Folklore: German word for cultural affinity?

Subject: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Sam L
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 08:15 PM

Anyone know a German word for having an affinity for a culture other than one's own? And maybe a more exact definition of it?   thanks

Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: toadfrog
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 08:23 PM

Walhlverwandtschaft means a chosen affinity. That might be a start, since such an affinity would be one of choice.

Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:14 AM

In my pocket dictionary I find for affinity: tendency, (spiritual) relation. I would say: Kulturverwandschaft. (Hello, Toadfrog: the candidate got 89 points.)
In German the culture is often named with an added -philie (from the Greek stem *phil = friend, love &c. as in Philadelphia = brotherly love).
So we have Hellenophilie = love to Greece, Greeks or Greek culture, Turkophilie = to the Turks, Anglophilie = the the English speaking (incl. Welsh, Scots, Irish, Americans &c.) and so on.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 09:42 AM

Anglophile means lover of the English only. How else would McDiarmid describe himself as an Anglophobe? We also have AnlgoIrish, AngloScottish etc.
JIm McLean

Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Sam L
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 09:55 AM

I believe that's it, Wilfried, seems to ring right with my fading memory. Thanks. But Greek notwithstanding, how would one call people who just love Hellen? Maybe Hellenaphilie.

Subject: RE: Folklore: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 03:24 AM

Hi Jim,
thanks for the correction, so we could construct Scotophilia for the love of all things Scottish (or Scotch). The first o in the word is most important (Greek joke, by the way).

Hi Fred,
Helen(a) with only one L! Otherwise you're right.

Addition:
If the love to a foreign culture becomes a frenzy, the part -philie is replaced by -manie = mania.

Wilfried