Denglish

n.

Speech or text that uses a mixture of German and English words.

Example Citation:

"Many billboards have slogans in 'Denglish' — a mix of English and German. Ad posters for sleeveless jumpers call them 'tanktops'. And Berlin's roadsweepers are promoted under the slogan 'We Kehr For You' — kehr means to sweep."

— Michael Lea, "Germans throw in towel and start talking English," The Sun, April 7, 2000

Earliest Citation:

In Germany, there is an ongoing debate about language, specifically what they call 'Denglish' — the increasing use of English. Advertisers there are incorporating English phrases into their ad copy. The current campaign for the national airline, Lufthansa, is 'Thinking in new directions.' A German telephone company is called 'First Telecom' and advertises itself with the line, in English, 'You can't beat the First.' Volkswagen, a German company if there ever was one, uses 'New Beetle' instead of 'neue Kafer.' Volkswagen said 'New Beetle' sounds 'more hip' than 'neue Kafer.'

—Andrew Herrmann, "Getting all puffed up for the holidays," Chicago Sun-Times, December 15, 1998

Notes:

Denglish combines Deutsch (German for "German"; pronounced doytsh) and English. Other terms used for a mix of German and English include Denglisch (Deutsch plus Englisch, German for "English") and Engleutsch (English or Englisch plus Deutsch).

Related Words:

Anglosphere

globish

Menglish

Netspeak

ostalgia

Weblish

Category:

Language (General)

The Spanish/German Band "Son of a Beach" produced a song in Denglish, "The yellow from egg".

German speaches traducced literal to English.

www.myspace.com/hilmarschoenewolf

Hope you have fun with it!