LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.08.28 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 28.AUG.2004 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Language varieties

The Venerable Bede's story of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes is over-simple.
The invaders came over a period of time and not necessarily directly from
their traditional homelands. I have read that the Saxons settled all round
the coast of the mainland from the Scheldt to the Loire. But if we start
assuming that large numbers came to Britain as traders and mercenaries and
basically took power by force of numbers when their populations had built
up, don't we have a problem with the lack of Latin and Celtic in OE apart
from place names? There are some Celtic terms for physical features of the
landscape but almost no Latin except words already borrowed on the
Continent. There may not have been any _need_ for more Latin but we know
from the later
Viking/Danish invasions that even closely similar words can exist side by
side over long periods.

Dan wrote:
>The Old English dialects called Anglian most likely developed their
distinguishing features in Britain. So there is no one continental dialect
which can be considered the parent dialect of Anglian, but it was rather a
levelled colonial amalgam of several dialects. The situation is no different
for the Saxon dialects of Old English.<

If this is the case, can anyone suggest any reason why much the same mixture
of source languages gave two distinct language groups in "England"?

John Feather
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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