What do you prefer/like more Romance languages or Germanic languages?

[Deity Dude]

English is a combination of Romance and Germanic - so therefore I vote none of the above.

I know that linguistics do not classify it that way - but English shares about as many words or roots of origins with Romance Languages as Germanic. I also say this because my friends who only speak English can better understand if someone is speaking Spanish as opposed to German.

I speak English fluently and Spanish as a semi-fluent 2nd language. I can not figure out a word of German yet I can usually figure out what someone is saying if they speak Italian or Portuguese or even French to a limited degree.

[LordShiva]

Dravidian

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Dravidian

There are 2 options in the poll for people like you

Anyway, I congratulate you for fighting indo-aryan opression!

[LordShiva]

In that case, I vote banana sign language

[Monk]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
Someone: "Hungarian sounds like Danish". Someone else: "Any unknown language sounds like Danish". How true!

I disagree

[Adalbertus]

Originally posted by Deity Dude
I know that linguistics do not classify it that way - but English shares about as many words or roots of origins with Romance Languages as Germanic. I also say this because my friends who only speak English can better understand if someone is speaking Spanish as opposed to German.

The linguistic classification is based on the structure and "basic" words (see my previous post for a comparison), as well as on "laws" which trace historic development, and the existence of "intermediate" languages (in the case of German and English, these are Dutch and Plattdeutsch (lower Saxonian).
The English language has absorbed a lot of Romance words, and mostly those with more "meaning". So you'll have less Romance words but they still compose a great deal of the content of a sentence.

As an example I'll split the sentence from above in their "Germanic" and "Romance" parts, keeping the proper names:

English: On the other hand, about half of the English vocabulary is Romance.
(I'm not sure about the words 'about' and 'of', but I'd guess both are of Germanic origin)
Germanic part: On the other hand, half the English is Romance
Romance part: English vocabulary Romance

This is perhaps a bit too Germanic, so try another one:

English: The English language has absorbed a lot of Romance words
Germanic: The English has a lot Romance words
Romance: English language absorbed Romance
(I guess the word "lot" in French is of Germanic origin, it fits well to "Los" in German, where t->s is a transition which happened in standard German and the southern dialects after German and English split. There is no similar word in Latin.)

[Seeker]

My prof once told me that Dutch is the closest modern language to English.

At the same time in history, Goth and Anglisc were quite similar.

Of course, I must vote for the Germanic languages because, as the actor portraying Mozart said in Amadeus, "German is the Language of Love" (or something).

[Datajack Franit]

I love German and I'm currently studying it. Italian and other romance languages can sink into the ocean for what I care

[LordShiva]

I love Dutch. Especially Dutch football commentary, when the commentator gets excited. It gives me the urge to shout "Hey, commentator guy, take the hard-boiled egg out of your mouth first!"

[Monk]

Originally posted by Seeker
My prof once told me that Dutch is the closest modern language to English.

Are you sure he didn't mean Frisian as spoken in The Netherlands?

[Seeker]

Probably. Whatever the Low Countries language (<--damned Frenchies!!) that has been least ****ed up by Frogs.

All day long I'm going to be going around hating myself for using Romance derived words!! Arrgg!

[Monk]

Originally posted by Seeker
All day long I'm going to be going around hating myself for using Romance derived words!! Arrgg!

Alcohol helps

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by Seeker
Probably. Whatever the Low Countries language (<--damned Frenchies!!) that has been least ****ed up by Frogs.

All day long I'm going to be going around hating myself for using Romance derived words!! Arrgg!

Derive : Middle English deriven, to be derived from, from Old French deriver, from Latin derivare

[Seeker]

Bastard!!

[Adalbertus]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride


Derive : Middle English deriven, to be derived from, from Old French deriver, from Latin derivare

American English helps here (I think German folks did do the work): ... words which stem from Latin.


It is hard job to get a sentence without using Romance words. But I guess nearly impossible without Germanic ones. Btw. "using" is also Romance.