English language Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Classification == [[File:Europe germanic-languages 2.PNG|thumb| '''[[Anglic languages]]''' {{legend|#FFA500|English}} {{legend|#FF8C00|[[Scots language|Scots]]}} within the '''[[Anglo-Frisian languages]]''', which also include {{legend|#FFD700|[[Frisian languages|Frisian]] ([[West Frisian language|West]], [[North Frisian language|North]], [[Saterland Frisian language|Saterland]]);}} within the '''[[North Sea Germanic languages]]''', which also include {{legend|#7FFF00|[[Low German]]/Saxon;}} within the '''[[West Germanic languages]]''', which also include {{legend|#FFFF00|[[Dutch language|Dutch]] in Europe and [[Afrikaans]] in Africa}} ...... [[German language|German]] ([[High German|High]]): {{legend|#00FF00|[[Central German|Central]]; in [[Luxembourg|Lux.]]: [[Luxembourgish]]}} {{legend|#008000|[[Upper German|Upper]]}} ...... [[Yiddish]]]] [[File:West Germanic languages (simplified).svg|thumb|A family tree of the [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] language family]] English is an [[Indo-European language]] and belongs to the [[West Germanic]] group of the [[Germanic languages]].{{sfn|Bammesberger|1992|pp=29–30}} [[Old English]] [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|originated]] from a Germanic tribal and [[dialect continuum|linguistic continuum]] along the [[Frisia]]n [[North Sea]] coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the [[Anglo-Frisian languages#Anglic languages|Anglic languages]] in the [[British Isles]], and into the [[Frisian languages]] and [[Low German]]/Low Saxon on the continent. The Frisian languages, which together with the Anglic languages form the [[Anglo-Frisian languages]], are the closest living relatives of English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related, and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and Low German are grouped together as the [[North Sea Germanic]] (Ingvaeonic) languages, though this grouping remains debated.{{sfn|Bammesberger|1992|p=30}} Old English evolved into [[Middle English]], which in turn evolved into Modern English.{{sfn|Robinson|1992}} Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other Anglic languages, including [[Scots language|Scots]]{{sfn|Romaine|1982|pp=56–65}} and the extinct [[Fingallian]] dialect and [[Yola language]] of [[Ireland]].{{sfn|Barry|1982|pp=86–87}} Like [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] and [[Faroese language|Faroese]], the development of English in the British Isles isolated it from the continental Germanic languages and influences, and it has since diverged considerably. English is not [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with any continental Germanic language, differing in [[lexis (linguistics)|vocabulary]], [[syntax]], and [[phonology]], although some of these, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.{{sfn|Harbert|2007}} Unlike Icelandic and Faroese, which were isolated, the development of English was influenced by a long series of invasions of the British Isles by other peoples and languages, particularly [[Old Norse]] and [[Langues d'oïl|French dialects]]. These left a profound mark of their own on the language, so that English shows some similarities in vocabulary and grammar with many languages outside its linguistic [[clade]]s—but it is not mutually intelligible with any of those languages either. Some scholars have argued that English can be considered a [[mixed language]] or a [[creole language|creole]]—a theory called the [[Middle English creole hypothesis]]. Although the great influence of these languages on the vocabulary and grammar of Modern English is widely acknowledged, most specialists in language contact do not consider English to be a true mixed language.{{sfn|Thomason|Kaufman|1988|pp=264–265}}{{sfn|Watts|2011|loc=Chapter 4}} English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares [[language change|innovations]] with other Germanic languages such as [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[German language|German]], and [[Swedish language|Swedish]].{{sfn|Durrell|2006}} These shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor called [[Proto-Germanic]]. Some shared features of Germanic languages include the division of verbs into [[Germanic strong verb|strong]] and [[Germanic weak verb|weak]] classes, the use of [[modal verb]]s, and the sound changes affecting [[Proto-Indo-European]] consonants, known as [[Grimm's law|Grimm's]] and [[Verner's law]]s. English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the [[palatalization (sound change)|palatalisation]] of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic (see {{section link|Phonological history of Old English|Palatalization}}).{{sfn|König|van der Auwera|1994}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page