Roma:
>i looked at a couple of langiuages sites a few dauys ago
>and saw english listed among the german group .....but
>french in the latin-romansch group ....but from what i
>know on a word for word basis english is closer to french
>than german ???
English has been heavily affected by Norman French way
back in the Middle Ages, giving us plenty of Latinic
words like "season" and "render". Latin also became
popular as a scientific language which also contributes
words like "contribution".
The basic grammar and vocabulary remains Germanic. Words
such as "it", "he", "of" and "by" are all Germanic in
origin. Ablaut patterns such as "sing/sang" also are
attributable to Germanic. It is largely nouns and verbs
that have been borrowed from French. As well, the old
case system of Germanic has been severely reduced starting
particularly in Middle English, making it less Germanic
in appearance. The hard "ch" sound as in German "bach"
was eventually lost in English, adding to its difference
from German but this has nothing to do with French.
Regardless of the French loans, the core of English owes
more to its Proto-Germanic ancestor. French on the other
hand is more a descendant of Latin. French has also
borrowed English words however its core vocabulary and
grammar is mostly Latinic in origin.
- gLeN
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