Minichan

Topic: FAO: MATT: As a linguist, what do you think of the French claim

Anonymous A started this discussion 11 years ago #43,479

...that English is little more than a dialect of French, as demonstrated by the similarities between the Breton and Cornish languages?

(Edited 3 minutes later.)

Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 6 hours later[^] [v] #574,692

:crickets:

Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 1 minute later, 6 hours after the original post[^] [v] #574,695

It is a well known fact that the French are called Frogs, because their language originated when the non speaking natives copied Frog grunts and groans.

Meowth joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 5 hours later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #574,760

@previous (C)
Ribbit.

Lemon Drop !CITRUS3QCY joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 3 hours later, 16 hours after the original post[^] [v] #574,811

It is not technically true. Both French and English were in ancient times Germanic-style languages. French was heavily influenced by Latin during Roman times, and then English was heavily influenced by French in early Medieval times.

Anonymous E double-posted this 11 years ago, 3 hours later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #574,866

I answered right above this, but mods have not allowed it yet.

It is not technically true. Both French and English were in ancient times Germanic-style languages. French was heavily influenced by Latin during Roman times, and then English was heavily influenced by French in early Medieval times.

(Edited 4 minutes later.)

Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 9 hours later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #574,972

@previous (E)

> I answered right above this, but mods have not allowed it yet.

It needed less shtick.

Metæ joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 7 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #574,975

@574,866 (E)
I thought French and the other Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin?

Anonymous H joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 39 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #574,983

@previous (Metæ)
Maybe Anon E is referencing the influence that the Franks and other Germanic tribes had on the Latin spoken in the region around the fall of the western empire? Not really "ancient times", but I guess there was some Germanic influence somewhere along the line.

(Edited 1 minute later.)

The Owl !KThEOwLwbU joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 8 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #574,993

@previous (H)

Never fell never fell never fell xxx

Metæ replied with this 11 years ago, 19 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #575,018

@574,983 (H)
My conception was something like this:
Ancient Germanic languages get replaced by Latin during Roman Empire, essentially wiped out. Then after the Empire falls the different nations each take Latin in a slightly different direction leaving us with French, Spanish, Romanian, etc.

Anonymous H replied with this 11 years ago, 13 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #575,024

@previous (Metæ)
The Gauls in that area were mostly Celts and Iberians, no? (with a smattering of cultural infusion from Greek and Phoenician colonists) Wouldn't it be native Celtic languages papered over with Latin and then some later Germanic influence?
:

Please familiarise yourself with the rules and markup syntax before posting.