Klarinet Archive - Posting 000280.txt from 2005/09

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Pinky again
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:42:15 -0400

Lelia Loban wrote:
> In the case of English, it's more than an influence. According to my
> college English and philology texts from the days of the dinosaurs
> (well, forty years ago), about half of the core English vocabulary
> derives from Old French, a Latin-descended Romance language, thanks to
> William the Conqueror and his successful 11th century Norman conquest.
> Much of the rest of the (earlier) English core vocabulary came from
> Anglo-Saxon (aka OE, AS or Old English), which descended through the
> Celts from Old Norse and Old High German (two non-Romance languages
> that were, as you say, related).

Yep, it's certainly true that vocabulary-wise English seems to split
about half-n-half between Germanic and French descent. The first time
most people notice this is when they start studying languages in
school! BTW Anglo-Saxon did not descend through the Celts. The Celts
were there first (discounting neolithic inhabitants of the islands); The
Angles and the Saxons were Scandinavian invaders who basically took over
England with their (Germanic) language almost entirely replacing
Celtic. There's very few words of Celtic origin in modern English
although various places preserve local Celtic languages/dialects (Welsh,
the Cornwall dialect, Irish and Scots Gaelic).

Then you have direct influence from Latin and Greek for quite a few
words, plus adaptations of words from other language traditions (Indian,
African, Middle Eastern, Native American...).

Often we have several different words for the same thing from the
different linguistic heritages: e.g. kingly (Germanic), royal (French),
regal (Latin).

But in terms of its fundamental structure, grammar etc., English is
fundamentally a Germanic language. For example, you say: "Leila's
clarinet" instead of "The clarinet of Leila". ;-)

Interestingly enough, the dialect of the Forest of Dean in England, just
over the border from my home town in Wales, apparently has a grammatical
structure that is more traditionally Germanic than modern German. The
latter I think also has a strong Latin influence on parts of its
grammar, e.g. the use of "sie" (she) for the formal "you", just as in
Italian "lei" can be used for "she" or (formal) "you".

-- Joe

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