English is just a minor Germanic dialect

Wenn Sie stark deutsches verstehen und es nie studiert haben, dann können Sie sagen, daß Englisch ein kleiner deutscher Dialekt ist.

So true.

Re: "If English is more related to Frisian ( sort of Dutch, innit? :), so English should be a minor dialect of Dutch!"

Not really, Dutch is also a dialect of German (West Germanic). So, English is really a dialect of a dialect of a language. Actually, I'd like to change my mind - it's probably more accurately described as a creole.

Yeah, I would definately say English is like a Creole. I even had a thread about the English language being a Creole a long time ago.

However, it is more of a Germanic Creole with a whole bunch of Latin and French words. But it is not a true Creole because the vocabulary never decreased; it just increased with each new invasion (the Danes and Norwegians and then the Normans).

This is so true but according to the rules of creoles I would say it's a French/Latin creole, with the Germanic rules, vocabulary forming a base. It was Germanic who had to adapt to changes, just like creole is because of the interaction of speakers of African languages with other languages like French and English.

"german is just another dialect of germanic... it just kept its original name"

not really, the germans call it deutsch.

I read somwhere that way back when the english called all the germanic speaking people of germany/holland and possibly denmark 'dutch', which is the corresponding word for deutsch...

eventually the word dutch got attached solely to the netherlands...

then when modern germany and hochdeutsch came into being english whipped out a new fancy latin name for that country, german from the old roman name germania because too many englishman thought latin was cool.

Ps. I wonder how many english speakers are aware that netherlands corresponds to german/dutch nederland

nether is a very old word for low
the low lands, just like the french call it

edited sentence because I thought its grammar/slang might confuse non-natives

I read somewhere that the english originally called all the germanic speaking people of germany/holland and possibly denmark 'dutch', which is the corresponding word for deutsch..

Re: "nether is a very old word for low." In Britain, we still refer to our assholes as our 'nether regions'.

I guess nether-realm would also be a reference to hell being down there somewhere!

People confuse Germanic with Germany ( Deutsch ). They always did because the Romans called everybody outside and up their borders Germans. So even today, we call them all by ´germanic´, even if they are not.

Most people know that nether means low.; that´s why we call Holland Netherland.

Outside, Latin is cool. ´Latine alsus est. ´ ;)