Martin:
Not an authoritative answer, but perhaps relevant:
> I read somewhere ~ perhaps someone can authoratitively confirm or refute
> this ~ that English as a language derives from a Germanic dialect
originally
> spoken in a single village of Ostfriesland;
From A.C.Baugh, _A History of the English Language_ (1959)
p. 36
West Teutonic is of chief interest to us as the group to which English
belongs. It is divided into two branches, High and Low German, by the
operation of a Second (or High German) Sound-Shift analogous to that
described above as Grimm's Law. This change, by which West Germanic p, t, k,
d, etc were changed into other sounds, occurred about A.D. 600 in the
southern or mountainous part of the Germanic area [sic! RH], but did not
take place in the lowlands to the north. Accordingly in early times we
distinguish as Low German tongues Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, Old
Frisian, and Old English. The last two are closely related and constitute a
special or Anglo-Frisian subgroup.
... so your "single village of Ostfriesland" may either be a later
refinement of Baugh's description, or an exaggeration of it. Perhaps
someone more up-to-date can clarify this?
Further from Baugh may be relevant:
P. 58
The English language of today is the language which has resulted from the
fusion of the dialects spoken by the Teutonic tribes who came to England in
the manner described. It is impossible to say how much the speech of the
Angles differed from that of the Saxons or that of the Jutes. The
differences were certainly slight. Even after these dialects had been
subjected to several centuries of geographical and political separation in
England the differences were not great.
> but maybe there are a couple of shared features (despite all the
> varieties of "English" referred to by you, Robin) that back up the
> identification.
Oh, surely -- the varieties of English (which at the extreme may, like
spoken Chinese, be mutually unintelligible) share a Wittgensteinian "family
resemblance", and are, finally, more like each other than they are like any
other language. But there's no "single" language from which the others
diverge. There's simply, in England, a more socially privileged form. Or
forms -- there is a difference between Privileged Spoken English (Received
Pronunciation) and Privileged Written English (Standard English). The terms
are crude, and probably outmoded by now.
> the English will retail stories about the Scots being skinflints
Quite untrue -- I'll only allow you that anti-Scottish joke if you pay me.
Robin
|