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DarlBundren
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Re: Hello.

Post by DarlBundren »

NonZeroSum wrote:then English is Germanic from the Anglo settlers and a whole mix of Latin and other from various trade and conquest mainly with France.
Yes, English comes from a language called Proto-Germanic, to be precise, but not a lot of people know that it still retains a couple of peculiar feautures that probably come from Celtic. I'm referring to the meaningless 'do' and the present progressive form. English and Celtic are the only European languages to have them. That is, you're the only speakers that say something like 'Do you like that?' or 'I'm writing a letter'. The French, the Spaniards, the Germans and the Italians can say something like that if they want to, but they can just reply 'I write a letter' (meaning, I'm writing it right now). Likewise, we don't say 'Do you like that?', but something along the lines of 'You like that'? or 'Like you that?'.
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NonZeroSum
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Re: Hello.

Post by NonZeroSum »

DarlBundren wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:59 pm . . .not a lot of people know that it still retains a couple of peculiar feautures that probably come from Celtic. I'm referring to the meaningless 'do' and the present progressive form. English and Celtic are the only European languages to have them.
Interesting, it makes sense as every colonization and migration only ever brought a small percentage new populous, and eventually intermarried and amalgamated, if any more had come with the Normans English might be like Welsh only spoken in the far corners, and French would be the dominant language as it was useful for politics and trade with the rest of Europe and colonies in France. Even the Celtic languages and cultures were only introduced from the Iron Age 6th century BC Continent, maybe because the population was much smaller before the innovations that the Anglo and Celtic settlements brought, so as populations rose those stuck as the dominant languages.
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