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

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> 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
>

I said "foreign element in its _identity_", meaning the ancestry, and
therefore allegiances and identity, its speakers were held to have
(variously from the Danish Scefings, from the Geats, from the Goths,
from Seth, as well as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, plus Alfred's
accomodation of less-foreign Mercians and later the Northumbrians and
their Danish element). I suppose I should have said "the English"
rather than "English". It seemed to me that the English developed a
"xenotropic" tendency early on that developed into a torrent through
much of the history of their language (as mentioned, English is now
only about 20% English).

Andrew