Information Design - Final Project Milestone 1

Week 10–11

David Ho Ming Aun (0328394)

Information Design

Final Project: Milestone 1

Brief:

MILESTONE 01

Weeks 10 - 11

Data to Information

Prep work for the design by starting with doing some Googling on the contrasting/complimentary topics. Research at this stage also includes reading articles and books, checking out other data sources or information sources such as available infographics, or even interview experts within reach.

Prepare 3-5 summative points (as a narrative structure, 3-act or 5-act) preparing your data to be turned into a story (information).

In each summative point break down the core data meaning that you pick 4-6 essential points worth comparing/contrasting to strengthen your case.

Secondary Research: German and English Language

Note: only High German (Hochdeutsch) is being considered in this comparison. Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch is not being counted!

Outline:

1. Origins, Background

• Linguistic origins
• Role in history

2. Numerical, Geographical Comparison

• Number of speakers and native speakers
• Countries that speak the language

3. Linguistic Comparison

• Alphabet
• Genders
• Cases
• Compound Words
• Shared Words (True Friends and False Friends)
• Counting Conventions, Number Order, Time telling
• Capitalisation of Nouns
• Proverbs
• Formality

1. Origins, Background:

German and English are West Germanic languages, which stem from the Indo-European language branch. One of the pioneering books that sparked the western printing revolution was Gutenberg’s bible, which was set in German.

2. Numerical, geographical comparisons:

Number of speakers:

Language	Total number of users	Native speakers
English	983,522,920	372,000,000
German	129,502,820	76,800,000

Number of countries where it is used:

English: 106

German: 27

3. Linguistic Comparisons:

Alphabet:

Mostly the same alphabet is utilised, from A to Z. Just don’t be afraid of the few extras that come with the German language, namely the three umlauts, ä, ö, ü, as well as ß. making it much easier for an English native speaker to pick up German, compared to a Chinese or Japanese speaker, for instance. You’ll notice the german keyboard looking quite different from an english one!

Gender:

German words have gender, and the articles change based on the gender. (der, die and das)

Netural: das Kind

Masculine: der Tisch

Feminine: die Zeitung

Plural: die Getränke

Cases:

German grammar has four cases, which also affect the article. Let’s take a dog for example.

Nomativ: Das ist ein Hund.

Dativ: Ich spiele mit dem Hund.

Akkusativ: Ich mag den Hund.

Genitiv: Das ist der Ball des Hundes.

A couple of tables to demonstrate the hell that is the German language:

English: ‘a’

German:

	nomativ	akk	dat	gen
maskulin	ein	einen	einem	eines
feminin	eine	eine	einer	einer
neutrum	ein	ein	einem	eines
plural	eine	einen	einen	einen

English: ‘the’

German:

	nomativ	akk	dat	gen
maskulin	der	den	dem	des
feminin	die	die	der	der
neutrum	das	das	dem	des
plural	die	die	den	dessen

Compound words:

Germans are all too fond of compound words, with the famous autobahngeschwindigkeitbegrenzung (autobahn speed limit) or the Rindfleischetikettierungsuüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling).

Shared words

True Friends:

Elegant, Illegal, Normal, Dessert, Demonstration, Doppelgaenger, Restaurant, Rucksack, Job, Kiwi, etc. They have the same meanings but they are pronounced differently! English and German share 60% of their vocabulary!

False Friends:

Der Angel = the fishing rod

Das Bad = The bath, bathroom

Der Hut = the hat

Hell = bright

Gift = Poison

Some words with same spelling in English mean different things in German!

Counting Conventions

Similar counting conventions are used, and can be clearly seen in the numbers 10 - 20:

English: ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.

German: zehn, elf, zwoelf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn, sechzehn, siebzehn, achtzehn, neunzehn, zwanzig.

Number order:

Instead of saying twenty-one, Germans go einundzwanzig, which literally translates to (one-and-twenty).

Time-telling:

Telling the time is also different. For instance, 3:30pm would be halb vier in German. A 24-hour system is favoured in Germany.

Capitalisation:

Every noun in German is Capitalised!

Proverbs:

Germany loves their proverbs! Here are some really funny ones:

Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei! (everything has an end, only the sausage has two!)

Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I only understand train station)

Formality:

German has different words for ‘you’, Sie being for formal situations and du for more casual situations. The verb changes along as well.

Mindmap:

Sources:

Fluentu.com. (n.d.). 5 Surprising Similarities Between German and English That'll Help You Learn German Today | FluentU German. [online] Available at: http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/similarities-between-german-and-english/ [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Listenandlearnusa.com. (2015). 9 Surprising Facts About the German Language | Listen & Learn USA. [online] Available at: https://www.listenandlearnusa.com/blog/9-surprising-facts-about-the-german-language/ [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Leicht-deutsch-lernen.com. (n.d.). Same Words in English and German |. [online] Available at: http://leicht-deutsch-lernen.com/same-words-in-english-and-german [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Ethnologue. (2017). Summary by language size. [online] Available at: https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Vistawide.com. (2005). Top 30 Language Spoken in the World by Number of Speakers. [online] Available at: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].