Is English a North Germanic language?

**Peterski** · 08-24-2019, 10:00 PM

Interesting theory that Old English language actually got extinct and was replaced by Old Norse language (and then Middle English developed from Old Norse + French influence after 1066 AD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAU3TpunwM&t=12m55s

**TheOldNorth** · 08-24-2019, 10:03 PM

I doubt it, there's to high of an amount of Old English carry overs into middle English with a comparatively tiny old Norse word count, now English did develop from the branch of west Germanic closest to north Germanic, which is why it and old Norse had some mutual intelligibility

**~~Adamastor~~** · 08-24-2019, 10:06 PM

English is closer to Scandinavian languages than to German, but it also has a ton of Latin words. It's more like a hybrid language.
Around 40% of English vocabulary is Latin.

**TheOldNorth** · 08-24-2019, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Adamastor

English is closer to Scandinavian languages than to German, but it also has a ton of Latin words. It's more like a hybrid language.
Around 40% of English vocabulary is Latin.

I'd say scandinavian is closer to english then german, but english is closer to german than scandinavian, sense english and german both went through the basic west germanic sound and grammar laws, but german diverged more

**~~Voyt~~** · 08-24-2019, 10:12 PM

No, the closest Germanic language to English, is Frisian, which is part of west-Germanic

**Token** · 08-24-2019, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by Adamastor

English is closer to Scandinavian languages than to German, but it also has a ton of Latin words. It's more like a hybrid language.
Around 40% of English vocabulary is Latin.

Most of them are only used in formal speech though.

**Peterski** · 08-24-2019, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by TheOldNorth

with a comparatively tiny old Norse word count

It could be significant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAU3TpunwM&t=2m51s

**Blondie** · 08-24-2019, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by Adamastor

English is closer to Scandinavian languages than to German

Absolutely not, english is west germanic just like german, not north germanic like scandinavians.

**Blondie** · 08-24-2019, 10:26 PM

double

**TheOldNorth** · 08-24-2019, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by Litvinski

It could be significant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAU3TpunwM&t=2m51s

could is the key word, just as the video shows it's likely somewhere between 14% and 64% of Germanic words, but the the confirmed old English words are far higher, be somewhere between 36% and 86%. It's likely that all the old Norse words where just from the higher class Norse men in the Danelaw