How Germanic is English? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

How Germanic is English?
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54 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

tractor
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Message 33 of 54

05 May 2012 at 7:36pm | IP Logged

sipes23 wrote:

jeff_lindqvist wrote:

sipes23 wrote:

I have another Germanic point to the English
ledger. English does not
verb raise the way French does:
     •I always work.
     • *I work always.
     •Je travaille toujours.

I think a more interesting question to ask is how Celtic is English? But that's off topic.

I think French is the odd-man-out here. I can think of many languages where the adverb "always" is placed after
the verb (in main clauses, that is).

Maybe I'm misunderstanding: If French moves the verb ahead of "always" and so do many other languages, how is
it the odd man out? That would seem to make French typical and English odd.

But even if French is odd in this sort of verb raising, I think it is fair game to pick on French. It has been a source
of many English words and is likely the reason that people may think that English isn't Germanic. If English is
borrowing lots of French words, why not French syntax too? I guess that was my underlying and unspoken point
for bringing up verb raising in French.

I'm not sure I understand either one of you here. The typical Germanic word order is to put the verb in the second
position in the sentence (V2 word order). In other words, English doesn't follow the typical Germanic word order
in this example, French does.
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sipes23
Diglot
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Message 34 of 54

05 May 2012 at 8:48pm | IP Logged

tractor wrote:

I'm not sure I understand either one of you here. The typical Germanic word order is to put the
verb in the second
position in the sentence (V2 word order). In other words, English doesn't follow the typical Germanic word order
in this example, French does.

Yeah, English is not V2 like other Germanic languages—or SOV in subordinate clauses. It's SVO in virtually every
circumstance. I was commenting on a way that English was different from French (in a way I don't think that
Germanic languages do generally).
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Teango
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Message 35 of 54

05 May 2012 at 9:36pm | IP Logged

I know that English is technically a Germanic language but I've personally always found much more affinity between English and French in terms of word order and similarity. For example, I've always found French surprisingly easy to read from the first moment I clapped eyes on some text in the language, whilst German still continues to perplex and bewilder me on even the best of days (especially bank letters and legal documents!). Here's an older thread I dug up on the origins of the English language that might help add to the discussion (I particularly liked Iversen's take on things here). :)

Edited by Teango on 05 May 2012 at 9:38pm
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beano
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Message 36 of 54

05 May 2012 at 10:19pm | IP Logged

English is full of words that sound similar or even identical to their German counterparts. There are also many words that seem to have taken a step sideways, such as flasche (bottle, but obviously related to flask).
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Марк
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Russian Federation
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Message 37 of 54

05 May 2012 at 10:35pm | IP Logged

Teango wrote:

I know that English is technically a Germanic language but I've
personally always found much more affinity between English and French in terms of word
order and similarity. For example, I've always found French surprisingly easy to read
from the first moment I clapped eyes on some text in the language, whilst German still
continues to perplex and bewilder me on even the best of days (especially bank letters
and legal documents!). Here's an older thread I dug up on the any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19896&PN=45&get=l ast">origins of the English
language that might help add to the discussion (I particularly liked Iversen's take
on things here). :)

It happens because English and French have conservative orthographies. In fact, those
cognates are not similar at all. Like choice and choix.
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jeff_lindqvist
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Message 38 of 54

06 May 2012 at 2:12pm | IP Logged

sipes23 wrote:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding: If French moves the verb ahead of "always" and so do many other languages, how is it the odd man out? That would seem to make French typical and English odd.

Oops! I mean't English (and have now edited my post).

Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 06 May 2012 at 2:14pm
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fiziwig
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Message 39 of 54

06 May 2012 at 4:45pm | IP Logged

Zireael wrote:

Has someone seen this book?

How we'd talk...

Or check out the "Anglish" movement:

http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Headside

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sipes23
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Message 40 of 54

06 May 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged

jeff_lindqvist wrote:

Oops! I mean't English (and have now edited my post).

Thanks for the fix. Now it makes complete sense as to why my point wasn't all that good.

Edited by sipes23 on 06 May 2012 at 5:11pm

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