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This is largely true of European languages: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.gif http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.gif That Norman in

This is largely true of European languages: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.gif http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.gif That Norman invasion was a big deal.

robin_reala 8y ago
To a certain extent, although that’s a large simplification. There’s a lot more cross-pollination between European languages than on that diagram, most obviously with English nouns being adopted (le weekend, etc) but also in slightly more unexpected ways. For example, Swedish has a fair amount of French vocabulary (’glass’ for ice-cream when all other Nordic languages use ‘is’) because of a desire to integrate with the French court (which lead to Carl ‘Jean-Baptiste’ XIV Johan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_John_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_John_of_Sweden ).
oblio 8y ago
Heh. "Rumanian" has 2 roots on that list: proto-Indoeuropean and Latin. In reality, lexical analysis of Romanian shows that it has the following roots: * pre-Indoeuropean (some words with unknown origins, just a handful, but still) * proto-Indoeuropean (another small bunch of words) * Dacian/Thracian (original Indoeuropeans to settle the region; another somewhat small contribution) * Latin (40% but basically the core vocabulary) * Slavic (30%, especially nouns, but rarely verbs) * French (around 20%, imports from the late 18th century onward) * German, Turkish, Hungarian, English, etc. So, you were saying? :) Even if you disregard the minor contributions, there's 2 prehistoric origins (pre-Indoeuropean and proto-Indoeuropean), 2 ancient origins (Dacian and Latin), 1 major medieval influence (Slavic) and 1 major modern influence (French). The European continent had waaaay more invasions than the British Isles, don't forget that ;)
empath75 8y ago
If anything that understates it because there were successive invasions of vikings and Norse after the initial settlement and then a huge second influx of Greek and Latin roots in the early modern period as scholars reintroduced them.

This is largely true of European languages: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.gif http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.gif That Norman invasion was a big deal.

robin_reala 8y ago

To a certain extent, although that’s a large simplification. There’s a lot more cross-pollination between European languages than on that diagram, most obviously with English nouns being adopted (le weekend, etc) but also in slightly more unexpected ways. For example, Swedish has a fair amount of French vocabulary (’glass’ for ice-cream when all other Nordic languages use ‘is’) because of a desire to integrate with the French court (which lead to Carl ‘Jean-Baptiste’ XIV Johan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_John_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_John_of_Sweden ).

oblio 8y ago

Heh. "Rumanian" has 2 roots on that list: proto-Indoeuropean and Latin. In reality, lexical analysis of Romanian shows that it has the following roots: * pre-Indoeuropean (some words with unknown origins, just a handful, but still) * proto-Indoeuropean (another small bunch of words) * Dacian/Thracian (original Indoeuropeans to settle the region; another somewhat small contribution) * Latin (40% but basically the core vocabulary) * Slavic (30%, especially nouns, but rarely verbs) * French (around 20%, imports from the late 18th century onward) * German, Turkish, Hungarian, English, etc. So, you were saying? :) Even if you disregard the minor contributions, there's 2 prehistoric origins (pre-Indoeuropean and proto-Indoeuropean), 2 ancient origins (Dacian and Latin), 1 major medieval influence (Slavic) and 1 major modern influence (French). The European continent had waaaay more invasions than the British Isles, don't forget that ;)

empath75 8y ago

If anything that understates it because there were successive invasions of vikings and Norse after the initial settlement and then a huge second influx of Greek and Latin roots in the early modern period as scholars reintroduced them.