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"An English-speaking learner of German will notice how many English words seem to come from German: water/Wasser, bread/Brot, house/Haus."

This is a bit misleading. The words aren't similar because the English words come from German, but because both English and German have a common ancestor.

Last edited by gooofy; 12/15/12 12:45 AM.
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Sorry about your cold/flu, zmjezhd, I hope you are now fully recovered.
Yes, I bet "a tree" and "lotsa trees" are different constructions in lotsa different languages with "tree" being specific and the "yantaq" denoting trees as we use "forest" but not exactly.

Yes, zmjezhd, you and me are singing the same song we just use widely different notes. smile

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Originally Posted By: gooofy
"An English-speaking learner of German will notice how many English words seem to come from German: water/Wasser, bread/Brot, house/Haus."

This is a bit misleading. The words aren't similar because the English words come from German, but because both English and German have a common ancestor.


The salient point, gooofy.

Why do I feel uncomfortable calling you "gooofy"? smile

Last edited by jenny jenny; 12/17/12 07:00 PM. Reason: To respell gooofy's name
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Originally Posted By: gooofy
"An English-speaking learner of German will notice how many English words seem to come from German: water/Wasser, bread/Brot, house/Haus."

This is a bit misleading. The words aren't similar because the English words come from German, but because both English and German have a common ancestor.


And to add to your evidence, in Norske/Danske the equivalent words are: vatter; brod; hus.


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Let's see. English peasants after the Norman Invasion dropped Old English and started chatting in Old Norwegian, but being peasants and not being able to afford Rosetta, they didn't pick it up properly, but added a bunch of Old English-derived vocabulary because it was sitting around unused in a trunk. Leave those peasants alone with their badly spoken Old Norwegian and viola, Middle English. Sure, OK: makes as much sense as the that-which-restrictive-non-restrictive-clause rule.


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Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
Let's see. English peasants after the Norman Invasion dropped Old English


That's another thing. If modern English is a North Germanic language, then what happened to Old English?

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Why not add Swedish too, it's all in the same paddling pool.

E.water bread house
Da. vatter brod hus
Ge. Wasser Brot Haus
Du. water brood huis
Swe. vatten bröd hus

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Only reason I left swedish out was Jo tal ig Svenske


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