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What makes French a Latin-Germanic mixed language
<<Those are cliches. The Romans were not Germanic yet they were quite cold and efficient. That's the reason why their Empire lasted so many centuries. Logic is universal and everyone understands it. >>
"Stereotypes" are the better term.
"The Romans were not Germanic yet they were quite cold and efficient. "
Interesting and correct - where did Romans and Greek come from? Both peoples were very clever, cold and efficient, not at all like the mediterranians of today. Romans and Greek brought Indo-European languages to the mediterranian universe and ruled there for centuries.
I"nteresting and correct - where did Romans and Greek come from? Both peoples were very clever, cold and efficient, not at all like the mediterranians of today. Romans and Greek brought Indo-European languages to the mediterranian universe and ruled there for centuries"
Indoeuropeans were not all like the Germans. Slavic peoples are the opposite to them as for mentality and are probably much genuinely Indoerupean than them. 30% of German vocabulary is pre-Indoeuropean.
"Interesting and correct - where did Romans and Greek come from? Both peoples were very clever, cold and efficient, not at all like the mediterranians of today. Romans and Greek brought Indo-European languages to the mediterranian universe and ruled there for centuries."
There are DNA studies about this: Italians of today from "Latium" and "Tuscany" have the same DNA of ancient Romans that come from Danubian Europe.
The name of the Romans indicates that they all stem from a single city - how could they conquer the whole mediterranian sphere? Who exactly were the "Romans"?
anti nonsenses Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:26 pm GMT
<<Spanish language has Iberic (Basque) and Arabic substrate>> Wrong. Arabic is considered a superstrate because its influence is reduced to loanwords. A language is substrate of another when people who spoke the former began to spoke to later and thus leaved a big impact on it. This is the case of Basque but not Arabic .Also Iberian Celtic languages are another substrate of Spanish . S. Palin Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:23 am GMT <<No, this is actually correct: Arabic can be thought of as a substratum due to the reconquest/reclaiming of the southern areas of Iberian Pen., which had become Arabic speaking, from the North>> When people in Southern Spain began to speak Spanish instead of Arabic or Mozarabe (Romance writen with Arabic script) , the Spanish language was already formed, hence any influence could only be minimal. Substratum means the influence of other languages in the creation itself of another one. Compare the superficial influence of Arabic with the one of Basque that is really a substratum: Spanish has 5 vowels like Basque, the distinction between ser and star (already present in Latin but reinforced by the contact with Basque), the duplication of indirect object, loss of initial F, Bethacism, etc... These are features of the core itself of the Spanish language that are due to the influence of a strong Basque substrate . On the opposite superstrates a more superficial (hence the name of superstrate) impact on languages. In the case of Spanish these are Arabic and Germanic languages. Like some linguists say, Spanish was created by Basques who wanted to speak Latin. There is also a certain Celtic influence on Spanish, but it is not very clear and as studied like in the case of Basque. Certainly it must exist to some degree since in the Northernmost part of Spain where Spanish appeared, Celtic communities in coexistence with Basques had their homeland. _______________________________________________________________ The sentence "Like some linguists say, Spanish was created by Basques who wanted to speak Latin. " is parallel to the French language: "French was created by Franks who wanted to speak Latin." Due to heavy settlement of Franks in Northern France, their Germanic dialect can be seen as a substrate of modern French.
There are DNA studies about this: Italians of today from "Latium" and "Tuscany" have the same DNA of ancient Romans that come from Danubian Europe.
So Italians and Romanians have same genetic stock.
"So Italians and Romanians have same genetic stock."
Some Romanians, not the gypsies that come from India.
This is not completly true. Sicilians are related with Spanish and Arabic people.
One part of ancestors of Sicilians,Spaniards and Arabic people were Carthaginians(Punic) or Phoenicians-people of Semitic origin.
Some Romanians, not the gypsies that come from India
Obviously, and some Italians, not the gypsies that come from India.
Guest Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:33 pm GMT
Sicilians are Italians. That is true like "Sicilians are Europeans" ...
The people of Sicily are often portrayed as very proud of their island, identity and culture and it is not uncommon for people to describe themselves as Sicilian, before the more national description of Italian.[51] Despite the existence of major cities such as Palermo, Catania, Messina and Syracuse, popular stereotypes of Sicilians commonly allude to ruralism, for example the coppola is one of the main symbols of Sicilian identity; it is derived from the flat cap of rural Northern England which arrived in 1800 when Bourbon king Ferdinand I had fled to Sicily and was protected by the British Royal Navy.[52]
Saint Lucy, a Sicilian Christian martyr.Throughout history Sicily has rulers from a variety of different cultures, each of whom has contributed island's culture, particularly in the areas of cuisine and architecture. Sicilian people tend to most closely associate themselves with other southern Italians, with whom they share a common history. Of the ethnicities outside of Italy itself, Sicilians and other southern Italians tend to associate most closely with the Greeks, especially due to the Magna Græcia and Greco-Roman cultures. This is exemplified in the saying "una faccia, una razza", meaning "one face, one race", a phrase Greeks and Southern Italians sometimes use in reference to each other.[53] Modern methods of genetic testing show that aside from other Italians, Greeks are indeed the closest genetically,[54][55][56][57][58] while other former gene flows are very limited.[55][59][60][61][62][63] In a very recent and thorough study the genetic contribution of Greek chromosomes to the Sicilian gene pool was estimated to be about 37% whereas the contribution of North African populations was estimated to be around 6%.[64][65] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicily |