"English is based on Latin"

<<That's precisely why they think they're so similar. The borrowed words from French. >>

What do you say about such words as "accès direct", "satellite (orbiting the earth)", "action éclair", weekend, shampooing, télévision, drain, ballast, tunnel, humour, budget, convict, jury, verdict, express, rail, fashionable, pudding, festival, sport, touriste, jockey, club, comité, sitcom?

Many of these are latinate (but not all), and just because a word is similar in French, English and Spanish does not always mean that ENGLISH is necessarily the debtor.

Many technical terms are coined in ENGLISH from Latin and Greek and then are borrowed into French, Spanish, Italian, etc. so it isn't only English that borrows.

This should not always be the natural assumption.

<<Aren't a lot of those words of Latin origin? >>

Should that matter?

" They will recognise:
documento, orientación, básica, didáctica, criterios, científicos, técnicos, laboración, procesos, investigación, condiciones, conceptuales, metodológicas, permitan, validez, científica, social, investigación "


well, you might have try to find a text that groupes the maximum of similar words in proportion between english and spanish, even then that makes only 18 words in a text of 55 word, less than half of it. In a average English and spanish text, the number of similar-looking words stands at best around 10%. 90% of the English words are from a other planet for a spanish speaker, and this would even rise in oral speech.

saying that "so many words are similar between english and spanish" really sounds as the tipical wish of making english a more latin language. some words are similar, yes, but "so many", definively so far from the reality.

ps: a lot of latin-based words in english can be also found in other germanic languages, especially in german.




I think if english-speaker have difficulties in speaking the other germanic languages is more because of the negative image the germanic word has in most english-speaking cultures (despite being part of it). When you have a bad image of another culture/language (german for exemple in this case: the relatively widely spread image that its would sounds much harsher than english or that germans would be nazi-like), you are less likely wishing to learn the language well, or making the necessary efforts to learn it.

>>a lot of latin-based words in english can be also found in other germanic languages, especially in german.<<

More so in Dutch.

<<" They will recognise:
documento, orientación, básica, didáctica, criterios, científicos, técnicos, laboración, procesos, investigación, condiciones, conceptuales, metodológicas, permitan, validez, científica, social, investigación ">>

Yes, didactic is a word you will find in an English dictionary but I doubt many English speakers would recognise the word as it is not really used very much outside of academic circles.

I think one reason for this might be that most of the foreign languages that Anglophones (especially Americans) are typically Romance languages. With Spanish and French being the two biggest. Many people spot cognates in both languages and think "oh they are similar" so they automatically assume that English must be a Romance language as well. The whole "GERMANic=NAZI" thing also probably place a role in these people's denial of English being a Germanic language.
I have actually had people argue this point with me, so there are indeed plenty of people out there who vehemently insist that English is indeed a Romance language even when confronted with evidence to the contrary.

I can remember watching a german learning cartoon as a kid called Muzzy, and even then when I had zero knowledge of languages, it was apparent that English and German were related. I also remember seeing some couloured pens with the words Dich und dumm (thick and thin) written on them. That realisation came from minimal contact with German. I'm still very much a beginner in German today ( I wil get around to studying it properly at some point).

Guten Morgen (good morning)
Guten Abend (good evening)
Ich bin der koenig (I am the king)
Ich bin hungrig (I am hungry)
etc etc etc

thick and thin = dick und dünn

Ah yes, thanks. I was typing from memory, but that spelling makes more sense given they are cognates.

<<I think if english-speaker have difficulties in speaking the other germanic languages is more because of the negative image the germanic word has in most english-speaking cultures (despite being part of it). When you have a bad image of another culture/language (german for exemple in this case: the relatively widely spread image that its would sounds much harsher than english or that germans would be nazi-like), you are less likely wishing to learn the language well, or making the necessary efforts to learn it. >>

I get the impression that English speakers are pretty keenly aware that they are not part of the Latin world, but also that they feel that they do not belong to the Germanic world either--it's like they feel that they are neutral. In the US, part of this is for-sake we are never told who we are--since we are of mixed national ancestry, we never get clued in that we are Anglo-Saxon, or Nordic, or any such thing as that, because not everyone is.

But we see our Capitols and the Monuments of Washington DC and are conveniently "left" to discover and assume what we will on our own. This leads to all kinds of ideas...

In Britain it may not be this way. They have a unified national selfhood. They are descendants, by and large, of Anglo-Saxons and AS culture and civilisation. So they have a grounding which we here no longer have.

I think that isolation of the British isles from Continental Europe has also contributed to the feeling that we are neither--that we are sunder. Even though technically we are Teutonic, we are our own breed, our own "type" of original Germanic unlike and distant from all others.

It's just because the common ancestor of AS and other Germanic cultures is > 1000 years ago! That's a long time ago. Not to mention that the British Isles are islands, and have been greatly influenced by Norman culture more recently, and common European culture, and now immigrant cultures.

<<Not to mention that the British Isles are islands, and have been greatly influenced by Norman culture more recently, and common European culture, and now immigrant cultures. >>

Norman only? and what about Northman? Keep in mind that the Normans only *finished* what their Scandinavian and Danish forebears had already begun in England. The Danes were the cultural elite in England in the early Middle Ages, their positions as cultural heads exchanged for Norman from Normandie like you would swap one CEO for another without any material change to your company. Had the Norman Conquest not occurred, we would be talking about whether English were a North Germanic or West Germanic language, and the title of this thread would read: "English is based on Norse"

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. It is incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition.

<<I'm sorry, but you're wrong. It is incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition. >>

Says who? You?

>>In Britain it may not be this way. They have a unified national selfhood. They are descendants, by and large, of Anglo-Saxons and AS culture and civilisation<<

This is actually what you want it to be but, in fact, is still a matter of debate. The English are more Celtic or pre-Celtic in origin than anything else. If you want to meet people with true saxon ancestors, go to Northern Germany!