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Faarlund's argument for classifying English as a North Germanic language is based on syntactic evidence and historical contact between Old Norse and Old English

Faarlund's argument for classifying English as a North Germanic language is based on syntactic evidence and historical contact between Old Norse and Old English. He suggests that the extensive Viking presence in the British Isles during the Viking Age led to significant linguistic influence that shaped the development of English. This influence, according to Faarlund, is profound enough to warrant reclassifying English away from its traditional West Germanic grouping into the North Germanic category. He points to structural similarities between English and the Scandinavian languages that are not found in other West Germanic languages, arguing these are the result of Old Norse influence rather than shared Germanic heritage.

SllX 3y ago
What does Faarlund say about Frisian then? Frisian is also a West Germanic language, and to my understanding is very closely related to English to the point that it is possible to speak a grammatically correct sentence in English and IIRC West Frisian simultaneously. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  When you say grammatically correct sentence, are you meaning a sentence where at least the grammar is identical in both English and West Frisian? Because that alone doesn't seem surprising; the grammatical similarity across all Germanic languages is indeed illustrated by the 'Comparative Germanic sentences' section of the very Wikipedia article you linked to.
  - SllX 3y ago
    So the example I’m familiar with and I’m going off memory is “Green eggs and cheese is good English and good Fries.” when spoken. I suspect it’s not exactly the same, but to this day I’ve never met someone from old Frisia (which runs between the Netherlands and Denmark along the coast) to fact check this for me properly. Also IIRC Western Frisian is the most popularly spoken one, and when standardized spelling came for it during the language reforms that hit pretty much all extant Western European languages, the standardization came under Dutch governance, which is why I emphasized spoken rather than written Frisian. That’s all background though, not really relevant. In fact it might even be a distraction, but it’s what I lead with. What I’m really getting at though is that the parent said he was a proponent of Professor Faarlund’s theory that English should be categorized as North Germanic rather than West Germanic. If true, it would seem to me given that given that one of the closest cousins to the English language is the Anglo-Frisian language family, why would you stop at reclassifying just English? Why not Frisian and Low German languages? I’m not sure you can address reclassifying English without also addressing these language groups, either to sever English from them or else to propose reclassifying some or all of them as well.

SllX 3y ago

What does Faarlund say about Frisian then? Frisian is also a West Germanic language, and to my understanding is very closely related to English to the point that it is possible to speak a grammatically correct sentence in English and IIRC West Frisian simultaneously. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages

seabass-labrax 3y ago
When you say grammatically correct sentence, are you meaning a sentence where at least the grammar is identical in both English and West Frisian? Because that alone doesn't seem surprising; the grammatical similarity across all Germanic languages is indeed illustrated by the 'Comparative Germanic sentences' section of the very Wikipedia article you linked to.
- SllX 3y ago
  So the example I’m familiar with and I’m going off memory is “Green eggs and cheese is good English and good Fries.” when spoken. I suspect it’s not exactly the same, but to this day I’ve never met someone from old Frisia (which runs between the Netherlands and Denmark along the coast) to fact check this for me properly. Also IIRC Western Frisian is the most popularly spoken one, and when standardized spelling came for it during the language reforms that hit pretty much all extant Western European languages, the standardization came under Dutch governance, which is why I emphasized spoken rather than written Frisian. That’s all background though, not really relevant. In fact it might even be a distraction, but it’s what I lead with. What I’m really getting at though is that the parent said he was a proponent of Professor Faarlund’s theory that English should be categorized as North Germanic rather than West Germanic. If true, it would seem to me given that given that one of the closest cousins to the English language is the Anglo-Frisian language family, why would you stop at reclassifying just English? Why not Frisian and Low German languages? I’m not sure you can address reclassifying English without also addressing these language groups, either to sever English from them or else to propose reclassifying some or all of them as well.