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What makes a language Romance or Germanic?
<<Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no one grammatical or phonetic feature that unifies all of them, since there is always an exception (usually French or Romanian)>>
I think that verb conjugation is more or less the same across all the romance languages. Also adjectives are usually preceded by the noun in Romance languages.
Also adjectives are usually preceded by the noun in Romance languages.
adjective can either precede or follow a noun in Romance languages there is not a clear rule like in Germanic languages
<<adjective can either precede or follow a noun in Romance languages there is not a clear rule like in Germanic languages
>> 95% of the time adjectives follow the name in Romance language. Adjectives precede the noun to give emphasis or poetic effect, that's the rule. For example: coche grande -> you simply say that it's a car of big dimensions. gran coche -> you give emphasis on the great quality of the car. This is itself a Romance feature as well, adjective position modifies its meaning.
«95% of the time adjectives follow the name in Romance language. Adjectives precede the noun to give emphasis or poetic effect, that's the rule. For example:
coche grande -> you simply say that it's a car of big dimensions. gran coche -> you give emphasis on the great quality of the car.» C'est particulièrement faux. Tu n'as qu'à prendre un livre et compter combien d'adjectifs précèdent le nom ou l'inverse et tu vas constater qu'il n'y aura pas beaucoup de différences entre les deux. Ce n'est pas une règle dans les langues romanes sauf dans certains cas.
<<adjective can either precede or follow a noun in Romance languages there is not a clear rule like in Germanic languages >>
Placement of modifier is not a rule to determine language family. It only defines a language's characteristics. Old Norse was a language which usually placed the adjective AFTER the noun (eg. vagn mine "my wagon"), so that cannot be used as a determinent, though Romance languages as a whole do display this tendency
<< Old Norse was a language which usually placed the adjective AFTER the noun (eg. vagn mine "my wagon") >>
-- Ça reste fréquent dans les langues scandinaves : "hustrun min" = "my wife"
Normans brought French language elements to England - since the Normans were of Germanic origin, wasn´t their language a Germanic one, too?
Did their version of French brought only vocabulary or was English grammar influenced as well?
Normans brought French language elements to England - since the Normans were of Germanic origin, wasn´t their language a Germanic one, too?
No, that's like saying the language of black Americans is an African language. Normas were of German stock, but they spoke French, a Latin language . Normans were famous for mimetizing in the French culture from the begining. They adopted Christianism despite being purely Pagans, not even Arians like some Germanic tribes before them , also they married the rich Galloroman women , and being illiterate, they used the cultured clercs for they own purposes. That's how they gained the trust of the king of France.
<<Normans brought French language elements to England - since the Normans were of Germanic origin, wasn´t their language a Germanic one, too?
Did their version of French brought only vocabulary or was English grammar influenced as well? >> The Normans who came to England spoke both Normaund AND Norse (at this time, the whole region around Bayeaux still spoke Old Norse). William, Duke of Normandie and King of England at very least understood Old Norse, if he didn't speak it himself. Also, many leod who came over were Flemings and spoke Flemish. Only the Royal Hoff of England after the Norman Invasion spoke Normaund, a germanized version of an already germanized version of Romance.
there are some adjectives in Romance languages that should be learnt by heart when they go before the noun. though, it's not difficult at all because the syntax in Romance languages is very easy and not strict at all, except in French which is more "Germanic" in these terms.
<<there are some adjectives in Romance languages that should be learnt by heart when they go before the noun.
>> There are not adjectives that go before the noun per se, but some adjectives can go after and before the noun depending on the meaning you want to give them. Adjectives that are merely descriptive go after the noun always but if you want to give special emphasis sometimes they go before the noun. I mean ,there is not such thing like: A adjective goes before the noun, but B goes always after the noun. This thing does not exist in Romance language unlike you seem to suggest.
Hrmm, are you sure about that? I always thought that some French adjectives like bon and petit always came before the noun, a few like ancien could come before or after depending on the desired meaning, and most came afterwards unless you are being poetic (and never in colloquial speech). I don't think adjectives can be moved around just for emphasis, or at least, I've never in my life heard someone do that. But I don't know about the other Romance languages.
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