English is not a Romance language, but what would you classify it as? British?
do people in Britain and America speak the same language?
English is in the West Germanic family of languages which includes German and Dutch.
Not sure if I'm correct but someone can comfirm this please
Not sure if I'm correct but someone can comfirm this please
<How about Indo-European>
I think most European languages stem from this family except a few such as Finnish and Hungury. I'm not 100% sure either in this one too.
I think most European languages stem from this family except a few such as Finnish and Hungury. I'm not 100% sure either in this one too.
Most European languages are from the Indo-European superfamily, which also includes languages like Farsi (Persian), Armenian, and Hindi. The Germanic family is a subgroup of the IE family, and English is a Western Germanic language.
As Sam said, Finnish and Hungarian are not IE languages, despite being spoken in Europe. Basque is also not an IE language (no one's really sure what it is--it doesn't appear to be related to any currently existing languages).
As Sam said, Finnish and Hungarian are not IE languages, despite being spoken in Europe. Basque is also not an IE language (no one's really sure what it is--it doesn't appear to be related to any currently existing languages).
RE: do people in Britain and America speak the same language?
The conventional wisdom is that broadly speaking, Americans and Britishers (or Britons) speak the same language.
On a deeper level, linguists are not always certain where a dialect ends and where a new language begins. One writer I read claims that 'English' really ended around 1930 and that what you've had since 1930 are two daughter languages, "British" and "American". More conservative linguists would balk at this however and might say that this notion is "outside the pale."
Another debate going on in some circles of linguistics right now is the question: "Do two people who understand each other necessarily speak the same language?" They cite the fact that Spanish and Ladino are mutually intelligible though often considered separate languages. Ditto Flemish and Dutch, Hindi and Urdu, Fox and Sauk, Navajo and Apache plus some border dialects of Norwegian and Swedish.
The conventional wisdom is that broadly speaking, Americans and Britishers (or Britons) speak the same language.
On a deeper level, linguists are not always certain where a dialect ends and where a new language begins. One writer I read claims that 'English' really ended around 1930 and that what you've had since 1930 are two daughter languages, "British" and "American". More conservative linguists would balk at this however and might say that this notion is "outside the pale."
Another debate going on in some circles of linguistics right now is the question: "Do two people who understand each other necessarily speak the same language?" They cite the fact that Spanish and Ladino are mutually intelligible though often considered separate languages. Ditto Flemish and Dutch, Hindi and Urdu, Fox and Sauk, Navajo and Apache plus some border dialects of Norwegian and Swedish.
There is firm evidence of similarity between the two, and I think there is a high level of mutual comprehension on both sides of the Puddle, most of the time. The fun bits come when we misunderstand all those well known words and expressions! Right now in early morning Britain it's time many people are getting knocked up.
>>RE: do people in Britain and America speak the same language?
The conventional wisdom is that broadly speaking, Americans and Britishers (or Britons) speak the same language.
On a deeper level, linguists are not always certain where a dialect ends and where a new language begins. One writer I read claims that 'English' really ended around 1930 and that what you've had since 1930 are two daughter languages, "British" and "American". More conservative linguists would balk at this however and might say that this notion is "outside the pale."<<
>>Another debate going on in some circles of linguistics right now is the question: "Do two people who understand each other necessarily speak the same language?" They cite the fact that Spanish and Ladino are mutually intelligible though often considered separate languages. Ditto Flemish and Dutch, Hindi and Urdu, Fox and Sauk, Navajo and Apache plus some border dialects of Norwegian and Swedish. <<
Dutch and Flemish dialects of Dutch are most definitely the same language. *West* Flemish, on the other hand, is another matter, and its relationship to Dutch, and the debate with respect to its relationship to such, is analogous to that of Scots and English. As for cases like Hindi and Urdu, or Serbian and Croatian, such in reality is more a matter of politics than linguistics, and I myself see little linguistic reason to treat them as separate languages.
And then there's Swedish and Norwegian. As much as Bokmål Norwegian is effectively just norwegianized spelling-pronounced Danish with a feminine gender tacked on, and in that way is not that far from standard Swedish, much of spoken Norwegian is significantly further from the West Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish than Bokmål would lead one to believe, as from it it almost seems as if Norwegian is just a set of Danish dialects. Even still, though there is enough mutual comprehension between speakers of standard Danish, standard Swedish, and spoken Norwegian forms which are close to Bokmål to call them a single language, there are various continental North Germanic dialects which are further enough from the standard forms of the languages that they are supposedly part of than the standard languages are from *each other*. Such differences are significant enough that one could without much difficulty consider them to practically be languages unto themselves, which really gets in the way of the notion of a unified continental Scandinavian language, if one is to include such "dialects" of the Scandinavian languages in such. Examples of such are Dalska (English "Dalecarlian") and Synnejysk (Danish "Sønderjysk"), which are most definitely further from standard Swedish and standard Danish than (especially written) standard Swedish and standard Danish are from each other.
The conventional wisdom is that broadly speaking, Americans and Britishers (or Britons) speak the same language.
On a deeper level, linguists are not always certain where a dialect ends and where a new language begins. One writer I read claims that 'English' really ended around 1930 and that what you've had since 1930 are two daughter languages, "British" and "American". More conservative linguists would balk at this however and might say that this notion is "outside the pale."<<
>>Another debate going on in some circles of linguistics right now is the question: "Do two people who understand each other necessarily speak the same language?" They cite the fact that Spanish and Ladino are mutually intelligible though often considered separate languages. Ditto Flemish and Dutch, Hindi and Urdu, Fox and Sauk, Navajo and Apache plus some border dialects of Norwegian and Swedish. <<
Dutch and Flemish dialects of Dutch are most definitely the same language. *West* Flemish, on the other hand, is another matter, and its relationship to Dutch, and the debate with respect to its relationship to such, is analogous to that of Scots and English. As for cases like Hindi and Urdu, or Serbian and Croatian, such in reality is more a matter of politics than linguistics, and I myself see little linguistic reason to treat them as separate languages.
And then there's Swedish and Norwegian. As much as Bokmål Norwegian is effectively just norwegianized spelling-pronounced Danish with a feminine gender tacked on, and in that way is not that far from standard Swedish, much of spoken Norwegian is significantly further from the West Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish than Bokmål would lead one to believe, as from it it almost seems as if Norwegian is just a set of Danish dialects. Even still, though there is enough mutual comprehension between speakers of standard Danish, standard Swedish, and spoken Norwegian forms which are close to Bokmål to call them a single language, there are various continental North Germanic dialects which are further enough from the standard forms of the languages that they are supposedly part of than the standard languages are from *each other*. Such differences are significant enough that one could without much difficulty consider them to practically be languages unto themselves, which really gets in the way of the notion of a unified continental Scandinavian language, if one is to include such "dialects" of the Scandinavian languages in such. Examples of such are Dalska (English "Dalecarlian") and Synnejysk (Danish "Sønderjysk"), which are most definitely further from standard Swedish and standard Danish than (especially written) standard Swedish and standard Danish are from each other.
Forgot to respond to this:
>>RE: do people in Britain and America speak the same language?
The conventional wisdom is that broadly speaking, Americans and Britishers (or Britons) speak the same language.
On a deeper level, linguists are not always certain where a dialect ends and where a new language begins. One writer I read claims that 'English' really ended around 1930 and that what you've had since 1930 are two daughter languages, "British" and "American". More conservative linguists would balk at this however and might say that this notion is "outside the pale."<<
Well, the notion that English, excluding Scots, is anything but a unified entity is rather silly, especially considering that the internal differences within such are rather small when one compares it to many *supposedly* unified languages, like German and Italian, and that there is rather consistent mutual intelligibility between speakers of various English dialects. Scots is another matter. In writing it appears to be generally about half-understandable to many native English-speakers who do not speak it, yet in speech it appears to be for the most part unintelligible to native speakers of English who don't also speak it. In this way, it is similar to the example of West Flemish, due to being close enough to another more major language for there to be a debate about whether it is part of such, while in practice lacking enough mutual intelligibility in speech to really call it part of such.
>>RE: do people in Britain and America speak the same language?
The conventional wisdom is that broadly speaking, Americans and Britishers (or Britons) speak the same language.
On a deeper level, linguists are not always certain where a dialect ends and where a new language begins. One writer I read claims that 'English' really ended around 1930 and that what you've had since 1930 are two daughter languages, "British" and "American". More conservative linguists would balk at this however and might say that this notion is "outside the pale."<<
Well, the notion that English, excluding Scots, is anything but a unified entity is rather silly, especially considering that the internal differences within such are rather small when one compares it to many *supposedly* unified languages, like German and Italian, and that there is rather consistent mutual intelligibility between speakers of various English dialects. Scots is another matter. In writing it appears to be generally about half-understandable to many native English-speakers who do not speak it, yet in speech it appears to be for the most part unintelligible to native speakers of English who don't also speak it. In this way, it is similar to the example of West Flemish, due to being close enough to another more major language for there to be a debate about whether it is part of such, while in practice lacking enough mutual intelligibility in speech to really call it part of such.
I wish people would stop calling us Britishers. Who the hell uses that word nowadays?
>>I wish people would stop calling us Britishers. Who the hell uses that word nowadays? <<
I myself have to say that I know absolutely know anyone in Real Life who actually uses said term whatsoever.
I myself have to say that I know absolutely know anyone in Real Life who actually uses said term whatsoever.