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what makes English Germanic?
Question: if I would want to prove that a certain text in English (Modern English) is mainly Germanic what would I have to do? What kind of alaysis? I can't analyze grammar since it has very little Germanic. I could analyze vocabulary of texts from various domains (formal vs. informal texts) and take out word frequency - hoping that the most frequently used words in the text are of Germanic origin. Does anyone have a better idea?
Unique features of Germanic languages are:
1. The leveling of the Indo-European tense system into past and present (or common)
2. The use of genitive formation by adding –s for nouns in singular
3. The presence of two distinct types of verb conjugation: weak (using dental suffix /d/ or /t/ instead of vowel alternation to indicate past tense) and strong (using ablaut). English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin.
4. The use of strong and weak adjectives. Modern English adjectives don't change except for comparative and superlative; this was not the case with Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on whether they were preceded by an article or demonstrative, or not.
5. The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law.
6. A number of words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families, but variants of which appear in almost all Germanic languages.
7. The shifting of stress onto the root of the stem. Though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what's added to them. This is arguably the most important change.
1. The leveling of the Indo-European tense system into past and present (or common)
2. The use of genitive formation by adding –s for nouns in singular
3. The presence of two distinct types of verb conjugation: weak (using dental suffix /d/ or /t/ instead of vowel alternation to indicate past tense) and strong (using ablaut). English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin.
4. The use of strong and weak adjectives. Modern English adjectives don't change except for comparative and superlative; this was not the case with Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on whether they were preceded by an article or demonstrative, or not.
5. The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law.
6. A number of words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families, but variants of which appear in almost all Germanic languages.
7. The shifting of stress onto the root of the stem. Though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what's added to them. This is arguably the most important change.
> The presence of two distinct types of verb conjugation: weak (using dental suffix /d/ or /t/ instead of vowel alternation to indicate past tense) and strong (using ablaut). English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin.
Afrikaans has lost the distinction between the strong and weak verbs: all verbs form their past tense in the form het + stem. For example 'Hy sing' (He sings) and 'Hy het gesing' (He has sung) rather than the ancestral Dutch 'Hij heeft gezongen'.
The dental suffix has been lost from the past form of the verb. For example 'Ek werk' (I work), 'Ek het gewerk' (I have worked).
Afrikaans has lost the distinction between the strong and weak verbs: all verbs form their past tense in the form het + stem. For example 'Hy sing' (He sings) and 'Hy het gesing' (He has sung) rather than the ancestral Dutch 'Hij heeft gezongen'.
The dental suffix has been lost from the past form of the verb. For example 'Ek werk' (I work), 'Ek het gewerk' (I have worked).
<<English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin. >>
In an earlier post it was noted that there are at least 7 irregular English verbs which came from French, 'To be able to, to strive, to pay, to hurt, to cost, to quit and to catch'.
But, the verb 'to be able to' for some reason the infinitive was replaced with a French word but the other forms remained Germanic 'Can, could' and curiously enough, two of the other verbs 'Strive and hurt' although borrowed from French are actually Germanic in origin. 'Strive' is actually cognate with the native english word 'Stride' so it may have been given an irregular form to correspond with 'Stride'.
In an earlier post it was noted that there are at least 7 irregular English verbs which came from French, 'To be able to, to strive, to pay, to hurt, to cost, to quit and to catch'.
But, the verb 'to be able to' for some reason the infinitive was replaced with a French word but the other forms remained Germanic 'Can, could' and curiously enough, two of the other verbs 'Strive and hurt' although borrowed from French are actually Germanic in origin. 'Strive' is actually cognate with the native english word 'Stride' so it may have been given an irregular form to correspond with 'Stride'.
There is this tendency in English as well, towards making the strong form of conjugation redundant. Like teach - taught /teached, mow - mown/mowed, light - lit/lighted, lean - leant/leaned etc.
Brennus, what would you do if sb gave you a text in English and told you: prove it that this language is Germanic!?
Interestingly, genetic tests have shown that the population genetically most similar to that of England (presumably excluding former English/British colonies) lives in the Frisian region of the Netherlands.
I read several articles recently which laid out that the English are predominantly of Brythonic (Celtic) origin. And if you have ever been to England, you can see that the average Englishman rather resembles a person from southern France or the other celtic countries like Scotland, Wales and Ireland where most of the people are small and black-haired.
Some Angles, Saxons and Jutes came (of course most stayed in Germany and Denmark), but they imposed their culture on everyone else, not their bloodlines, which probably only affected the people in places like East Anglia!
So, the bulk of English people are Celts, not germanic.
Some Angles, Saxons and Jutes came (of course most stayed in Germany and Denmark), but they imposed their culture on everyone else, not their bloodlines, which probably only affected the people in places like East Anglia!
So, the bulk of English people are Celts, not germanic.
Though it is strongly argued that English language is a Germanic language, as descended from West-branch of Proto-Germanic language
the historical development of English language does reflect much on the
influences of Roman languages such as French language, whose great influx of vocabulary into English arouse certain difficulty on how can we
say English language is pure Germanic language.
Then, the need for concrete reasons to show the legitimacy of naming English as Germanic language are to be established with vivid examples
from outset of it origin to its internal mechanism of structure, grammar, syntax and phonological features.
Further, it could be better if we trace the some of relationship that leads some people oftenly lebelled English as both Germanic and Romance languages.
the historical development of English language does reflect much on the
influences of Roman languages such as French language, whose great influx of vocabulary into English arouse certain difficulty on how can we
say English language is pure Germanic language.
Then, the need for concrete reasons to show the legitimacy of naming English as Germanic language are to be established with vivid examples
from outset of it origin to its internal mechanism of structure, grammar, syntax and phonological features.
Further, it could be better if we trace the some of relationship that leads some people oftenly lebelled English as both Germanic and Romance languages.
"I read several articles recently which laid out that the English are predominantly of Brythonic (Celtic) origin. And if you have ever been to England, you can see that the average Englishman rather resembles a person from southern France or the other celtic countries like Scotland, Wales and Ireland where most of the people are small and black-haired.
Some Angles, Saxons and Jutes came (of course most stayed in Germany and Denmark), but they imposed their culture on everyone else, not their bloodlines, which probably only affected the people in places like East Anglia!
So, the bulk of English people are Celts, not germanic. "
I don't think this is true. It just doesn't make sense. And the English do not look like southern Frenchmen at all! Nor do they resemble characteristics which are typical of Welshmen or Irishmen. A good identifying mark is the average height. Englishmen are on average, a couple of inches taller than Welshmen, which is the same relationship shared between Celtic and Germanic peoples. Also, Wales has much higher frequency of brunnette features, while the English have a much higher rate of blondness, which is common to other Teutonic peoples.
I believe the studies which show that the English are genetically closest to the people of Friesland makes the most sense. This is supported by the fact the linguistically, Frisian is English's closest relative. The Anglo-Saxons were from the same region, and the modern English, seem to betray this fact to the world by means of their DNA.
Some Angles, Saxons and Jutes came (of course most stayed in Germany and Denmark), but they imposed their culture on everyone else, not their bloodlines, which probably only affected the people in places like East Anglia!
So, the bulk of English people are Celts, not germanic. "
I don't think this is true. It just doesn't make sense. And the English do not look like southern Frenchmen at all! Nor do they resemble characteristics which are typical of Welshmen or Irishmen. A good identifying mark is the average height. Englishmen are on average, a couple of inches taller than Welshmen, which is the same relationship shared between Celtic and Germanic peoples. Also, Wales has much higher frequency of brunnette features, while the English have a much higher rate of blondness, which is common to other Teutonic peoples.
I believe the studies which show that the English are genetically closest to the people of Friesland makes the most sense. This is supported by the fact the linguistically, Frisian is English's closest relative. The Anglo-Saxons were from the same region, and the modern English, seem to betray this fact to the world by means of their DNA.
I have been reading this discussion of English Ethnic origins.I believe that the ethnic situation in England is comparable to that of much Latin America,Where large portion of invaders intermarried with a large portion natives though the language and culture of the invader predominated.Thus the English are a mixture of the old Celtic-Speaking Britons and Germanic- speaking Anglo-Saxons(with some smaller groups mixed in such as Danish Vikings and Norman French) but speak a language that is the derived from Anglo-Saxon(Old English),though with a great number of loan words from Latin and Scandinavian(North Germanic).
Brennus : « Nevertheless , the *Norman French* elements in English are comparable to the Slavic elements in Yiddish (...) ».
Qu'entends-tu par "Norman French" ?
Qu'entends-tu par "Norman French" ?
I read somewhere that, according to DNA studies, the Welsh are closely related to the Basques. Maybe this is the reason, or one of the reasons, that there is a high degree of brunette features among the Welsh population.