Is English language more Romance or Germanic ? (test your abilities)

Here another example,which speaks for itself,about the fact that English and Dutch are very closed languages:
From "Vulgaris Magistralis" ,Heidevolk:
Ik kok mien potjen op een werkende vulkaan
I cook my meal on an active volcano.

Please note that the phrase structure is exactly same and some words are very closed.

I can give you plenty of examples with French too.

A group of lions devoured an antelope in the savannah. When they had finished, the rest of a carcass was assailed by vultures.
Un groupe de lion dévorèrent une antilope dans la savane. Quand ils eurent fini, le reste de la carcasse fut assailli par des vautours.


How much close does it get ? Actually having learned Dutch and German as well as Italian and Spanish (and being a native French speaker), I can tell you that English grammar and syntax are more Romance than Germanic.


In your example 'active volcano' are words that come from French (actif + volcan), not Dutch or Germanic languages.
 
Yes,but basic words in English,which are used most of the times in folk languages are most closed to Frisian variant of Dutch.
I noticed that because I can speak English I can learn with ease basic sentences in Dutch.
And Frisian is even closer to English.
 
Ok how about:
(Dutch)Jongens drinken water - (English) boys drink water
Where Jongens is cognate to younglings?

Or how about:
(Dutch) Wij hebben een boek - (English) we have a book

Or about:
(Dutch) Ik heb water - (English) I have water

Or about:
(Dutch) Hij heeft een appel - (English) He has an apple
 
Ok how about:
(Dutch)Jongens drinken water - (English) boys drink water
Where Jongens is cognate to younglings?

Or how about:
(Dutch) Wij hebben een boek - (English) we have a book

Or about:
(Dutch) Ik heb water - (English) I have water

Or about:
(Dutch) Hij heeft een appel - (English) He has an apple

You can make up thousands of example sentences, some closer to Dutch, others closer to French, since English is a hybrid of Old Dutch/English and Old/Norman French. But the bottom line is that English vocabulary has about twice more French or Latin roots (58%) than Germanic (26%) ones.

677px-Origins_of_English_PieChart.svg.png


When it comes to grammar, English was originally Germanic but has adopted Latin rules, such as avoiding to end sentences with a verb or preposition (although the latter is a personal choice depending on the speaker).
 
Actually all Greek words and some Germanic words in English derived from Romance languages, since French and especially Italian have plenty of Germanic and Greek loanwords. So probably English derived from a Romance language for about 70%.
 
If you take the basic words,from English,most of them are of West Germanic origins.
The basic words and the sonority are what are putting a language in a category.
If English is a Romance language,why French people and Italians and Spaniards can not pronounce right,in English?
While Dutch people pronounce without any problem almost all English words?
Also,Scandinavians are pronouncing very well,you can not distinguish a Scandinavian speaking English from a native Brit.
So,even if a lot of words from English were taken from a Romance language,the sonority of the language is still very West Germanic,more exactly Anglo-Frisian.
Slavs pronounce English well,compared to Romance people,you can really understand what they are speaking.
And Romanians are pronouncing English decent,because we do not have exactly a full Romance sonority at our language.
So,it does not matter from where most of the words are coming,it matters from where the basic words are and how the sonority used is.
 
There is no "Romance sonority". Russians and Germans have a recognizable accent when they speak English.
 
There is no "Romance sonority". Russians and Germans have a recognizable accent when they speak English.

Sure there is.
Italian have most pure Romance sonority.
Spanish is 2nd,3rd is Portuguese 4th is French,
See there are strong resemblances between English and Frisian,at sonority:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language


"English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalization_(sound_change)
That ,the palatalisation of consonants that were velar in Proto-Germanic is a thing related to sonority.

What you think,English people took for example from Normans,the word custom (from old French coustume,actually coutume).
However,please see how English people are pronouncing custom and how French people were pronouncing coustume...
English people are pronouncing this word as kʌstəm .
hear how it is pronounced here:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/custom
While French people are pronouncing coutume as you can hear here:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coutume
I am sorry that Maciamo do not understands how a language is classified to belong to a group.

So English got a lot of words from French and Latin,however,as sonority,borrowed none from Latin and few from French.
Example of word borrowed from French which retained some of the French sonority:
pronounciation
But how many English people are using this word?
 
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You have no idea about what you are talking about. English is classified as a Germanic languages, because the core words are Germanic, but the bulk of its vocabulary is made up of Romance words. If we add the Greek words, then English is about 65% Romance and 25% Germanic.
 
You have no idea about what you are talking about. English is classified as a Germanic languages, because the core words are Germanic, but the bulk of its vocabulary is made up of Romance words. If we add the Greek words, then English is about 65% Romance and 25% Germanic.

As I have already said,English is a Germanic language. The fact that lots of words are taken from Latin or French does not make English a Romance language.
Those words were adapted to Anglo-Frisian pronunciation/sonority.
I already gave a quote about some kind of typical sounds of English and Frisian.
If an Italian learns American English and start to talk with a strong American accent,than he will also talk Italian with an American accent.
So,the sonority of Italian is Romance.
For example Romanians who are living in Italy or Spain and speak most of the time Italian (or Spanish) do not have any weird accent,while talking in Romanian.
However,Romanians who are living in UK or US and speak most of the time English are having clearly a weird accent when speaking in Romanian.
That comes from the fact that the sounds from which English and Frisian words are comprised are different ,being typical to West Germanic languages.

Let me explain it in other way,if both English and Italian are taking a word from an exotic language,for a fruit,or so on,one is pronouncing the word in a way and another one,in a different way.
For example coffee.
 
here 2 movies made by a native American English speaker,to see that the problem is not that simple as you think:
A Frisian native speaker can pronounced almost all weird sounds in English without problems,because he already use those sounds in his language.
A Dutch native speaker,is 2nd in pronouncing most English weird sounds,without problems.
I,as being native Romance (more exactly Romanian) speaker, I can pronounce any Italian word without any problems and a native Italian speaker will never notice I am not a native Italian speaker.
Here is how that is pronounced correct in different contexts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7lrPxCXyN8

And here the simple coffee word,is to be pronounced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOs95VaKEkk
 
Another thing,not all words taken in English from French Norman are Romance origin words.
Are Germanic words that were brought by Germanics (Franks mostly) in French and after,brought to English language from Norman French.
Have not study this thing,but French also has Gaulish origin words and someone would expect that some of the words brought in English from Norman French are of Gaulish origins.
So as you can see,this problem is very complex and for those interested in English,worth a lot of time,to study it.
 
As I have already said,English is a Germanic language. The fact that lots of words are taken from Latin or French does not make English a Romance language.
Those words were adapted to Anglo-Frisian pronunciation/sonority.
I already gave a quote about some kind of typical sounds of English and Frisian.
If an Italian learns American English and start to talk with a strong American accent,than he will also talk Italian with an American accent.
So,the sonority of Italian is Romance.
For example Romanians who are living in Italy or Spain and speak most of the time Italian (or Spanish) do not have any weird accent,while talking in Romanian.
However,Romanians who are living in UK or US and speak most of the time English are having clearly a weird accent when speaking in Romanian.
That comes from the fact that the sounds from which English and Frisian words are comprised are different ,being typical to West Germanic languages.

Let me explain it in other way,if both English and Italian are taking a word from an exotic language,for a fruit,or so on,one is pronouncing the word in a way and another one,in a different way.
For example coffee.


I haven't read every post, but I don't think anyone is saying that English is a Romance language. I think what they're trying to say is that it's usually placed among the Germanic languages because of grammar and some basic vocabulary, but that it has drifted far from those roots in the direction of the Romance languages, certainly in the area of vocabulary. All of this has been established by linguists, so I don't really understand what point you're trying to make here.

The relationship among the Romance languages is much closer than that between English and German. Even without studying each other's languages, Italian and Spanish speakers can get the gist of a movie scene or a song in the other language. With French, although the written language is very easy to decipher, spoken French is more challenging because there are more differences in pronunciation. Most Italians can't understand Romanian, although I had occasion to spend some time there once, and started to pick some of it up. The problem is not just the Slavic loan words.

The changes that occurred on the journey from German to English are much more profound. One problem, as has been explained to you many times, is that the majority of the English vocabulary is Latin based. The other has to do with changes in spelling and grammar.

I assure you that this is totally unintelligible to native English speakers:
"Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
5 monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra"


English speakers would have a much easier time reading French.

Chaucer's English is a little easier, but when I took a course in him people were still dropping like flies out of the course because it was too difficult. Also the pronunciation has greatly changed. English speakers can't understand this, but Italian speakers can understand a lot of Latin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K13GJkGvDw

No everyday English speaker can understand a movie in German. Picking out one word out of 20 does not equal mutual intelligibility. Yes, there are some sounds that a German speaker learning to speak English might be able to pick up easier than a Romance speaker, but there are many that he can't duplicate. Did you bother to listen to Henry Kissenger speak? At times he can become unintelligible. The same thing happens with some Slavic speakers.

Perhaps you're not aware of this because you're not a native English speaker yourself.

If an Italian learns American English and start to talk with a strong American accent,than he will also talk Italian with an American accent.

There are some linguists who hold that one can only speak one language perfectly. Sadly, that may be true. However, what you've just pointed out would also apply to a German who learns American English and has less and less contact with German. His German will acquire an "American" sound. The accents are not identical. If they were, Henry Kissinger wouldn't sound so foreign even after fifty to sixty years living in the U.S. Maybe you can't hear the differences because you're not a native English speaker.

Btw, because you can't hear your Romanian accent when you're speaking Italian doesn't mean native Italian speakers can't hear it, just as they can hear a Spanish accent. I'll grant you that it's less offensive to the ear than what Americans and Brits etc. produce.
 
You should know that the studies are not telling same thing.
I already gave a link from wikipedia,showing that are dual words,in English,like beef/cow or mutton/sheep.
Sheep is Germanic word,mutton is Romance word taken from French.
No offense,but I do not know which Brit uses mutton instead of sheep .
So there are lots of words which are actually not used,in English and the real percentage of words borrowed from French and Latin,which are normally used is at maximum 40%.
But,a part of these words,more exactly some words taken from French ,are words of Germanic origins.
So if French have words of Germanic origins and these words were brought in English by Normans,I highly doubt that these Germanic words,brought through French in English can be included of words of Romance origins in English.
But I am not arguing still I do not want to impose my point of view to others.
If someone thinks that English is rather Romance,than Germanic,is his opinion.
I retain my opinion that English is much more Germanic than Romance.
 
I may be wrong, but actually modern French has less Germanic loanwords than modern Italian. The German language, on the other hand, has so many French loanwords, which is not possible to say which language influenced more the other one.

Italic languages are very close to Celtic and especially Germanic ones. The latter has about 30% pre IE non Italo-Celtic words.

Indo-European "wheel-related" words, together with the current or most recent distribution of IE language branches (extinct language branches are in italics). Based on the delightful Fig. 4.2 of Anthony (2007), but with additions and changes discussed in the text.

indo-european-wheel-words21.gif


One example of an Indo-European family tree, based on Atkinson & Gray (2006)

family-tree-300x225.gif
 
...

Indo-European "wheel-related" words, together with the current or most recent distribution of IE language branches (extinct language branches are in italics). Based on the delightful Fig. 4.2 of Anthony (2007), but with additions and changes discussed in the text.

indo-european-wheel-words21.gif


....

Many "wheel-related" words in modern English can clearly be mapped to a likely source in the chart above:
1) Cycle, cyclic, cyclical, wheel (via Grimm's Law)
2) Round, rotary, rotate, rotund, rotisserie (food that is cooked by spinning it on a wheel over a fire)
3) Axle, axis (a spinning top or planet spins on its axis)
4) Hub
5) Yoke
 

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