AW: English is a Scandinavian language?

[johanna.barddal@uib.no]

Dear all,

This is an interesting hypothesis and perhaps not as bold as it might  
look at first sight. In our project on noncanonical case marking of  
subjects, we have found that English takes an intermediate position  
between Old Norse-Icelandic and Old High German, while old Saxon  
patterns with Old Low German and Gothic. But notice that Middle  
English is not included here, only Old English. We are presently  
entering the Middle English data into our database and thus into the  
equation, so we don't know yet to which extent Middle English changes  
the picture.

Best,
Jóhanna Barðdal


Siterer Martin Kümmel <mjkuemmel at WEB.DE>:

> Dear colleague,
>
> I'm not sure whether that topic should be discussed on LINGTYP.
> I have seen that posted on facebook several times. The reaction of
> historical linguistis (including my own) was very critical, to say the
> least. The approach as given in these media articles obviously has no clear
> definition of language relationship and does not discuss most crucial
> points, e.g., the fact that the larger part of the English basic vocabulary
> and grammatical elements must be derived from OE and not from Scandinavian,
> or the very interesting syntactic difference that (mainland) Scandinavian is
> V2 while English isn't.
> However, we should wait for a proper scientific publication.
>
> Best,
>
> Martin Kümmel
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Discussion List for ALT [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG]
> Gesendet: Freitag, 30. November 2012 09:18
> An: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> Betreff: English is a Scandinavian language?
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I would like to ask you if anyone has heard of this, and
> if there have been any reactions:
>
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121127094111.htm?utm_source=fee
> dburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fstrange_science
> +
>
> Best,
>
> Giorgio F. Arcodia
>
>
> --
> Dr. Giorgio Francesco Arcodia
> Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
> Dipartimento di Scienze Umane per la Formazione
> Edificio U6 - stanza 4101
> Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
> 20126 Milano
>
> Tel.: (+39) 02 6448 4946
> Fax: (+39) 02 6448 4863
> E-mail: giorgio.arcodia at unimib.it
>



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Jóhanna Barðdal
Research Associate Professor
Coeditor of the Journal of Historical Linguistics
Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies
University of Bergen
P.O. box 7805
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway
johanna.barddal at uib.no

Phone +47-55582438 (work)
Phone +47-55201117 (home)
Fax   +47-55589660 (work)

http://org.uib.no/iecastp/barddal