Another possibility is of course is that the anglo-saxon genepool had a slightly better resistance against certain diseases (like plague) resulting in a higher survival rate.
Why isEnglish a Germanic language?
- Thread starter Derekc2
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Another possibility is of course is that the anglo-saxon genepool had a slightly better resistance against certain diseases (like plague) resulting in a higher survival rate.
I wouldn't call 500 words, many of them, like bourgmestre (burgomaster) used only in modern Belgium, an awful lot, one of the few frequently used words with frankish origin in modern french is auberge (from heriberga, Herberge in modern german). It were rather quite a lot of latin originated terms which entered the english language through norman french, sometimes taking on a slightly different meaning than the Île-de-France-french term coming to England during the reign of the house of Blois and Anjou or the original latin term (e.g. real, royal and regal; leal, loyal and legal).
Indeed, it eventually evolved into the Franconian languages....from where we get modern Dutch. So really, one could claim that Dutch is the *true* Frankish language of modern day (it's much more complicated than that of course, but that's neither here nor there).
Honestly, the main reason I could see somebody mistaking English as a non-Germanic language has less to do with its vocabulary, and more to do with its lack of certain traditional Germanic phonological characteristics (e.g. the loss of the guttural [x] phoneme in most dialects, the Great Vowel Shift, etc.) Of course, even this isn't universal; most of the "French" vocabulary that exists is still pronounced (if not spelled) according to general Germanic conventions.
Flocculencio
Donor
I am not disputing it because I believe that it is the proper classification but this might be of interest:
Although Romance and Latin have contributed more to English, remember those are often the bigger words (Honorificabilitudinitatibus - From Latin).
The difference is that the basic words we use on an everyday basis tend to be Germanic. The Latin component includes many of the literary and scientific terms of which there are many but which are less used.
Not all the Franks, Lorraine was a border region, but most of the Franks in the Low countries, except those in the Walloon areas, and the Franks in the Rhineland and Franconia kept speaking their Germanic tongue. Eventually the Franks split into Romance speaking Franks and Germanic speaking Franks. Although for a while the (some) Franks in the more Romance areas did have their children partly educated by relatives in the Germanic areas in order to preserve their tongue (customs etc., their heritage).
PoeFacedKilla
Banned
That's niver the suith o it.An thare's Frisian as wiel.
Well of course theirs Frisian, I mean english comes from the Anglo-Frisian sub family of the Germanic languages.
But isn't frisian almost extict?
There's a quote (I forget by whom): "English is the result of Normand men-at-arms trying to woo Saxon serving wenches, and no more legitimate than the issue of any of those encounters." Or something to that effect.
English is classified as a Germanic language because of structure more than anything. However, it is the most Latin of the Germanic languages, ironically, french is the most germanic of the romance languages.
LMAO. In all seriousness, what?
@FleetMac: Not quite significant. Sure, there were probably a few, especially in Norman French more than elsewhere but other than that the Norse contribution was pretty minute. Dutch and Flemish, on the other hand? That might be worth investigating.
French is the most Germanic of the Romance languages as it has the most Germanic influence.
Just as Mexican Spanish is the most Uto-Aztecan of the Romance languages' dialects, and just as Yiddish is the most Hebrew of the Germanic languages.
I heard somes claiming that Romanian is the more divergent latin language, due to relative isolation, heavy slavic influences...
Well, many parts where Frisian used to be spoken, certainly in Germany and Denmark it is for the most part gone. In the Netherlands too Frisian isn't spoken anymore in Groningen and West-Friesland (in North Holland), but in the province of Friesland it is still spoken quite a lot. It is even an official language. I am not sure if it is growing or not, but I think it is relatively stable for the moment. According to wikipedia rougly 467.000 people still speak it. Regional languages are still doing well in the Netherlands.
Frisian is not completely dead:
- West Frisian has appr. 400,000 speakers
- North Frisian has appr. 10,000 speakers
- Saterland Frisian has appr. 2,000 speakers and is the only surviving East Frisian dialect (Most East Frisians speak East Frisian Low Saxon)
Old Frisian is the most closely related language to Old English.
- West Frisian has appr. 400,000 speakers
- North Frisian has appr. 10,000 speakers
- Saterland Frisian has appr. 2,000 speakers and is the only surviving East Frisian dialect (Most East Frisians speak East Frisian Low Saxon)
Old Frisian is the most closely related language to Old English.
Yep, so true. English wouldn't be quite the same without those Frisians, huh?
I thought I was pretty clear. All European languages have a certain amount of Latin influence simply due to the extent of the Roman empire. French, is the result of germanic speaking people (the Franks) learning and speaking vulgar latin. It is without a doubt, a Romance language, however it has significant differences from other romance languages (eg Spanish, Romanian, Italian, Romanche etc...).
I've already explained English
Actually, no, we do use alot of everyday and semi-regular use words from those languages, the below is an example of 10 words each from from Greek and latin that are used regularly or semi-regularly.
Greek:
Anonymous, Angel, Bacteria, Baptism, Geography, Genetic, Encyclopedia, Energy, Helicopter and History
Latin:
Animal, Artificial, Cave, Curious, Family, Feral, Liberal, Local, Veteran and Victory.
Those are a tiny proportion of everyday English vocabulary, and several are very specific. More importantly, they are all nouns and adjectives.
The actual basic components of the English syntax and grammar are nearly all Old English, and those that are not are generally Old Norse.
Let me give you some examples, 'a', 'an', 'the', 'them', 'they', 'you', 'he', 'she', 'on', 'be', 'to', 'of', 'have', 'I', 'not', 'with', 'do', 'but', 'from', 'we', 'say', 'would', 'what', 'why', 'or', 'when'. Need I go on?
The issue is not that there are no commonly used Latinate or Romance words in English, it's that speaking from the perspective of syntax there is nothing remotely resembling Latin cognates or structure in English sentences. There is a vast difference between two languages sharing similar or identical syntax, and another between languages that happen to share some nouns and technical terms. English is linguistically speaking firmly in the Germanic camp.
Flocculencio
Donor
Where did I say the basic words we use everyday are all Germanic? Props to Daeres for explaining it in far more detail