English is considered Germanic because its core vocabulary (nearly all the mono- and disyllables you use on a daily basis) and its entire grammatical structure (with exceptions for the poetic or prescriptivist constructions borrowed from Latin and derivatives thereof) are descended from Germanic origins. The presence of Latinate vocabulary is irrelevant when considering English's origin. The chain of languages that led up to our Modern English dialects underwent Grimm's Law sound changes and several other vowel and consonant shifts that the Romance branch of Indo-European never did.CSE wrote:Indeed but.... English is not a germanic language, but a mixed one, as the gentry spoke french and created a lot of word based on latin. As a rule, a short word will come from the germanic roots via the peasents, while long words are latin via nobilityDinosawer wrote:Eh bien, il pense que "autumn" est le mot propre en anglais, mais c'est du français - le mot juste d’origine germanique serait "herfst" ou "herbst" comme en néerlandais et en allemand
Which is how it should be: barbarians are the northern germanic tribes, while the civilized world is latin.
(important note: i have no clues about linguistic but like making fun of the germanic tribes, being a latin swiss where the majority is germanic)
Likewise, the Welsh, Irish, and Scottish borrow plenty of English words, but that doesn't make their native tongues any less Celtic.
(Well, Lowland Scots is a Germanic language borne of English, but Gàidhlig is certainly Celtic.)