Re: Languages in Europe - Who understands what ?

From: devil (devil_at_attglobal.net)
Date: 11/27/04 

Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 22:32:37 GMT

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 14:55:35 -0700, Steve MacGregor wrote:

> "Frank F. Matthews" <frankfmatthews@houston.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:z93qd.46226$KQ2.10220@fe2.texas.rr.com...
>
>> I simply cannot see that. There is little connection between English
>> and German today. As far as I can tell the Germanic designation is
>> based completely on historical information and has little relationship
>> to the current structure of the languages.
>
> I can see that. The structural connections between English and German
> are extensive. The structural connections between English and the
> Romance languages is less, which makes sense, as they are more distant
> cousins. The structural connections between English and Farsi are even
> less.
>
> The Germanic designation is based completely on the current structure of
> the languages.

But there are many German language features that are largely gone in
English. Especially word ordering rules, such as inversions, split
verbs, construction of subordinates etc.

Granted that verbs work mostly in the same way.

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