[B-Greek] Difficulties of Learning Greek
Kevin Riley
klriley at alphalink.com.au
Tue Oct 31 22:20:19 EST 2006
German is one of the Germanic languages - East Germanic (Gothic, etc),
North Germanic (Scandinavian languages), West Germanic (German, Dutch,
Friesian, English). English has a large Romance vocabulary, but most of its
grammar is from Germanic. Some is still assigned to pre-Celtic languages -
which really means "origin unknown". The main example is the continuous
tenses - BE + present participle - which is found in English and the Insular
Celtic languages, but unknown in the other branches and earlier stages of
both Germanic and Celtic. I think it is good for the soul to have things we
can't explain, whether in Greek or other areas of knowledge.
Kevin Riley
-------Original Message-------
From: Jeffrey T. Requadt
Date: 1/11/2006 1:37:45 PM
Is German considered a Romance language? I'm sure the language tree has
Changed by now, but from the ones I've seen in old books, German certainly
Wasn't in the same family as Italian and Spanish. I believe it was still
Part of the Indo-European branch, but I don't think it was part of the same
Family as the Latin languages. From what I understand, that is why English
Grammar has so many twists and turns; it is a cross between Anglo-Saxon,
German and French grammar.
Jeffrey T. Requadt
Teacher
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