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Folklore: German word for cultural affinity?

08 Feb 03 - 08:15 PM (#885807)
Subject: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Sam L

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


08 Feb 03 - 08:23 PM (#885812)
Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: toadfrog

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


09 Feb 03 - 07:14 AM (#885981)
Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Wilfried Schaum

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


09 Feb 03 - 09:42 AM (#886023)
Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Jim McLean

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


09 Feb 03 - 09:55 AM (#886035)
Subject: RE: BS: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Sam L

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.


10 Feb 03 - 03:24 AM (#886576)
Subject: RE: Folklore: German word for cultural affinity?
From: Wilfried Schaum

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