2007-04-03 09:19:58 · 6 answers · asked by The G Man 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Germanic languages are just related. English is a Germanic language as are the Scandinavian languages and some other ones too. Just because they are in the same family doesn't mean they didn't evolve differently. Also, almost all European languages (some, e.g. Finnish, are not) are from a larger family (Indo-European) that also includes Indian languages and Persian.
2007-04-03 09:26:47 · answer #1 · answered by Tim 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Like England, the population of the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) was originally non-Germanic speaking; mostly Celtic and some Vulgar Latin. The Germanic tribes moved into the region only in the declining years of the Roman Empire, primarily in the 5th century A.D.
Thus, Dutch is probably basically Germanic (Old Saxon) grafted on to a Celtic substratum in much the same way that French and Rhaeto-Romantsch are Latin type languages grafted on to a Celtic substratum. The Celtic substratum causes French and Romantsch to sound different from Italian and in the same way, it causes Dutch to sound a little different than other Teutonic languages like German and Danish which received scant Celtic influence by comparison.
Modern Celtic languages in Europe include Irish and Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh and Breton (western France). Another, Manx, spoken on the Isle of Man, died out only between 1957 and 1965 depending on what source you go by. Dutch is certainly the Germanic language which most closely resembles these languages from a phonetic point of view.
2007-04-04 01:47:21 · answer #2 · answered by Brennus 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
dutch up until the 15th century was actualy very similar (if not identical to german. its important here to seperate hochdeutch from niederdeutch. niederdeutch is what was spoken, hochdeutch is a newer form of german. it was created when the language was put to writing.
germany had a lot of trade bonds with sweden at the time it put its language to writing, so they were influenced more by swedish than dutch. the dutch were influenced bu english and french. thats where they diverged.
dutch is also a ver variable language btw. unlike english, someone from limburg (the south) will have GREAT difficulty making a Hollander (north) understand him.
Limburgers dialect sounds a lot like german. im pretty sure a foreigner would not be able to pick the two apart.
2007-04-03 17:09:33 · answer #3 · answered by mrzwink 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Dutch is a germanic language, and within its family it is a west germanic language. As it did not experience the High german consonant shift it's sometimes classified as a low germanic language. There's in fact a dialect continuum which continues to blur any clear boundary between dutch and low german, and the low franconian rural dialects of the lower rhine are much closer related to dutch than to standard german.
2007-04-03 16:47:14 · answer #4 · answered by Sniper of Goth 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Geographic separation in ancient times would be my guess. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland they have cataloged 57 dialects, different enough that some Swiss cannot understand each other. Their mountains have a lot to do with that.
2007-04-03 16:39:33 · answer #5 · answered by ZORCH 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
English is also a largely Germanic language. They diverge.
2007-04-03 16:23:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋