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No, English is not thought to be descended from Norse until this press release: see Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages#Diachronic http:/
by kylebgorman 14y ago
No, English is not thought to be descended from Norse until this press release: see Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages#Diachronic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages#Diachronic]. It's thought to be related to the modern Scandinavian languages by a split that occurred around two millennia ago. You're confusing "descended from" and "related to".
Linguists, like biologists, draw a distinction between "descent" and "convergent evolution" (with "lateral gene transfer" being like what linguists call "contact-induced change").
[edited to add wiki link]
- oofabz 14y agoThank you, I stand corrected. I believe they are still both Scandinavian. Proto-Germanic, which all of these languages descended from, was spoken primarily in Denmark and Sweden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Germanic_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Germanic_language
- jonsterling 14y agoYeah, but you're still sensationally wrong. PGe may have been spoken in Scandinavia, but that's not even close to what people mean when they say “Scandinavian languages”. That means “North Germanic”, or, languages which are descended from Old Norse. As opposed to every other Germanic language, like German, Frisian, Dutch, Old Saxon, Old English, Gothic, etc.