# Why does a German airline have a name in English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2015, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699 "2015-04-03T10:16:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/21 "2015-04-03T17:35:26Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > It’s not unheard of for any company to take on an English name if they want to appeal to a world-wide market, even if they aren’t based in an English speaking country. Examples: > > Airbus > Bridgestone > Epson > Lenovo Some of these non non-airline examples, on the other hand, follow a different logic, I would say. Epson and Lenovo are not English words, but made-up neologisms, even if, admittedly, they are made to be easily pronouned by speakers of English. Airbus got its name because the two component words are identical in English and French, to underline the European character of the company. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/22 "2015-04-03T19:03:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Even India & various southeast Asian counties which not only don’t have English as an official local language, but don’t even use the Latin alphabet, have English-named airlines. > [@Monty](#): > > Isn’t English one of the official languages of India? > [@John\_Mace](#): > > English is an official language of India. > [@robert\_columbia](#): > > [English is an official language of India](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India). [Pakistan too](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/438805/Pakistan). > [@Schnitte](#): > > Many of these airlines do have a name in their home language, however, and only use the English variant alongside. The name of Air India in Hindi is just “Air India” transliterated using Devanagari script — “e-a-r in-di-ya” — [logo](http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2009/03/airindia2.gif) [http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2009/03/airindia2.gif](http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2009/03/airindia2.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Celan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Celan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/23 "2015-04-03T19:46:48Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Back before English became so prominent that is the reason some foreign phrases became common in American English - it lent the user a certain air of education and “cosmopolitanness”. No doubt when the Roman Empire was still in power folks in the far flung provinces sprinkled their own native tongues with Latin words and phrases. Doesn’t matter if the words are perfectly grammatical or not, it’s just one way languages change over time. English is about 80% Latin based. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/24 "2015-04-03T19:47:55Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If you see a group of Indians and Pakistanis talking, they will almost certainly be using English, as that will be their only common language. The Sub Continent has hundreds of languages and dialects, but English is always taught as the second language in school. I live in Silicon Valley. You think I don’t know that? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/25 "2015-04-03T19:55:38Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Playstation. Why does a Japanese game system have a name on English? Well it’s not. It’s Pureisutēshon (プレイステーション). Completely different! > [@Celan](#): > > English is about 80% Latin based. Link? [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English) says 29%, including words you probably never say, and 29% French, e.g. Latin in only the most indirect way. So 58% “Latin.” I’m surprised the French is so low? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/26 "2015-04-04T00:51:00Z")
Spelling “Germanwings” alltogetherasoneword seems Verygermanliketome. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/27 "2015-04-04T01:43:32Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Well it’s not. It’s Pureisutshon (). Completely different! > > Link? [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English) says 29%, including words you probably never say, and 29% French, e.g. Latin in only the most indirect way. So 58% “Latin.” I’m surprised the French is so low? Surprised? English is still mainly an Anglo-Saxon language at its heart. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/28 "2015-04-04T03:17:03Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > Airbus got its name because the two component words are identical in English and French, to underline the European character of the company. Another aspect of the Airbus name is that it’s supposed to emphasize the routine and everyday nature of modern airline flight. It’s a carefully crafted name with multiple facets. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/29 "2015-04-04T04:09:33Z")
Huh. This friend who sends me stuff sent me a slideshow about the coldest town in the world, somewhere in Siberia. One thing I noticed was that there was a stop sign that said STOP (not in Cyrillic) and there was a frozen fish store that said, FROZEN FISH. On the other hand it did look pretty cold there, and there were some signs in Cyrillic. I guess they could have been different places, or Siberian stop signs could say STOP. I’ve wondered. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/30 "2015-04-04T04:26:50Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > I fully agree. Personally, I don’t share at all the widespread view that the Anglicisation will ruin the continental European languages; similar things have happened in the past, and the languages which borrowed words from others have benefitted from it in the long run. In the 18th century it was French that was hip, now it’s English. Yep. This process won’t turn German into English - it will just turn 20th cent. German into 21st cent. German. It’s certainly happened to English; one of the salient features of our language is the promiscuous eagerness with which it has borrowed vocabulary from languages as disparate as German, Arabic, and Malay. As for air travel, according to Bill Bryson, English is the official language of international aviation. He didn’t say, but suggested that pilots and flight crews that fly internationally are required to use English, presumably for the same reason they’re required to use the Alpha-Bravo-Charlie alphabet, and call the number between eight and ten “niner”: to avoid miscommunication. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/31 "2015-04-04T04:31:53Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Huh. This friend who sends me stuff sent me a slideshow about the coldest town in the world, somewhere in Siberia. One thing I noticed was that there was a stop sign that said STOP (not in Cyrillic) and there was a frozen fish store that said, FROZEN FISH. > > On the other hand it did look pretty cold there, and there were some signs in Cyrillic. I guess they could have been different places, or Siberian stop signs could say STOP. I’ve wondered. A German has expressed puzzlement to me that their stop signs read STOP instead of STOPP, which would be more proper german. (STOPPEN SIE or BITTE HALTEN would presumably be out of the question for obvious reasons.) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/32 "2015-04-04T04:40:10Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The name of Air India in Hindi is just “Air India” transliterated using Devanagari script — “e-a-r in-di-ya” — [logo](http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2009/03/airindia2.gif) [http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2009/03/airindia2.gif](http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2009/03/airindia2.gif) Same with [Pakistan International Airline](http://www.piac.com.pk/)s, (PIA) and theirlogo is just the transliteration into Urdu of P-I-A. Other Airlines have a name like [Shaheen Air](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaheen_Air), [AirBlue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airblue), [Air Indus](http://www.airindus.com.pk/) . “Shaheen” means “Falcon”. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/33 "2015-04-04T10:26:40Z")
> [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > A German has expressed puzzlement to me that their stop signs read STOP instead of STOPP, which would be more proper german. (STOPPEN SIE or BITTE HALTEN would presumably be out of the question for obvious reasons.) That apparent contradiction is only a result of the 1990s spelling reform, which in many instances preferred double consonants over signle consonants. _Stoppen_ has always been the only correct spelling for the verb, but the command _Stop_ was correctly spelt with a single P before the reform and a double P afterwards. The highway code where the sign is legally defined hasn’t been amended, however, and so even new STOP signs that are put up these days read only a single P. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/34 "2015-04-04T11:16:51Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If you see a group of Indians and Pakistanis talking, they will almost certainly be using English, as that will be their only common language. Remove Pakistanis, and just have a group of Indians. I’m in an office right now where the Gujarati Indians and the Tamilian Indians have only English in common. One of my friends back home and his wife only speak English, because they’re from neighboring cities, and the “language line” ran between them. I seem to recall their home towns are only about 20 km apart. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/35 "2015-04-04T11:27:45Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > As for air travel, according to Bill Bryson, English is the official language of international aviation. He didn’t say, but suggested that pilots and flight crews that fly internationally are required to use English, presumably for the same reason they’re required to use the Alpha-Bravo-Charlie alphabet, and call the number between eight and ten “niner”: to avoid miscommunication. Just to clear this up – Aviation requires a default common language because pilots are always flying to different countries with different languages. Early in the 20th Century various treaties were crafted regarding air travel, and one of them set English as the default _lingua franca_ of pilots. (The runner-up was French, and it was apparently a pretty close vote. A lot of aviation terms are French in origin so that language was definitely an influence). The use of English in aviation is not a happenstance, it was mandated. That said, “aviation English” is very much a truncated form of English. An international pilot might be very comfortable requesting take-off clearance or a change of altitude, but going to a local diner and ordering a sandwich might be beyond his/her English language skills. Aviation communications are quite formalized, even for native speakers of English. When you have someone for whom English is clearly not a native tongue the air traffic controllers frequently become even more stylized to minimize possible confusion. It should be noted that use of English doesn’t always occur - a French pilot flying into a French airport with French ATC will most likely use French. It’s when you have a Belgium pilot flying into a Chinese airport (as a randomly picked example) that English-as-a-common-language becomes important. ---
**Author:** ![Celan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Celan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/36 "2015-04-04T16:04:52Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Link? [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English) says 29%, including words you probably never say, and 29% French, e.g. Latin in only the most indirect way. So 58% “Latin.” I’m surprised the French is so low? I learned that in a college course and do not know the professor’s source, but here is one link. There are others. > **[What Percent Of English Words Are Derived From Latin? - Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-origins/)** > > About 80 percent of the entries in any English dictionary are borrowed, mainly from Latin. Over 60 percent of all English words have Greek or Latin roots. In the vocabulary of the sciences and technology, the figure rises to over 90 percent. About 10... Your wikipedia link seems to refer to a 1973 computerized survey of 80,000 words from the third edition of the shorter Oxford Dictionary. Depending on who is counting and what they, there are approximately 750,000 words in the English language. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/37 "2015-04-04T20:32:48Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > It’s not unheard of for any company to take on an English name if they want to appeal to a world-wide market, even if they aren’t based in an English speaking country. Examples:[…] > Lenovo What’s English about Lenovo? _Legend_ was, but Lenovo is 100% more Latin than English. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/38 "2015-04-04T21:21:24Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Playstation. Why does a Japanese game system have a name on English? Because they don’t sell the “Lovely Day Ubu-box Chrysanthemum” outside of Japan. (Thinking of products like the Datsun “Fairlady-Z,” sold everywhere else as the 240Z. There seem to be a lot of home-market products with strange, fanciful names that don’t translate well, linguistically or culturally.) ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/39 "2015-04-04T21:45:24Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Huh. This friend who sends me stuff sent me a slideshow about the coldest town in the world, somewhere in Siberia. One thing I noticed was that there was a stop sign that said STOP (not in Cyrillic) and there was a frozen fish store that said, FROZEN FISH. > > On the other hand it did look pretty cold there, and there were some signs in Cyrillic. I guess they could have been different places, or Siberian stop signs could say STOP. I’ve wondered. > [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > A German has expressed puzzlement to me that their stop signs read STOP instead of STOPP, which would be more proper german. (STOPPEN SIE or BITTE HALTEN would presumably be out of the question for obvious reasons.) I’ve never been to Siberia, but in western Russia they said STOP. English word, Roman alphabet. My understudying is that stop signs in much of the world use the English word STOP. They certainly have everywhere I’ve ever travelled — Europe (inc. Germany) and the USSR (yeah, it was a while ago). The one exception is Quebec, where all signs, government and commercial, have to be in French, or at least French first and English later and smaller. The stop signs there say ARRET. (Waiting for a Quebecer to come by and correct details.) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699/40 "2015-04-05T01:01:11Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > What’s English about Lenovo? _Legend_ was, but Lenovo is 100% more Latin than English. Good point. But it’s certainly not a Chinese name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-a-german-airline-have-a-name-in-english/716699.md?page=3)