The closest language to English

LAA,

>>English is a Germanic language, and always will be. But it is also correct to say that English is one of the, if not the most, distant language within the Germanic family. The phonology of English is very distinct from languages like Danish, or German, or Dutch, etc. And the vocabulary has been extensively Gallicized to the point, where the actual majority of words within the English language, is not even of Germanic origin.<<

Read my lips: French is as distantly related as Russian or Greek. Vocabulary does not matter, common ancestors do.

From a practical standpoint, (aside from college confined professors of linguistics) how can you say that French is no more related to English than Russian or Greek? You need to think outside of the box, and that means thinking in terms of other than the Indo-European language family branch, whereby everthing is neatly connected in a perfect diagram. How can you say vocabulary is meaningless when it comes to one language's relation to another????? That is a mind-boggingly ignorant assertion!

Kid, you don't get the principle of relation here.

Imagine you're in puberty, this means you are very easiliy influenced by others. Imagine you become part of the Gothic subculture at schools, this means certain people (genetically unrelated) become your friends and you all dress the same and talk about the same things. However, this does not mean these people are more related to you then lets say a distant cousin who you never even met.

Il est certain que d'un point de vue typologique l'anglais est une langue germanique. La question n'est pas là.

En revanche, au niveau du vocabulaire — surtout littéraire (et de l'écrit au sens large) — la similitude de l'anglais avec le français est si frappante que certains admettent que l'anglais relève de la francologie (non de la francophonie, ou du moins plus maintenant).

Mais derrière le simple vocabulaire se cachent la représentation du monde et l'expression des idées. Dans ce domaine aussi l'imprégnation est totale et perdure jusqu'à nos jours. Il ne faut pas oublier que durant le moyen-âge (une longue période) et au-delà, le français a fait fonction de plateforme distributive tant au niveau lexical et culturel que conceptuel. C'est peut-être ça dont LAA parlait et qui dépasse les aspects techniques de la linguistique au sens strict.

"Imagine you're in puberty, this means you are very easiliy influenced by others. Imagine you become part of the Gothic subculture at schools, this means certain people (genetically unrelated) become your friends and you all dress the same and talk about the same things. However, this does not mean these people are more related to you then lets say a distant cousin who you never even met. "

Sander,
How do dialects evolve into languages in the first place? How did English and Dutch develop from Proto-Germanic? They share a common ancestor, but they are now seperate languages, are they not? Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan share a common ancestor if you back far enough in time, do they not? You seem to wish to ignore the evolution of English, and pretend as if it does not resemble the "boogy-man" French language. The fact is, that it does. Lexically speaking, it has more in common with French overall, than it does with German. So, how can you say that it bears no relation to French, and shares no similiarities? No one is disputing that it is a Germanic language. What we are saying is that it is a Germanic language that has been heavily influenced by Latinate French, and thus, is now distantly removed from its sister languages in the Germanic family. So, why do you continue to argue this point?

>>Ridiculous.<<

Hah. Hah. Preposterous.

>>Imagine you're in puberty, this means you are very easiliy influenced by others. Imagine you become part of the Gothic subculture at schools, this means certain people (genetically unrelated) become your friends and you all dress the same and talk about the same things. However, this does not mean these people are more related to you then lets say a distant cousin who you never even met.<<

Imagine you are English and you marry French. You are now related to French and you and your descendants live happily ever after (...at least for a few hundred years.)

>>Read my lips: French is as distantly related as Russian or Greek. Vocabulary does not matter, common ancestors do. <<

At the wedding your best man was Russian and French's bridesmaid was Greek.

Well, Sander's right about the origins, but you can still think of French as English's stepsister, if you like. They've been borrowing the same dresses from each other for long enough.... ;)

>>Hah. Hah. Preposterous.<<

>>Imagine you are English and you marry French. You are now related to French and you and your descendants live happily ever after (...at least for a few hundred years.) <<

>>At the wedding your best man was Russian and French's bridesmaid was Greek. <<

You sound like a real linguist there ... Oh I'm sorry I'm such a bad liar.

>>How do dialects evolve into languages in the first place? How did English and Dutch develop from Proto-Germanic? They share a common ancestor, but they are now seperate languages, are they not?

You do not know this and yet you act as if I'm ignorant because I refuse to believe anything of the little relation theory you made up in like 5 minutes?!Please.

>>Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan share a common ancestor if you back far enough in time, do they not?<<

Yeah, you're talking about the Proto-World language here. Do you know how far back you need to go for that? Supposably 200.000 years.

>>You seem to wish to ignore the evolution of English, and pretend as if it does not resemble the "boogy-man" French language. The fact is, that it does. Lexically speaking, it has more in common with French overall, than it does with German.<<

I ask you LAA, take a look into this list ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinate_equivalents

... and tell me which Romance based words you use more than their Germanic counterparts.


>>So, how can you say that it bears no relation to French, and shares no similiarities? No one is disputing that it is a Germanic language. What we are saying is that it is a Germanic language that has been heavily influenced by Latinate French, and thus, is now distantly removed from its sister languages in the Germanic family. So, why do you continue to argue this point? <<

I most certainly will, just as long as it will take to make you see that some loans don't change a languages herritage or relation to others.

>>You sound like a real linguist there ... <<

So do you with your prose: "Imagine you're in puberty, this means you are very easiliy influenced by others. (etc etc etc)"

>>I ask you LAA, take a look into this list ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinate_equivalents

... and tell me which Romance based words you use more than their Germanic counterparts.<<

pork (swine is rarely used anyway)
audience (a hearing has a very limited usage)
produce ("get out" isn't normally used to mean produce)
veal
joy, pleasure, delight
proceed
attention
poultry
recognize
pronounce
...
Anyway a lot of them are 50/50 because one can't replace the other in a given context. And how can you determine the frequency of usage? e.g. how can you say you use "other" more often than "different", or "error" more than "mistake", or "shut" more than "close"?

>>So do you with your prose: "Imagine you're in puberty, this means you are very easiliy influenced by others. (etc etc etc)" <<

I suggest you try to grasp the concept of context.

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!
Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,
geong in geardum, þone god sende
folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat

þe hie ær drugon aldorlease
lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea,
wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf;
Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang),
Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.

This is part of a Old English text.
Now tell me French has very little to do with modern English.

Uriel : « you can still think of French as English's stepsister, if you like. They've been borrowing the same dresses from each other for long enough.... ;) »

Ha ha ha !!!

Très belle image !

Sauf que la *GRANDE* sœur a moins tendance à piquer les fringues de la petite toujours fourrée dans les placards de l'aînée...


;)

>>Now tell me French has very little to do with modern English. <<

Why would I tell you that? You seem to miss the point which is really simple, romance loans in English do not effect its relation to them genetically.

I am not saying differently officialy English is a Germanic language and for now it should remain so but modern English isn´t only this part of it´s history.
If Old English was on the table it would be a completly different issue.It is a truly Germanic language but nodern English, no.