4 ms·
This construct is still used a lot in Dutch (‘which’ -> ‘welke’).
by EdSchouten 3y ago
This construct is still used a lot in Dutch (‘which’ -> ‘welke’).
- deaddodo 3y agoConsidering Dutch is the nearest (major) linguistic neighbor, that makes a ton of sense.
- noobermin 3y agoIs not German a closer language than Dutch to English?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- andyferris 3y agoNope - old English comes from the Ingles and Frisians, which live in modern-day Netherlands.
- deaddodo 3y agoEast Frisian is technically the closest extant lingua, but is rather niche. Old English would be mutually intelligle to Frisian speakers. Dutch is the next nearest. It's a "Germanic" language in that it's in the same family as Danish, Norwegian, German, Dutch, etc; but the High German, Swiss German, etc spoken today are one step further back. That all being said, while linguistically it fits in that family of languages and about 50% of the vocabulary can be directly connected to them, it's a massive mutt of a language with plenty of romantic influence (mostly in vocabulary) via Norman French. Along with smatterings from Indian, Japanese, Spanish, various Native American languages, etc.
- noobermin 3y agoI don't know Frisian at all, but German is a lot easier to understand for me at least when reading than Dutch is. I know that Norman influence basically made English into its own Frankenstein of a thing so may be Old English matches Dutch better. It's regardless of the history german being close to English makes sense from just my naive experience of both languages (dutch and german). Or may be I just dont touch enough Dutch.
- deaddodo 3y agoI mean, all of the Germanic languages are superficially similar if you know what to look for: * Jeg drikker god maelk * Ich trinke gute Milch But I would be hard pressed to say they're more similar than Dutch: * Ik drink goede melk Or Frisian: * Ik drink goede molke * (I drink good milk) It becomes even more obvious when you hear them spoken. But sure, your opinion might differ; especially since Dutch and German are close siblings, closer to each other than either is to English. As someone that dabbled in learning both, Dutch was moderately easier for me. Additionally, the Dutch have the highest non-native English fluency (as a populace). Just a couple extra pieces of anecdota.