What makes French a Latin-Germanic mixed language

There is a wish among some people, mostly coming from English-speaking cultures, to makes french a non-latin culture, or, at least a latin-germanic mixed one.

I think it is to make in parrallel the the wish among those same peoples to makes English a latin culture, or at least a latin-germanic mixed one. They spend their time on this forum or other places on internet to claim that English comes from latin or is supposed to have more latin influence than germanic - which is obviously clearly not the case for the rest of the people.

That means there is a wish among these people that English-speaking culture might being lumped with french one instead of its natural germanic group, maybe to feel connected to the classical cultures that these peoples apparently tend to think to be superior to their own.

To make that connection possible it seems necessary for them to think at all price that french is supposed to be a mixed language, to play a role of "bridge" between latin and germanic language that it obviously doesn't play in reality more than Spanish or Italian.

The poster here is just quite representative of this posture.

I don't see that French has a strong Germanic component. The only similarity I see is in the pronunciation of the letter R. French to me shares most of its vocabulary with Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, and sounds similar in ways to Portuguese.

<< French to me shares most of its vocabulary with Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese >>
-- Absolutely right

<< and sounds similar in ways to Portuguese. >>
-- Yep. And to that token English sounds similar in ways to Russian....

<< I don't see that French has a strong Germanic component. The only similarity I see is in the pronunciation of the letter R >>
-- That doesn't count, because:
. modern French and German 'R' are the product of a recent convergence involving most of French and German speaking areas (but not all of them),
. in European languages you can choose any 'R' you want, it doesn't have any consequence (unlike in other areas were uvular and apical 'R's are DISTINCT phonemes)

On the other hand French and Germanic languages (*except* English sometimes) share some exclusive features that are structuring factors to the whole phonetic and grammar, like a complete set of front rounded vowels or in the use of pronouns (non pro-drop languages).

Other than that there are lots of minor similarities (e.g. no future tense in conditional clauses) — but nothing allowing to state the existence of some imaginary "Latin-Germanic mixed language", which is pure nonsense.

I've always viewed it as English and French peoples are a bit exceptionalists... hate being grouped.

"I've always viewed it as English and French peoples are a bit exceptionalists... hate being grouped. "

well, that might be true for English people, who, firstly dislike to be grouped with the other Europeans (continentals vs themselves). And secondly they dislike being lumped with the other germanic/protestant nations of northern Europe - to which they obviously belong, but to which most english people would strongly claim they don't at all price.
The only grouping that English people tolerates are the one that put tehmselves at the center point of it: United kingdom, commonwealth.

On the other point France has always been very involved in creating politic or cultural groupings in which french like to identify among many other nations: mainly European union, the UN or the latin union.
I don't think the french are exceptionalist at all (well they are surrounded by so many countries, nothing to see with the natural insularity of England). To think that, is, I think, to apply an tipical English character upon the french.

Also Italian has some german origins but is a Neolatin language.

Trough "Italian" a lot of germanic words (Lombars) became English words.
The most famous are "Banca" >>> "Bank" and "Balcone" >>> "Balcony".
Major part of Italian words with "anc" and "alc" are of Lombard descent.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_longobarda

@antimooner: I'm guessing you're American, because you don't understand the English people at all.

Why do all Romance languages have these Germanic words like guerra, blanco, etc.? It's a strange coincidence because even in Spanish they appear, and the Germanic tribes had testimonial presence in Spain. I think that these words derive from Vulgar Latin in reality.

promooner,

I'm obviously not American. As you can see with my poor english gramar use I'm not even an English speaker...

I'm European, from a country that have some part of its territory not that far to southern England.
But yes I probably don't know much about how English people think themselves despite having been numerous times in England and UK.

I'm just judging by the image that the UK gives since decades in the international envolvments. So please correct me.

Well, my point is your sweeping generalisations are highly one-dimensional, and you're only looking at it from one angle. Things are a fair bit more complex than that.

Brennus Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:45 am GMT
"The French language is still predominately Latin in character and origins. The Germanic elements (Mostly Frankish) are not numerous enough to call it a "Latin-Germanic" or probably even a "Romance-Mixed" language like Romanian. "

Dear Brennus, how do you explain that it is easyer for a French pupil to learn German of English than to learn Latin? If "The French language is still predominately Latin in character and origins. ", wouldn´t Latin be easy to learn for a French?

Brennus Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:45 am GMT
"Often overlooked is the Celtic element in French, mostly from the Ancient Gauls and a little bit from Breton. Yet, it appears to be about equal to the Germanic elements in the language. "

Looking for the Celtic element in French is like looking for the American-Indian (Apache, Navajo etc.) element in American English - interesting, but without any result....

And if Italian is easier to learn for French pupils than German that makes French Germanic ?
And if it's easier for Spanish pupils to learn German than Latin that makes Spanish Germanic ?
And if it's easier to English pupils to learn Japanese than Swahili that makes English Asiatic ?

South Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:19 am GMT
"And if Italian is easier to learn for French pupils than German that makes French Germanic ?
And if it's easier for Spanish pupils to learn German than Latin that makes Spanish Germanic ?
And if it's easier to English pupils to learn Japanese than Swahili that makes English Asiatic ? "

logics is not your strong point, is it?

But if you ask: "And if it's easier for Spanish pupils to learn German than Latin that makes Spanish Germanic ? "

My answer is: to a certain extend yes. Also Spanish language (except vocabulary) has more in common with English than with Latin.

Morticia Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:15 am GMT
"Why do all Romance languages have these Germanic words like guerra, blanco, etc.? It's a strange coincidence because even in Spanish they appear, and the Germanic tribes had testimonial presence in Spain. I think that these words derive from Vulgar Latin in reality. "

"Germanic tribes had testimonial presence in Spain" : the Goths were not only "present" in Spain but ruled it for centuries and settled there in great number. Like the Franks did in France, and the Lombards did in Italy, the Goths influenced deeply the structure and pronunciation of the Latin spoken in their new home country.

<<My answer is: to a certain extend yes. Also Spanish language (except vocabulary) has more in common with English than with Latin.>>

I wasn't really saying it's easier for Spanish people to learn German than Latin (that's why I used the word "if", it was just to show it is sometimes stupid to say "you learn more German/Spanish/French/Japanese and consequently your language is more Germanic/Latin/African etc), I don't know because I'm not Spanish.

I'm French, I'm learning English (for 10 years) and Spanish (for 5 years) and my level of Spanish is a lot better than English (as you can see my English isn't really good), I understand perfectly Italian and nothing about German.

If French and Spanish were as Germanic as you say I should understand German also.