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I seem to remember that I read in a newspaper article that the old idea of Low German und English being the closest languages has been abandoned. The question was, what about the grammatical dissimilarities, particularly word order? And it turned out that English has been much more shaped and is much closer connected to North Germanic, i.e. Norwegian.
<br />Mathias
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<b>Von: </b>Lowlands Languages & Cultures
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<b>Betreff: </b>Re: [Lowlands-l] Google Translate
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<b>Datum: </b>21.07.2017, 5:24 Uhr
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<b>An: </b>'Lowlands Languages & Cultures'
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tempus Sans ITC";color:#1F497D">I’ve been recently wondering about the ‘Frisian is the closest language to English’ idea. Since a variety of Saxon forms part of the foundation of English (if I recall right, West Saxon became the standard variety of Old English), it seems to me that Low German would be the closest language to English.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tempus Sans ITC";color:#1F497D">I think the idea of Frisian as English’s closest relative comes from certain family tree representations of the Germanic family, where English is placed on an “Anglo-Frisian” branch. I think this kind of representation is being replaced in favor of North Sea Germanic – ie., English, Frisian, and Saxon.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Tempus Sans ITC";color:#1F497D">Steven
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> LOWLANDS-L [mailto:lowlands-l-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Lowlands Languages & Cultures<br /><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, July 20, 2017 12:52 PM<br /><b>To:</b> Lowlands Languages & Cultures <lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org><br /><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Lowlands-l] Google Translate
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align:right;direction:rtl;unicode-bidi:embed"><span dir="LTR">Yes. Definitely lively, that</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>'</span><span dir="LTR">s why we should make Google add it</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span dir="LTR">
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<p class="MsoNormal">I really don't see the point of making West Frisian a seperate language though, <span lang="AR-SA" dir="RTL">
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<p class="MsoNormal">as it doesn't contain that much of a unique vocabulary, and strongly resembles Dutch.
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align:right;direction:rtl;unicode-bidi:embed"><span lang="HE">בתאריך 20 ביולי 2017 8:24 אחה״צ,</span><span lang="AR-SA"> "</span><span dir="LTR">Lowlands Languages</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> & </span><span dir="LTR">Cultures</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>" <<a href="mailto:lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_top"><span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">lowlands-l@listserv</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>.<span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">linguistlist.org</span></a><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>> </span><span lang="HE">כתב:</span><span lang="AR-SA">
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align:right;direction:rtl;unicode-bidi:embed"><span dir="LTR">On 20/07/2017 11:18 AM, Eitan wrote</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>:
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi all,<span lang="AR-SA" dir="RTL">
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<p class="MsoNormal"> I've requested Facebook they should add low german into their language poll since they recently had added West Frisian which isn't much an obvious choice.
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<p class="MsoNormal">That being the case, to my surprise Google Translate added West Frisian as well.
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<p class="MsoNormal">I don't consider West frisian the closest language to English language because of certain reasons. Here's what I wrote:
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<p class="MsoNormal">Low german (of plaudietsch language) is spoken by 450,000 people around the world, which is about on par with Frisian on the total. It has a rich body of literature, including the bible, and many unique expressions and vowel sounds.
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<p class="MsoNormal">Compared to what is spoken in west friesland, it's a fully-fledged and dynamic language. And while it is true that Frisian is recognised minority language in the Netherlands, Plautdietsch is recognised in belize and has a minority status there.
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<p class="MsoNormal">Do you agree?
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align:right;direction:rtl;unicode-bidi:embed"><span lang="AR-SA"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf55TFRG-2w" target="_top"><span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">https://www.youtube.com/watch</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>?<span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">v=tf55TFRG-2w</span></a><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lV4S4VLhV0" target="_top"><span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">https://www.youtube.com/watch</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>?<span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">v=9lV4S4VLhV0</span></a><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdaLj8jkJfI" target="_top"><span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">https://www.youtube.com/watch</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>?<span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">v=EdaLj8jkJfI</span></a><br /><br /></span><span dir="LTR">Sure doesn</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>'</span><span dir="LTR">t look dead to me</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>.<br /><br /></span><span dir="LTR">Ed Alexander
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:right;direction:rtl;unicode-bidi:embed"><span lang="AR-SA"><br />_______________________________________________<br /></span><span dir="LTR">LOWLANDS-L mailing list</span><span lang="AR-SA"><br /><a href="mailto:LOWLANDS-L@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_top"><span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">LOWLANDS-L@listserv.linguistlist.org</span></a><br /><a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lowlands-l" target="_top"><span lang="EN-US" dir="LTR">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lowlands-l</span></a>
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