[adsexpist]

Italian:



BTW, you could of gotten a better pic of Bjork.

[finasteride]

I only speak one language. So I guess I'll have to go with the one I speak.

Tried learning spanish in school. 3 years, and I know nada.

So the poll question is kind of weird. Of course I'm going to go with my native language. Even though it is more difficult and not as easy on the ears as spanish or french.

And what about chinese, japanese, indian, or arabic? I tried to have someone explain arabic to me. I was lost. I can't figure out their alphabet.

I voted for romantic languages, and I speak the language in which I'm writing in.

[beckercpa]

yeah that was before I noticed he included special poll options just for me. How thoughtful.

[Andrius]

I prefer hearing romance languages spoken, but am the kind of language learner who would prefer learning Germanic languages (except English, which is the worst of both worlds: as ugly as a Germanic language, and as irregular as a Romance language; thank God I'm a native speaker, because I could never learn it).

[Bromikka]

Originally posted by Geronimo
So I'd like to ask those non native english speakers to verify, does spoken english really sound like it belongs with the germanic group? Is the connection that obvious? I would think so, although at this point I'm so familiar with English that it's hard to think of it as having any particular 'sound' to it anymore. If you think of it as a scale though, I'll agree that Scandinavian is closer to German than English.

[forextradinginfo]

Originally posted by Geronimo
So I'd like to ask those non native english speakers to verify, does spoken english really sound like it belongs with the germanic group? Is the connection that obvious? The sound of languages changes most easily, compared to the main part of the words or the grammar. Just listen to British and American English, or even Indian English . I also think that French and Italian sound quite differently. Or different German dialects, for that matter.

But in fact, the structure of English resembles German more than French, and most of the "basic" words are of Germanic origin. On the other hand, about half of the English vocabulary is Romanic.

(Example with word-to-word translations, this is neither good German nor good French):
On the other hand, about half of the English vocabulary is Romance.
An der anderen Hand, etwa halb von dem englischen Vokabular ist Romanisch.
A la autre main, environ moitié de la anglaise vocabulaire est romain.

[Dodoerabe]

Germannic.

I'm a native English speaker. I studied German and Spanish for three years each and enjoyed learning German much more. I didn't find Spanish to be particularly "beautiful."

[Alexeric]

Dravidian

[FalHaitle]

In that case, I vote banana sign language

[DEMassteers]

Originally posted by Deity Dude
I know that linguistics do not classify it that way - but English shares about as many words or roots of origins with Romance Languages as Germanic. I also say this because my friends who only speak English can better understand if someone is speaking Spanish as opposed to German. The linguistic classification is based on the structure and "basic" words (see my previous post for a comparison), as well as on "laws" which trace historic development, and the existence of "intermediate" languages (in the case of German and English, these are Dutch and Plattdeutsch (lower Saxonian).
The English language has absorbed a lot of Romance words, and mostly those with more "meaning". So you'll have less Romance words but they still compose a great deal of the content of a sentence.

As an example I'll split the sentence from above in their "Germanic" and "Romance" parts, keeping the proper names:

English: On the other hand, about half of the English vocabulary is Romance.
(I'm not sure about the words 'about' and 'of', but I'd guess both are of Germanic origin)
Germanic part: On the other hand, half the English is Romance
Romance part: English vocabulary Romance

This is perhaps a bit too Germanic, so try another one:

English: The English language has absorbed a lot of Romance words
Germanic: The English has a lot Romance words
Romance: English language absorbed Romance
(I guess the word "lot" in French is of Germanic origin, it fits well to "Los" in German, where t->s is a transition which happened in standard German and the southern dialects after German and English split. There is no similar word in Latin.)

[Goodwin]

I love German and I'm currently studying it. Italian and other romance languages can sink into the ocean for what I care

[Bobdilan]

Probably. Whatever the Low Countries language (

[metropropuskruww]

Originally posted by Seeker
Probably. Whatever the Low Countries language (

[singleGirl]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride


Derive : Middle English deriven, to be derived from, from Old French deriver, from Latin derivare American English helps here (I think German folks did do the work): ... words which stem from Latin.


It is hard job to get a sentence without using Romance words. But I guess nearly impossible without Germanic ones. Btw. "using" is also Romance.

[lorrieholdridge]

SLAVIC!!!

We are the biggest language group in Europe! The future belongs to US!

It is widely believed in Poland that german language is the most ugly, while french (and russian) are nice

Germanic languages
English can be nice, but only if a non-native speaker is using it. When a British guy / American speaks english, it's a disaster. Not to mention the horrors of Australia, New Zealand and last but not least, Canada.

German - for me it is funny, so crude and beer-tavern like
No offense, germans have wonderful music... but it is not a coincidence that mostly classical, instrumental one.

Scandinavian languages sound nicer than german, but I haven't heard them enough. Dutch... being in Netherlands a couple of times, except for Mercator I only spoke to people of african/middleeastern descent, so I can't really tell

Romanic languages seem nicer. Italian is nice, french is nice, spanish is nice. But who knows, perhaps Aromanian dialects from southern Albania are ugly as hell, while eastern Frisian is a beautiful language...

[T5qYkHWQ]

Originally posted by Seeker
There is no .....BAH!....is there a Greek synonym for 'Escape'?!! Maybe you could say

There is no way out!

That would be totally germanic methinks

But not exactly the same meaning

ps:
Yeah, I forgot using is a romance word too (we say usar in spanish), employing is also romance, Is there a germanic english equivalent for that?

[Cd9JfGHR]

Originally posted by Heresson
English can be nice, but only if a non-native speaker is using it. When a British guy / American speaks english, it's a disaster. Ah don' know, hunnie. If y'all git someone fr'm Ge'orgi'ah, speakin' with a nize sof' Southe'n accent, well then darlin', that's reeel nize.

On duh utter hand, if yuh get summun from duh Bronx in N'Yark, dere ain't no way dere's sounden anyt'hing but f'kin' stupit, y'know?

[Skete]

Originally posted by Deity Dude
English is a combination of Romance and Germanic - so therefore I vote none of the above.

I know that linguistics do not classify it that way - but English shares about as many words or roots of origins with Romance Languages as Germanic. I also say this because my friends who only speak English can better understand if someone is speaking Spanish as opposed to German.

I speak English fluently and Spanish as a semi-fluent 2nd language. I can not figure out a word of German yet I can usually figure out what someone is saying if they speak Italian or Portuguese or even French to a limited degree. I agree with this and is why I voted for romance languages. I'm a native English speaker and German (or Dutch or whatever) all sounds Greek to me.

Whereas with only a limited understanding of Spanish (a few classes in high school) I have a much better grasp of French, Italian, etc. Though I think most of the stuff I learned in school I lost, and most of my familiarity with romance languages is from the shared vocab.

[Ceriopal]

This is selig (bud?). It isn't Grechen or (of?) mir (no idea). And I'm not learning Dutch. Yea?


Much better sur (?), French is very easy for me, because I had a good class in New York public school. Also, I don't remember the name of the person from Bronx that is called zkribller.

[pinawinekolad]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
This is selig (bud?). It isn't Grechen or (of?) mir (no idea). And I'm not learning Dutch. Yea?
This is silly (probably wrong, I think selig is actually "happy") It isnt Greek to me. And ive never learned (well, actually, "im dont learn" I think) German. Yes?

But yes, youre right, its not friggin obvious looking at a German sentence what EVERY word is in English. But you know what, thats true among the romance languages as well. Im biased though, as the only romance language im halfway decent at is French. It seems if you know Spanish, Italians pretty easy and visa versa, and maybe to a lesser extent Portugese. But French is different, and knowing French, while it makes learning Spanish easier, really doesnt make it THAT much easier than knowing English makes learning German, (or, I think, Dutch or Scandinavian)