Adaptation of German loanwords in the English language at the lexical level

This article examines German loanwords that have incorporated into the English language over several centuries. The aim of the study is to analyze the adaptation degree of these loanwords in English by evaluating different changes resulting from their transition from the source language to the recipient one. The material consists of 144 German loanwords selected by continuous sampling from articles in British and American newspapers (“The Guardian”, “The New York Times”, “The Sunday Times & The Times”) published between 2021 and 2025. Online dictionaries “Cambridge Dictionary”, “Collins Dictionary”, “Online Etymology Dictionary”, “Merriam Webster” и “Duden” were used for analysis. The methods used included contextual and componential analysis, as well as quantitative approaches. Each lexical unit was studied on four parameters: orthography, phonetics, morphology, and semantics. The degree of adaptation was classified as “fully adapted”, “partially adapted”, or “unadapted”. The findings indicate that the XIX century marked the peak of borrowing activity (42% of the analyzed words), driven by Germany’s industrial revolution, cultural exchange, and German emigration. In the XX century, borrowing was influenced by political events, advancements in medicine and psychology. Quantitative analysis revealed that 46% of the lexical units were fully adapted, 50% partially adapted, and 4% remained undapted. Full adaptation manifested in orthographic adjustments, derivation of new words and plural forms with suffixes, semantic shifts, and phonetic assimilation. A word is partially adapted when one or more aspects remain unchanged. Unadapted terms retained cultural ties to German culture. Thematic categorization identified the most numerous groups: science and technology, culinary terms, military and political vocabulary, and culture and arts.