What makes French a Latin-Germanic mixed language

Dexter   Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:54 pm GMT
If Germanic influence would have accounted for the evolution of vulgar latin all the romance languages today would have been affected in uneven ways. There was no Germanic empire at the time, just many different tribes who each spoke their own dialects.
Paul   Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:23 pm GMT
<<4). Use of 'habere' + past participle for complex past tense (present perfect)
5) Use of postpositioned modal use of 'habere' (infinitive + habere) for new future tense--also falls under #1) & #4 above >>

I've always wondered why these constructions were so similar to english.
Ouest   Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:10 am GMT
""""Dexter Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:54 pm GMT
If Germanic influence would have accounted for the evolution of vulgar latin all the romance languages today would have been affected in uneven ways. There was no Germanic empire at the time, just many different tribes who each spoke their own dialects. """""""""""""

In fact, the different languages and dialects of Romance are a perfect image of the different Germanic realm. Lombardic is/was spoken in the realm of the Lombards, French and Catalan in the realms of the Franks, Franko-Provencal in the Burgundian/Frankish realm etc...
Pool   Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:44 pm GMT
Leasnam Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:16 pm GMT

French actually contains a couple thousand germanic words, because borrowing from Netherlandic, English, Scandinavian, and especially German has continued throughout the history of the French language. It is not solely limited to these 400...
_________________________

I agree! Most of the influence shows up in the French grammar and pronunciation. Further more the French language is full of Germanic constructions and phrases of every day speak. e.g. they say "Ou vas tu?" (="wo gehst du?"), instead of "Ou tu vas?".
Poola   Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:51 pm GMT
Romance languages derive from Germanic. For example see the paralellism:

English: I eat potatoes.

Spanish: Yo como patatas.

It's the same.
GG   Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:06 pm GMT
<<Romance languages derive from Germanic. For example see the paralellism:

English: I eat potatoes.

Spanish: Yo como patatas.

It's the same.>>

That was awfully stupid. Two really short sentences that happen to be the same structurally proves nothing. What about this:

English: I am twenty-two years old.
French: J'ai (I have) vingt-deux ans (years).
germanic   Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:44 pm GMT
french is a germanic-influenced language: it use the same letters than English, German or Dutch! And not only that, but french also use words! how incredible that french has the use of words, as Engliah, German and Dutch does! the similarities don't stop there because in french, like in the germanic languages, those words are expressed by pushing air thru the mouth; making noses that are understood as a meaning by the speaker!

Well I think all these are proofs enought that french has really strong germanic influence, and maybe is fully coming from germanic?
Francais   Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:10 pm GMT
French definitely has Germanic influences in terms of sounds. But the vocabulary is dominantly Latin-based. With that in mind, the influences of Latin is more pervasive than German. I understand French and can also understand a bit of Italian since they're both so similar. But I cannot understand German.
Ouest   Sat Nov 01, 2008 6:16 am GMT
germanic wrote Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:44 pm GMT
"french is a germanic-influenced language: it use the same letters than English, German or Dutch! ....."

Thank you for your profound analysis of the situation! Indeed French uses not the latin letters Cicero used but the Germanic "Carolingian or Caroline minuscule", which is a script developed round year 800 by Germanic "barbars" located in the region of Aachen (Germany) as a writing standard in Europe. It forms the basis of all modern scripts, the French one included.

germanic wrote Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:44 pm GMT
"Well I think all these are proofs enought that french has really strong germanic influence, and maybe is fully coming from germanic? "


This is correct, but I would doubt that French "fully" comes from Germanic. Germanic participated fifty percent in the creation of French.
Pool   Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:13 am GMT
GG Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:06 pm GMT
<<<<<<<<<<<
<<Romance languages derive from Germanic. For example see the paralellism:

English: I eat potatoes.

Spanish: Yo como patatas.

It's the same.>>

That was awfully stupid. Two really short sentences that happen to be the same structurally proves nothing. What about this:

English: I am twenty-two years old.
French: J'ai (I have) vingt-deux ans (years).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

paralellism between French and German can be best seen if one compares Latin to both of them:

errare humanum est
sich irren ist menschlich
se gourrer est humain

Tempus fugit
die Zeit vergeht
le temp passe

ALEA IACTA EST
Der Würfel ist gefallen
le dé est jeté

Audiatur et altera pars
Man höre auch die andere Seite
On écoute aussi la autre part


quo vadis
wo gehst du
ou va tu


Dies diem docet
Ein Tag lehrt den anderen Tag
Un Jour enseigne le autre Jour
Un día enseña a otro día


French vocabulary is more latin, its structure more Germanic.
South   Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:50 pm GMT
Your translator is very bad...

-"Se gourrer est humain"----->'se gourrer' is a very vulgar verb, 'L'erreur est humaine' is A LOT better.

-"Le temp passe"------>'Le temps passe' and 'Le temps fuit' is right also ('fugire' became 'fuir' in French).

-"le dé est jeté"------> the translation of 'Alea jacta est' is 'Les dés sont jetés'.

-"ou va tu"-----> 'Où vas-tu' or 'Où tu vas' are both right.

-"Un Jour enseigne le autre Jour"------>I don't know this sentence in French but 'Un jour enseigne l'autre jour' is better.
Ouest   Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:16 pm GMT
'se gourrer' precisely comes from Germanic "(w)irren" - for the rest you are right, translation is not elegant, but the purpose was not to be elegant but to show the parallel between German and French and how far away French grammar is from Latin (French v o c a b u l a r y is more related to Latin than to German)
CaseusClay   Sat Nov 01, 2008 6:12 pm GMT
Vulgar Latin wasn't like Classical Latin even from the earliest times, which was always more of an artificial language created for literarature and prose. Grafitti found in pompei and herculaneum show that the language of vulgar latin was quite different.
Ouest   Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:59 am GMT
CaseusClay Sat Nov 01, 2008 6:12 pm GMT
Vulgar Latin wasn't like Classical Latin even from the earliest times, which was always more of an artificial language created for literarature and prose. Grafitti found in pompei and herculaneum show that the language of vulgar latin was quite different.
______________________________________

The Grafitti found in pompei and herculaneum are not clearly enough different from Classical Latin and consist of only a few words. Vulgar Latin is until now purely hypothetical and not even plausible....
Leasnam   Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:05 pm GMT
<<,Vulgar Latin wasn't like Classical Latin even from the earliest times, which was always more of an artificial language created for literarature and prose. Grafitti found in pompei and herculaneum show that the language of vulgar latin was quite different. >>

No one knows really what early vulgar Latin was like, or how much it diverged from Classical Latin. Nor was Classical Latin an artifical language--it started as a real spoken language. It only became semi-artificial and staticized AFTER such time as when it was maintained for literary purposes only.