Saul Luizaga schrieb:

> Then you are not far from understanding Spanish, French is a brother of 
> Spanish and AFAIK also English, having relatively common origin.

Well, /part/ of English is a brother to French; some other part is 
brother to German, and yet some other is brother to Danish, Irish or Welsh.

The British Isles, despite their geographic isolation, have had their 
share of (successful) invasions and occupations, making English a 
hodgepodge of languages: To the originally Celtic-speaking population 
(being the root of Welsh and Breton), the Romans brought Latin, the 
Angles, Saxons and Jutes contributed Germanic languages, the Scots 
(which were originally of Irish origin) added Gaelic, the Danes brought 
another Germanic language, and the Normans introduced French. It appears 
that it was not until medieval times that English became anything close 
to a stable language.

Western (left of the Rhine) and mediterranean continental Europe, on the 
other hand, saw a long Roman occupation, leaving a strong Latin 
footprint in all the languages, that dominates over all the other 
influences these languages have assimilated over time (be it Germanic 
languages in France and Spain during the Migration Period, or Arabic in 
Spain during Moorish occupation, or the original native languages spoken 
before the Roman occupation).

Post a reply to this message