[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 Geoff Bannister
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:01 PM
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Carol's questions for New Steve Was: Tempest
in a teapot/cup/kettle


Geoff:
Strictly speaking, that isn't accurate. At the time of the Norman Conquest, 
the general language of Britain was Anglo-Saxon. German and English are 
closely related languages. During the early years of the Normans, French 
was the official language and Anglo-Saxon was left in the hands of the 
yeomans and peasants and in the intervening period, they did interesting 
things like largely demolishing gender and annihilating most of the case 
structure and inflection, the combination of the two ending up by giving 
us possibly one of the most expressive languages in the world.

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It is accurate, because you are speaking of a much latter period, after the
Anglos and Saxons arrived. But long, long before the Anglo/Saxon period the
inhabitant of the area where people that migrated from Germany. No matter
how you look at it, the Germans where there first, before the Anglo/Saxon,
before the Norman invasion and French rule. You are correct, except you and
I are not talking about the same part of history. 

I just spent an entire semester studding origins of the English Language,
it's pretty damn fresh in my mind -- it was also covered in several Brit-Lit
courses from a time ago.

md