Republic, Haspelmath said, was a traditionally German-speaking area, with Franz Kafka the most well known German-speaking writer born and raised in Prague. "Germany in the 19th century was at the top of the world and everyone looked up to Germany in the sciences, technology and humanities," he said. Russia's history of German cultural and lingustic influence dates back to the 18th and 19th centuriesĪccording to Martin Haspelmath, senior linguist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, major central European languages borrowed many words from German partly due to Germany's prestigious image in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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