Some linguists argued that English is essentially a creole language which would explain this. > isolated I would say the opposite. Frisian etc. were much more

Some linguists argued that English is essentially a creole language which would explain this. > isolated I would say the opposite. Frisian etc. were much more isolated and therefore developed more conservatively. > a dialect continuum You do a bit, e.g. Scots which developed somewhat independently/in parallel to English.