English, German, & Dutch part 2

eastlander   Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:27 pm GMT
Dutch and German is like Portuguese and Spanish (Castilian) or Danish and Nynorsk.English and German is like French and Spanish.
ruler   Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:08 pm GMT
Dutch and German are like Faeroese and Icelandic. English and Dutch are like French and Latin. English and German are like Luxembourgish and Swedish.
Guest   Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:47 pm GMT
Dutch and German is like Portuguese and Spanish (Castilian)

Brazilian Portuguese or European Portuguese?
eastlander   Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:16 pm GMT
European Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish is like Limburgish (East Low Franconian)and Standard German.
eastlander   Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:19 pm GMT
Faeroese and Icelandic are like West Flemish and Standard Dutch.
Leasnam   Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:31 pm GMT
English and Dutch are like English and Dutch.

German and Dutch are like German and Dutch.
captain Dread   Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:39 pm GMT
Great input!
Guest   Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:54 pm GMT
Does English share more vocabulary with French than with some German tongues?
Baguette   Tue Nov 11, 2008 5:48 pm GMT
Yes. 29 % of the English vocabulary is of French, another 29 % of Latin and 16 % of Greek (and other languages) origin, while only 26 % can be traced back to Germanic origin.
Guest   Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:02 pm GMT
What a shame.
Baguette   Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:13 pm GMT
Well, some English are even proud of that.
Guest   Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:17 pm GMT
<<Well, some English are even proud of that. >>

I am not.
But those percentages are Total lexicon, a large part of which is never used or archaic or obsolete.

An everyday Englishman's lexicon consititutes a much higher percentage of native and Germanic words.

Don't forget, even French imparts a fair percentage of germanic words to English. Not only Latin-origined. Of English words of French origin (<Old and Middle French), approximately 15% are of Germanic origin.
Leasnam   Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:23 pm GMT
<<Does English share more vocabulary with French than with some German tongues? >>

It does.
English shares more grammar (name/name's/names; begin/began/begun; good/better/best; etc) with its Germanic brethren.
FlĂ»te   Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:58 pm GMT
"An everyday Englishman's lexicon consititutes a much higher percentage of native and Germanic words"

That may be true, but it doesn't alter the percentage of the Germanic vocabulary overall which in fact is humble.
YEAH!   Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:30 pm GMT
irrelevant