I am not a German speaker and I would be interested what readers think of this page.
Last updated March 6, 1998
A note by Michael Davidson
The purpose of this paper is to introduce German to ABAP/4 programmers who may be curious about the language which appears from place to place in their work. SAP is a very international system and community with installations and offices in over 50 countries. The multiple language standards which have been implemented in their software are well done and efficient. The native English speaking programmer which studies a little bit of German will be rewarded with an greater appreciation of that language as well as his or her own.
One of the first times I noticed the German origins of the SAP system was when I was cancelling out of some screen and I was presented with this message box: "Data will be lost. Wollen sie die Bearbeitung beenden? Yes. No." The second second translates word for word as "Wants you the processing finishes?" but I only decyphered it later. I have some early English and this strange message got me interested in looking at German and its connection to English.
The SAP table APTREET shows German and English text strings side by side and so may be studied profitably. The table ICONT (Icon texts) is a fun one to look at as it displays the icon bitmaps along with their meaning in different languages. The domain name SPRAS is the SAP Language flag domain and some of the tables which use this domain contain multilingual texts. ABAP/4 programmers can use the data dictionnary to see which tables use this domain and whether or not the table has parallel German and English texts for language review. Use of clear comments is a required part of any proper program code, and while all the SAP systems programs are commented, I was amused to see them in German as well.
English is a cousin language to German. Both languages belong to the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European language family. German entered English in the the mid-fifth century with the the Anglo-Saxon invasions, i.e. the invasion/migration of the tribes termed the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from the northern part of modern Germany to the island of Britain. By the tenth-century England had emerged from from the early fragmented kingdoms of the invading Germanic tribes to a unified nation (initially under Athelstan in the early part of the tenth-century) and, at times, a singular head of state (e.g. Edgar, Canute, Edward, Harold) with written historical documents such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, or literary works such as Beowulf.. The end of this phase of English linguistic history came at the Battle of Hastings (14th October, 1066) which saw the defeat of Harold Godwineson, the last Saxon king, at the hands of William the Conqueror thus transferring control of England to the Normans. After Hastings the Anglo-Saxon and Norman French languages merged into Chaucer’s Middle English and finally developed into modern English.
It is only the most common words which we now share with the German. At the time that the languages parted, we had in common summer and winters, blood, moons, we and you, stones and sand, red and black. With our Teutonic forebears would, drink, sleep, name, listen, feed, run from bears, live and kiss. We shared the earth with hounds and horses, and would eat from cows, pigs, sheep and calves. We could go to the sea for water and fish. Although there are many German - English cognates in the business language, one suspects many words were brought into the two languages through either Latin, Greek, or are technical terms common through modern business communication.
For more substantive lessons in German than presented here I suggest German for Beginners or Deutsch für Reisende - German for Travellers. Click here for a Deutsch - Englisches Wörterbuch / English - German Tranlating Dictionary. although a selection of other German dictionaries are available at the Wörterbücher Page.
What shall you do with your new found German language skills? Well, you could take a tour of Walldorf the home burg for SAP. Or have a look at Bier - The German Beer Page. Or visit the excellent University of Alberta German Tourism Links Page.
To pursue a curious interest in English and German language history I suggest the The Lord’s Prayer in the Germanic Languages site. Two other sites give information on Anglo-Saxon Culture or provide an Anglo-Saxon England Index of Pages.
A list of German - English words and expressions follows. The first
part lists some basic language words of German. What it is meant to highlight is
that at a very basic level English is a Teutonic language and
it would be very difficult to write
an English paragraph without using a Teutonic word or declension.
The second part lists some German-English phrases of interest to programmers
taken from different places in the SAP system.
** All the English pronouns have Germanic roots. as I, you, him, her
Ich - I
wir - we
du - you (singular, familiar)
sie - you (singular, formal)
sie - they
ihr - you (plural)
ihm - him
ihre - her
** all numerals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ... all numbers
except the adjective second.
Null - zero
Eins (ein,eine) - one
Zwei - two
Drei - three
Vier - four
Fünf - five
Sechs - six
Sieben - seven
Acht - eight
Neun - nine
Zehn - ten
Elf - eleven
Zwölf - twelve
Dreizehn - thirteen
Vierzehn - fourteen
Fünfzehn -
and so on. Click here for a page of
German numbers with sound files..
** conjunctions and prepositions:
und - and
im - in
mid - with
** Relationships
die Frau - wife
der Mann - husband
die Tochter - daughter
der Sohn - Son
die Mutter - Mother
der Vater - Father
Freund (m) Freundin (f) - Friend
** Seasons
der Frühling - Spring
der Sommer - Summer
der Herbst - Fall, Autumn
der Winter - Winter
What follows are some German-English phrases taken from different places in the SAP system.
** a selection of small words
alte - old
mit - with
und - and
ohne - without
für - for
zur - for
unter - under
** nummer = number
Chargennummer - Batch number (number charged to)
Gruppennummer - Group number
Serialnummer - Serial Number
Auftragsnummer - Order number
Vorschlag: numerisch - Default value: numeric
Vorschlag: alphanumerisch - Default value: alphanumeric
Vorschlag: Variable - Default value: variable
Fließkommazahl - floating point
Nummernkreis - Number range
** art = type
Auftragsart - Order type
Meldungsart - Notification (message) type
** The ABAP/4 system variables are based on German words.
datum - date (sy-datum - system date)
zeit - time (sy-uzeit - system time)
** The ubiquious "auf" meaning to, on, at, upon, up…
aufgelistet - to list (past tense)
aufsetzen - to set (infinitive form)
aufgesetzt - to set (past tense)
aufsetzargument - to set argument
** Miscellaneous
kunde - customer
Korrekturprogramme ohne Auslieferung - Correction programs without delivery
Korrekturprogramme und Kundenauslieferung - Correction program and customer delivery
Fehlgeschlagen - Failed
Tagesdatum der Statistik - Current date of statistics
Daten für Listausgabe - Data for list output
verwaltung - management
Dokumentenverwaltungssystem - Document management system
Klassifizierungssystem - Classification system
Warenwirtschaft - Materials management
quelle - source
intern - internal
fabrikkalender - factory calendar
werk - plant
waehrung - currency
festplatte - hard disk (fast plate??)
indizes - Indices (Indexes)
unterschrift - signature (undersigned)
nur materialien - only materials
positiv - positive (c.f. French: positif)
negativ - negative (c.f. French: négatif)
Transaktion - Transaction ; Latin - an action across
Funktion - Function
Benutzermenu - User menu
Arbeitsvorrat - Work list
Ereignisse - Events
Einstiegsmenü - Initial menu
Erstbefüllung - First database (filling? population?)
Erstes Testobjekt - First test object
Zweites Testobjekt - Second test object
** entwicklung - development
Basisentwicklung R/3 Zentral - R/3 central Basis development
EntwKlassenunabhängig - not dev. class dependent
Entwicklung Eingangskorb - Inbox development
Entwicklungsklasse - Development class
** Anwendungs - applications
Anwendungsentwicklung - applications development
Anwendungsrequests - application requests
Anwendungsmonitor - Applications monitor
Anwendungsobjekt in Basissyst. - Application object in basis system
** The traditional German ß (double s) is sometimes expanded.
Adreßverwaltung - Address management
Adressverwaltung - Address management
Prozeß Definition - Process definition
Prozessor - Processor
** Einheit = unit
Maßeinheiten - Measurement units
Basismengeneinheit - Base unit of measure
Einheit zur geprüften Menge - unit for checked (proofed) quantity
** Notice the "ge" prefix to geprüften (proofed). A "ge" prefix in German
** means the same thing a "ed" suffix does in English, either the past tense
** or has been completed in the past.
geprüften - proofed
Tagesdatum der Statistik - Current date of statistics
Daten für Listausgabe - Data for list output
Prozeßmeldungen - process messages
Rücksetzen von Testdaten - Reset test data
Aktion-Log - Action log
Maximale Tabellengröße - Maximum table size
Datenfeld Länge 104 - Data field length 104
Basisnahe Utilities - Basis utilities
Servicefunktionen - Service functions
Profil - Profile
Popup's u.ä. - Dialog boxes etc.
** Pflege - maintenance
Zusammengesetzte Pflegeobjekte - Combined maintenance objects
Klassenpflege - Class maintenance
** reich = area
Geschäftsbereich - Business area
Datenbereich - Data area
Kostenrechnungskreis - Cost Controlling area
Nummernkreis - Number range
Änderungsdienst: Protokolle Datumsverschiebung
Länderversion - Country version
Arbeitsvorbereitung - Production Planning
Qualitätskontrolle - Quality Inspection
Reorganisation von Arbeitsplänen - Reorganization of work plans
Reorganisation von Prüfplänen - Reorganization of test plans
** Notice that some plurals are shown by "-en" endding
Segmentdefinitionen - segment definitions
Zwischenstrukturen - Intermediate structures
Daten - data
Objekttypen - object types
Logische Datenbanken - Logical Databases
I am not a German speaker and I would be interested what readers think of this page.
Last updated March 6, 1998