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> English started as old German (Angols and Saxons brought it over). Then the Norman invasion added a bunch of French words. … Over time we have added some Lati
by tshaddox 5y ago
> English started as old German (Angols and Saxons brought it over). Then the Norman invasion added a bunch of French words. … Over time we have added some Latin and Greek
Aren’t you leaving out the much earlier Roman conquest? And didn't Latin already have a big influence on the Germanic languages even before the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Great Britain?
- LatteLazy 5y agoThe Romans left before the Anglo-Saxons arrived, so when they replaced the existing peoples the latin influence mostly disappeared. I don't think they ever made it far enough into North Germany to influence them before they left but I don't know. It would be interesting to see how many romans lived for how long in England, Northern Germany and (say) France (as a reference). I wonder if you can see a correlation between that number and the amount of Latin retained? Latin had a pretty big influence all over the place so I don't want to talk it down. We can add it to the mix, but then you have even more volcab and grammar mixed up in an even bigger mess that still never got standardised. And that's sort of my point here. Other nations have 1 language. England has 2 (plus latin if you like?) mashed together badly and never cleaned up.