[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Carol's questions for New Steve Was: Tempest in a teapot/cup/kettle

[Cabal]

-----Original Message-----
From: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Carol
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:47 AM
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Carol's questions for New Steve Was: Tempest
in a teapot/cup/kettle

Carol responds:

Er, English was originally a Germanic language spoken by the Angles
(not Anglos), Saxons, and Jutes who settled parts of what is now
England (such as East Anglia, Sussex, and Kent). They did not speak
German, which is a modern language, but Old Saxon, which quickly
developed into Anglo-Saxon, the ancestor of modern English, splitting
off from the Saxon language spoken on the continent, now called Low
German. (Dutch is descended from Low German and German is descended
from High German, with "high" and "low" relating to altitude, not
social status.) Nor were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes the original
settlers of England, which was inhabited at the time by Romanized
Celts. Other Celtic tribes and Picts, who may or may not have been
Celtic, inhabited other parts of Britain. The north was invaded and
later settled by Vikings. Earlier still, Britain had been occupied by
nameless Neolithic tribes, which blended with the Celts.
::::::::::::::::::::::

So I'll got tell the Head of my English Dept. and the Provost who teaches
linguistics that they are wrong?

England was settled by the Germanic tribes before the Anglos and Saxons ever
arrived -- they spoke German -- they couldn't have spoke old Saxon first
because they where there for generations before the Saxons -- I have taken
two courses in the last two years alone and have three textbooks that tell
the same story.

md