Sprachgefühl
/ˈʃpʁaːxɡəˌfyːl/noun
An intuitive sense of how a language is naturally and correctly used.
Did you know?The word captures an old philosophical idea that language is not merely a rule system but something speakers can intuit almost bodily, through cultural and linguistic instinct.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sprek-
“To speak; the reconstructed root behind the speech element.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*sprekaną
“To speak or utter words.”
Old High German
OHG
sprehhan
“To speak; the ancestor of modern German sprechen.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*fōlijaną
“To feel or perceive; the source of German fühlen.”
Middle High German
MHG
sprachgefühl
“A compound of Sprach, “language or speech,” and Gefühl, “feeling.””
19th Century
German
Sprachgefühl
“An intuitive feeling for appropriate or idiomatic language use; the term entered broader English intellectual and linguistic writing.”
Modern English
English
Sprachgefühl
“A borrowed term for an instinctive sense of natural linguistic expression.”