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

[Barnabas]

Why is french so different from other romance langauges? Frank influence? gaullish substratum?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Du bist ein auslander

Du bist ein turkey (apparently in Hebrew the word "hodu" means turkey, India, and thanks, which POTM found quite amusing on Thanksgiving)

[Adalbertus]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Diese ist selig. It nichst Grechen auf mir. Und ich nicsht lernen die deutsch. ja?

English is probably closer to German than that ...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Why is french so different from other romance langauges? Frank influence? gaullish substratum?

In a lot of cases they simply took different vulgar latin words than the others did, so i doubt its frankish or celtic influence so much (for ex "cousin" vs "hermanos" both Latin, correct?) So I think its just relative isolation of France (the north of course, southern France spoke Provencal till the middle ages and beyond)

[OzzyKP]

Well you made your point. German isn't impossible to understand. I think I still prefer romance, but maybe my little bit of exposure to Spanish class makes a difference.

Anyways I should have gotten Grechen, mir and deutsch. (duh I know deutsch )

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


In a lot of cases they simply took different vulgar latin words than the others did, so i doubt its frankish or celtic influence so much (for ex "cousin" vs "hermanos" both Latin, correct?) So I think its just relative isolation of France (the north of course, southern France spoke Provencal till the middle ages and beyond)

also maybe ongoing post Roman interactions? I mean Aragon, and then Spain did rule much of Italy for quite some time. Though not Florence, and Tuscan dialect is standard Italian, no?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Well you made your point. German isn't impossible to understand. I think I still prefer romance, but maybe my little bit of exposure to Spanish class makes a difference.

Actually I think Brachy is on the right track on this - theres a Spanish-Italian thing thats going on, that many English speakers who learn one or the other pick up on. I really dont think its as true of French, though.

[Adalbertus]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Why is french so different from other romance langauges? Frank influence? gaullish substratum?

Compared to other Romance languages, there is quite a strong Germanic influence on French - If I understood correctly, there was a ~200 year period when Frankish was spoken in northern France down to the Loire: the region where you find settlements whose names end on -court and -ville. This was probably not contiguously but more like eastern Europe before the second world war, mixed with some late Latin.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Ah don' know, hunnie. If y'all git someone fr'm Ge'orgi'ah, speakin' with a nize sof' Southe'n accent, well then darlin', that's reeel nize.

On duh utter hand, if yuh get summun from duh Bronx in N'Yark, dere ain't no way dere's sounden anyt'hing but f'kin' stupit, y'know?

What do you think of the various more intermediate accents stretching from california to illinois. Do those grate on you as bad as the East coast accents?

[Spiffor]

Nothing beats Spanish

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Why is french so different from other romance langauges? Frank influence? gaullish substratum?

I'd say both.

After the Roman conquest, Gaul wasn't fully assimilated into latin culture, but developed a "Gallic-Roman" culture, with its own bastardization of the language. The Gallic-Roman culture was mainstream in Gaul, and fairly accepted in Rome. This paved the way for a language deriving from Roman latin.

The Frankish conquest has largely changed the languages in Northern France, to the point that the territory was divided in two languages at some point (the "Langue d'Oil" and the "Langue d'Oc", Oil and Oc being the words meaning "yes" - Languedoc is still the official name of a French region to this day).

Also the French kingdom has developed an early centralism, and an early interventionism in language matters. As a result, southern dialects, closer to the original Latin, were seriously hurt.

Besides, there was an early use of the French language in science and law. The elite thus used and manipulated the language. Add to that that the French language as it is today has been largely re-worked by a series of Parisian poets and authors in the 16th to 18th century. And their definition of language took an official character.

In conclusion, French is the language of the Parisian elite. A city located far from Rome in Gallic times, and which was fully integrated to the Frankish rule. The language (already remote from latin by then) was made more artificial after that. And then generalized to the whole French territory, and most of the current French-speaking world.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I don't remember the name of the person from Bronx that is called zkribller.

Nope. I R unique!

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
'

Diese ist selig. It nichst Grechen auf mir. Und ich nicsht lernen die deutsch. ja?

Is that Yiddish?

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by Spiffor

I'd say both.

After the Roman conquest, Gaul wasn't fully assimilated into latin culture, but developed a "Gallic-Roman" culture, with its own bastardization of the language. The Gallic-Roman culture was mainstream in Gaul, and fairly accepted in Rome. This paved the way for a language deriving from Roman latin.

The Frankish conquest has largely changed the languages in Northern France, to the point that the territory was divided in two languages at some point (the "Langue d'Oil" and the "Langue d'Oc", Oil and Oc being the words meaning "yes" - Languedoc is still the official name of a French region to this day).

Also the French kingdom has developed an early centralism, and an early interventionism in language matters. As a result, southern dialects, closer to the original Latin, were seriously hurt.

Besides, there was an early use of the French language in science and law. The elite thus used and manipulated the language. Add to that that the French language as it is today has been largely re-worked by a series of Parisian poets and authors in the 16th to 18th century. And their definition of language took an official character.

In conclusion, French is the language of the Parisian elite. A city located far from Rome in Gallic times, and which was fully integrated to the Frankish rule. The language (already remote from latin by then) was made more artificial after that. And then generalized to the whole French territory, and most of the current French-speaking world.

Thanks for the explanation

It is a shame the french dont speak occitan, it is much easier to understand for spanish, italian speakers etc (altough french sounds much better than occitan to me, and it also represents better the history of the country)

Funny how occ languages are spoken from Valencia to Italy and there was never a country for that people, except maybe the kingdom of Aragon in the middle ages.

[Dis]

german has a lot of words that are english words, but they don't seem to translate the same. I'm by no means an expert. I'm just going from rammstein lyrics.

Will is an example. The world exists in both german and english with the same spelling, but they have different meanings.