{"id":423,"date":"2019-09-18T10:18:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T10:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/?p=423"},"modified":"2019-09-18T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T10:18:07","slug":"how-many-words-are-there-in-the-german-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/18\/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-german-language\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Words Are There in the German Language?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

*This post was published on the Lingvist Blog.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A definitive number of words in a language is extremely hard to pin down for two main reasons. First off, a language is not a stagnant, established entity. Secondly, deciding which \u201cwords\u201d should be included in a count is a rabbit hole in itself. The closer you look at the problem, the more complex the issue becomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Languages are evolving every day, with new words being created and adopted by different communities of speakers regularly. Before the early 2000s, if you suggested that someone \u201cgoogle\u201d something, you would have been met with a blank stare. Now, most people across the globe and across many languages<\/a> would understand this command (and be able to follow it within minutes, as long as they have service!). New words are constantly fighting for a place in the long-term lexicon (vocabulary) of a language, and whether or not they catch on and become popular enough seals their fate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do all of these new words come from? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A large portion of new words across languages come from technology, often loaned (called \u201cloan words\u201d) from the English language due to its prominence in the technology field. Like English, German also has some rules for word flexibility, which allow the creation of new types of words which are immediately understood by other German speakers on the fly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in English you can use the \u201cnominalization\u201d (noun-ifiying) process to create a noun from a verb or adjective. An example of this is the word \u201ccarelessness\u201d from the adjective \u201ccareless.\u201d However, a new noun like \u201cswole-ness\u201d could be created by an English speaker from one of Merriam Webster\u2019s newly added words, \u201cswole\u201d<\/a> (meaning muscular, related to \u201cswollen\u201d). Anyone who knows the new slang \u201cswole\u201d would understand the word\u2019s meaning immediately. Another example of a similar process is the explanation word I used above to describe nominalization itself: \u201cnoun-ifying!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In German, creating compound words for specific situations is even more commonplace than in English. In English, you can get away with combining a few words which have likely never been uttered together to describe some novel occurrence (like \u201cleaf-licker\u201d for, perhaps, a child that can\u2019t stop licking leaves). But it would start to become grammatically cumbersome to get much longer than that (\u201cgreen-leaf-licker\u201d already seems strange). Due to the combinatorial allowance of German grammar, combining more than two words, like the 39-letter<\/a> Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften<\/em> which translates to \u201clegal protection insurance companies,\u201d is not only common, but would be judged as the most correct option by most German speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which \u201cwords\u201d count as words?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you might be now realizing, the question of how many words exist in the German language becomes nonsensical if you consider these compound words as individual items to be tallied up, because the list is practically infinite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another question that keeps German word-tallyers (another new compound noun!) up at night is whether or not each version of a conjugated verb should be considered an individual word (like inflected forms \u201cplay\/plays\/played\u201d or \u201cspiele\/spielst\/spielt\/spielte<\/em>\u201d <\/em>in German), or if only the base infinitive form should count. The same issue arises for any words containing a prefix (like \u201cpre-\u201d in \u201cpre-Google search engines\u201d) or suffix (like \u201c-s\u201d to create many plural nouns (\u201cbirds\u201d)). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of whether or not to include foreign words, such as d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu <\/em>in English or das Baby<\/em> in German (rather than the strictly German S\u00e4ugling<\/em>) in the word count is also a matter of personal preference. The adoption (and sometimes modification based on grammatical rules) of English words is called “Denglisch\u201d<\/a> (from Deutsch + Englisch), and while it may annoy some German language purists, it is an established phenomenon that can increase the word count significantly. Word counters also need to definitively decide whether or not to include field-specific jargon like species or medical terms. For example, should a target German word list for German students include words such as Myokardinfarkt <\/em>(\u201cmyocardial infarction\u201d) or just the more common Herzinfarkt<\/em> (\u201cheart attack\u201d)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, depending on which categories of words someone deems necessary to include, or whether you\u2019re aiming for an accurate or impressive number, the resulting word count can differ widely. When looking at divergent total word counts in a language, it\u2019s important to be aware of what choices were made by the \u201cword-tallyer\u201d so that you understand how they arrived at that number. That being said, the best option to get a ballpark figure is usually to look at a respectable dictionary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few counts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

German dictionaries do not include compound nouns in their word counts, as it would lead to a practically infinite, and therefore not very informative, number. Excluding compound nouns, the Deutsches W\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> counts 330,000 words in usage since the 15th century. German linguist Wolfgang Klein attempted to answer this question and found that there were 5,328,000 lexical units in the German language<\/a> between 1994 and 2004. The online dictionary Leo<\/a>, which is less likely to be carefully editorialized and controlled, lists 801,277 entries. The most prominent German dictionary is called the Duden<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>which publishes multiple volumes to address various aspects of the German language: 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Die deutsche Rechtschreibung<\/em> \u2013 The Spelling Dictionary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Stilw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Dictionary of Style<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Bildw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Pictorial Dictionary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Die Grammatik<\/em> \u2013 The Grammar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Fremdw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Dictionary of Foreign Words<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Aussprachew\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Pronouncing Dictionary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Herkunftsw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Etymological Dictionary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Synonymw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Thesaurus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richtiges und gutes Deutsch<\/em> \u2013 Correct and Good German (Guide to Usage)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das Bedeutungsw\u00f6rterbuch<\/em> \u2013 The Dictionary (Definitions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redewendungen<\/em> \u2013 Figures of Speech<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zitate und Ausspr\u00fcche<\/em> \u2013 Quotations and Sayings
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 27th edition of the standard Spelling Dictionary, published in 2017, included 145,000 keywords and 500,000 explanations of meaning, with information on word separation, pronunciation, grammar, etymology, and style. Duden reports that its main method<\/a> for finding new words to add is by using software to comb the internet for new words used a significant amount of times over a long enough period. Editors of Duden also must also look at words that have decreased in usage and mark these as \u201cobsolete,\u201d in order to keep the dictionary entries relevant and current.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re interested in contrasting that with a few counts from the English language<\/a>, check out these counts, which differ in permissiveness of word-type inclusion and dialect (American versus British) (from Wikipedia\u2019s list<\/a>):
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary: 470,000 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: 350,000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oxford English Dictionary: 171,476<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many words do you need to learn to be fluent in German?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFluency<\/a>\u201d is another linguistic phenomenon that\u2019s difficult to pin down because it can mean very different things, depending on the context and goals. If you\u2019re learning a language for professional purposes, the register (or style) of German you\u2019ll be targeting is bound to be more formal than the casual German you\u2019d want to learn to communicate with a romantic partner<\/a>. Therefore, the type and amount of vocabulary you want to focus on will depend on what you plan to do with German. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the answer to the above question is highly subjective, it still helps to set goals. Learning 1,000 words in a foreign language will help you piece together the meaning of everyday sentences about where things are, facts about a person such as their age, or exchanging simple pleasantries. Luckily, because English and German are both Germanic languages, your English vocabulary will come in handy when learning German, as there are many cognates, or words with similar roots. Learning 2,000 words will get you closer to being able to figure out written texts, such as websites or news articles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The algorithm used by Lingvist<\/a> allows you to memorize words faster than any other language learning technology. Most users learn 2,000 words in about 17 hours<\/a> of regular practice using the app. In fact, one Lingvist user was able to learn 100 words per day<\/a> with the help of Lingvist and eventually attend a German university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever your reason for learning German, it\u2019s interesting to know how many total words you may encounter, and it\u2019s helpful to set goals for how many words you\u2019d like to learn. It\u2019s also important to remember that language is an ever-changing tool for communication, and that no matter the actual number of words you may have stored in your memory, the most important thing is getting comfortable with enough German words to be able to create meaningful sentences and effectively communicate with German speakers.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*This post was published on the Lingvist Blog. A definitive number of words in a language is extremely hard to pin down for two main reasons. First off, a language is not a stagnant, established entity. Secondly, deciding which \u201cwords\u201d should be included in a count is a rabbit hole in itself. The closer you look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language-learning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aubrieamstutz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}