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180203 Wols Lists wrote: |
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> On 03/02/18 08:43, Peter Humphrey wrote: |
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>> Having so many words derived via French from Latin, English is also a |
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>> romance language to some extent. I know it's officially classed as a |
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>> Germanic language, but I can't see why. There seems to be no Teutonic |
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>> influence to speak of. Few words in common, very different sentence |
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>> structure, ... |
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> Modern English is an evolved mess of Norman French and Anglo-Saxon, and |
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> seeing as the Normans (Norse-Men) were really Vikings not Franks ... |
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For the history of English, I recommend Otto Jespersen |
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'Growth & Structure of the English Language' ; |
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the 1st edition was 1905 & I believe it's still in print |
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(I have the 9th edition from 1938, printed in Germany by Teubner). |
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Among many other matters, he mentions that 'that' was |
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the original relative pronoun, while 'which' came only later. |
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-- |
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========================,,============================================ |
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SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb |
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ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto |
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TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca |
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