Re: Scandinavia and the Germanic tribes such as Goths, Vandals, Angl

At 1:14:37 PM on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Andrew Jarrette
wrote:

[...]

> And anyway this basically supports my point that English
> has always had a strong foreign element in its identity
> (OK, I didn't say it in so many words in my last posting
> but this is what I meant).

But it's not true: OE wasn't particularly receptive to
foreign words, tending rather to use its own resources. The
techniques include extending the meanings of existing words,
creating new compounds (e.g., <leorning-cniht> for
<discipulus>), and calquing.

Brian