Will German lose its noun declensions, like Dutch did? An open and shut case.
When English speakers learn German, we kinda vibe with all the verb conjugations and stuff. Once you get over the fact that you can’t really translate I’m loving it, most of us can cope with verbs.
But declining a noun is a different matter. Gender. Case. Der/die/das/den/dem/des/der again/whatever/aaargh.
An English speaker recently asked if German was on its way to giving this steampunky grammatical relic the heave-ho, like Dutch did.
I’m no linguist, but I think the answer is nein. Here’s why.
A Question of Contact
I recall an observation from linguist John McWhorter. He noted that when a language is used as a lingua franca over a long period, the grammar simplifies and the vocabulary becomes more complex.
The classic example is English. The Norman Conquest forced French and Old English to collide, and the English we speak today is an artefact of that time. Our grammar doesn’t decline nouns, and has only basic declension of pronouns. We have no formal and informal voice. But our vocabulary is huge, with Latinate terms often duplicating the original English (e.g. start and commence). As the language of a trading nation — indeed, a nation pursuing global conquest — that…
