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Similarity to English? | ||
Tags: Germanic Languages | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| alfajuj Diglot Senior Member Taiwan Joined 6211 days ago 121 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Taiwanese, French | Message 9 of 13 17 September 2008 at 5:11am | IP Logged | ||
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English is a Germanic language, in fact it is the biggest of all the Germanic languages. Although and estimated 57% of all the vocabulary of the English language are from either French of Latin origins, 83% of the 1,000 most-common, and all of the 100 most-common English words are Germanic.
Because of its origins and history, English does not have any mutually intelligible relatives (other than Scots). At its roots, English is a member of the Anglo-Frisian branch of the West Germanic language family. So, other than Scots, it is closest to Frisian. But it is also related to all the other West Germanic languages, which include German, Dutch and Afrikans. The original basis of the language was brought to Britain from parts of northern Germany, Holland and Denmark. In the middle ages and earlier, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. There are still remnants in Holland and Germany today. (There remain about 500,00 native speakers of the Frisian languages today.) It was also influenced by Scandinavian (northern Germanic) from the Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries. This led to grammatical simplification of Old English and led into Middle English. Then the Norman invasions in the 11th century had a massive impact on the language which led it to have huge amounts of French loan words in its vocabulary. The French cognates have been thoroughly anglicized in pronunciation but when written, they're very easy to recognize. This might lead one to mistakenly believe that English is related to French. But it certainly isn't. There has been so much lexical drift from the other West Germanic languages that the similarities are much harder to recognize. So to summarize, the closest relatives of English are Scots, Frisian, German, Dutch and Afrikans. But being related doesn't necessarily make them easy to learn. French must be mentioned also. Knowing English is probably more helpful in learning French than it is in learning other Germanic languages. (the French have jokingly said that English is just French being pronounced badly!) So to answer your question about what would be the easiest language for an English speaker to learn, there really isn't any easy one. I would be tempted to say French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 11 of 13 18 October 2008 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | ||
Yea, I think knowing English really helps in learning French. Nonetheless, there's the occasional danger of lifting a bit too much of the familiar English vocabulary. Also, British people generally seem to have some odd pronunciation issues with French. Currently I'm attending a French class in Edinburgh and so I witness many curious varieties of Frenglish. Edited by Sennin on 18 October 2008 at 5:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5877 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 12 of 13 23 October 2008 at 12:00am | IP Logged | ||
Based my my own experience given I am native English and learned all my languages as an adult and the languages I speak (and I realise this is different for everyone), Swedish was by far the easiest, and, for mine, most similar to English. It is the grammar that is similar, as well as many of the words, as in the Danish lords prayer above. Sometimes when speaking Swedish, I am surprised that the English people around me can not understand, they are so similar. If I say for example "Varifrån kommer du?" it is basically English with a funny accent... "Where-i From come-a you?" Sometimes with the words you need to have a bit of an open mind about it, the Swedish word for river, for example is like the English word for flood ("flod"). So you only have to remember to say flood for river instead of learning a new word (although now that I think about it, the French word for river "fleve" is similar to flood also, and the Spanish "rio" is similar to the English "river", so I may not have picked a good example, but you get my drift) I once read a discussion somewhere that the basic word in English usually comes from the Germanic roots, and the advanced one comes from the latin. So for example the word "to learn" will be similar to the Swedish basic word "lära" but dissimilar to the French "apprendre", yet the advanced word, "education" will be similar to French "éducation", but dissimilar to the Swedish "utbildning". With me? So, for mine, to speak around the house in general conversation, using the the sorts of words you use in general conversation, Swedish is the easiest of the languages I speak for English speakers, but if you want to write an essay about philosophy, then Spanish or French are easier for the English speaker. Honestly, a lot of you English speakers who think that French is easy would be surprised by how quickly you could put together decent Swedish (or Danish or Norwegian). A few months ... seriously. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6894 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 13 11 November 2008 at 4:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's the Lord's prayer in Swedish and English then, side by side:
Fader vår, som är i himmelen. ... - Our Father, who art in heaven, Helgat varde ditt namn ............. - Hallowed be thy Name. tillkomme ditt rike .................... - Thy kingdom come. ske din vilja, .......................... - Thy will be done, såsom i himmelen ................. - On earth as it is in heaven. (*) så ock på jorden vårt dagliga bröd giv oss idag .. - Give us this day our daily bread. och förlåt oss våra skulder, ...... - And forgive us our trespasses, såsom ock vi förlåta dem oss .... - As we forgive those who trespass skyldiga äro .................................. against us. och inled oss icke i frestelse, ...... - And lead us not into temptation, utan fräls oss ifrån ondo. .......... - But deliver us from evil. Ty riket är ditt .......................... - For thine is the kingdom, och makten och härligheten, ...... and the power, and the glory, i evighet. Amen. ...................... - for ever and ever. Amen. (*) heaven and earth are the other way around in Swedish: "as in heaven, so also on earth" Edited by Hencke on 11 November 2008 at 4:31am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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