Is English a hybrid language?

by LoveUniHateExams 21 Replies latest jw friends

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    What I think about calling English a hybrid language is this: it's obviously a low-resolution answer to the question.

    Start digging, do your research, and it quickly becomes crystal-clear. English is a Germanic language which has a long, glorious history of borrowing from other languages.

    Start

    Begin

    Commence

    Initiate

    ^^^ four words that mean the same, but perhaps with different shades of meaning. Begin is Germanic, commence is from French, initiate is from Latin. I don't know where start comes from.

  • Scully
    Scully

    Years ago I read (and still have on Audiobook) a title called "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - the Untold History of English" by John McWhorter. There are lots and lots of sources for words that are used in English. What started as English (see Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales) morphed as the British Empire overtook territories and entered into trade with other nations.

    For example, why does English use the word "do" when other languages don't? More often than not, "do" is not used in other languages, except as a verb: to do (faire in French; machen in German).

    I thought it was a fascinating read, and even better to listen to. Here's a link to the PDF on the PBS website: https://www-tc.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02272009/mcwhorter.pdf

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    @Scully - you're right English uses to do as an auxiliary verb in a way that most languages don't.

    However, French uses est-ce que (literally 'is it that') in exactly the same way, to form questions.

    E.g. Est-ce que tu as des freres ou des soeurs? - do you have any brothers or sisters?

    It's possible, perhaps even likely, that English was influenced by French in this way.

  • Scully
    Scully

    French also uses inversion of the statement format in formulating questions, est-ce que tu as… can be shortened to as-tu…

    est-ce que is more formal

    and then there’s that famous song

    Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? sounds better than Est-ce que vous voulez coucher avec moi? in this context. 😉

  • Anony Mous
    Anony Mous

    As far as the English to French grammar: multiples ending in s or es (one chair, two chairs or chaise and chaises in French) whereas in German multiples is eine Stuhl and zwei Stuhlen (multiples end in en).

    Same for gerondif, although in French you have more of them, English also has the -ing suffix on things “you do” (eating, driving) whereas in Germanic languages you just keep the same word unless it is pointing at multiple people or past action.

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    @Anon

    The -s ending for plural nouns is actually from Old English, in other words English has always had that.

    daeg - day

    dagas - days

    As for the present/past continuous (I am/was going), well, French doesn't have that.

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    As for the gerund, check out this comparison between English, German and Swedish ...

    warning - Warnung - varning


  • Anony Mous
    Anony Mous

    Again, not arguing that it's not a Germanic language, only that it's a lot more complicated than saying it doesn't have a huge Romance language influence that could be considered 'hybrid' (whatever that means).

    Gerund is a word that looks like a verb, but it acts like a noun, which French has a ton of, as does English, which is rare in Germanic language.

    Your argument is that Old English from Old German (actually Low Countries Germanic is more accurate, as Germanic historically is itself split into two or three 'languages'), thus it hasn't always had anything. Most of the merging happened over thousands of years as people conquered each other. The Romans were in control of modern day Britain for a long time, as did the French, and the Dutch/Frisians/Norse influences came later, but there is a LOT of influence from both languages. English was long seen by royalty and ruling classes to be the language of the 'poor' and spoke French in their courts instead, so to say there was no influence and that there is no hybridization is a stretch imho.

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    Ok, I take your point about gerunds.

    But, it's simply a fact that Old English (the language spoke in England before the Norman Conquest) use to have -s ending plurals.

    There were two types of plural endings in Old English.

    daeg - dagas (day)

    nama - naman (name)

    Sorry, this is just a fact. The influence of French, especially from 1066 onward, may explain why the -s plural ending became more popular than the -n ending, but it's just a fact that English always had -s plural endings for some nouns.

  • Scully
    Scully

    @LoveUniHateExams

    As for the present/past continuous (I am/was going), well, French doesn't have that.

    It does… kinda

    while walking = en marchant

    while eating = en mangeant

    En marchant j’ai vu l’accident. = While walking I saw the accident


Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit