Quote:
Originally Posted by Seapaddler
English is more related to French than any other language. If you are to learn any language in your lifetime it only makes sense for it to be French.
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This statement is highly debatable and its truth varries depending with how you interpret the extent languages are related. For example, some 80% of English vocabulary (when you include scientific jargon and such) is of combine Greek and Latin decent. As you mentioned, much of the Latin vocabulary worked its way into English through Romance languages such as French, and more recently (esp. in the Americas) Spanish. However, english still classifies as Germanic language. This is because its functional grammatical core derives directly from the Germaic languages spoken by the Saxon peoples who inhabited the British Isles well before the Norman invasion in 1066. It is also important to mention that the "French" spoken by the conquering Normans is very different from "Modern" French... it may even be described as "Old French." For example, the earliest writings in English are from a earier form of English called "Old English" which is nearly incomprehensible to the majority of native English speakers in the world today. Similarly, the Norman French whcih was heavily borrowed into English begining in 1066 was of form that would be difficult for modern French speaker to understand readily (as far as I understand). The relationship bewtwen this earlier French and modern French is very similar to the relationship between "Old English" and modern English... Thus, the majority of the the French influence on English predates the modern forms of French (not say that modern French has still been an influence). Needless to say however, the histories (and languages) of France and England (and by extention the United States and Canada) are so intertwined that a study of one by the other will inevitably yeild valuable cultural, historical, and linguistic insights.