DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Do all European have Germanic blood in them?

**kristloken** · 08-29-2011, 09:43 AM

I noticed a while ago (it was only my own 'investigation' though) that German language (I dont know how Dutch or Flemish) has relatively little borrow-words, compared to for instance english or polish. Eg English is based on old germanic, but is very 'contaminated' by latin languages, while German I think is not, I compared once leaflets in German and english and I noticed this difference, in english words were of germanic root or of latin root, while in place of latin words in english in german were other german words.
I may be wrong though, as it was only a leaflet of a few pages, but that was my impression, some german may correct me.

Well, for Dutch (in the Netherlands as well as in Belgium) I can say most of the borrowed words we have come from French or Latin. Still I think Dutch is just like German relatively very pure Germanic when compared to Yiddish or English.
We have many words of foreign origin though, more than French or your avarage Latin language has for instance (I think, that's an impression I have from my Germanic standpoint, much like you see it from your Slavic standpoint).
Dutch, by the way, is the purest of the Germanic languages in sciences and mathemathics. This is something we have got to thank to Simon Stevin (a Southern Dutch scientist and linguistic purist from Bruges, known for promoting the decimal system). Where most European languages use Latin words in maths, we use Germanic words.
We also have a whole deal of Hebrew/Yiddish words in our language, mostly curses and underground language. A lot of it has gone lost I believe, but most of it originates from the height of Dutch Jewry before WWII. Our country had way less Jewish presence, but most of these words are known here as well.
We also make, like in any European language, lots of words from Greek rootwords when using philosophic terms. We even have one Greek-based words that only exists in Dutch (not even in Greek !). The word is 'morosoof' (or 'waangeleerde' in Dutch, 'scientist of delusion', Dutch expressed this better than English though). This is not a pseudoscientist. It's someone with an ill-conceived bizarre theory he alone is a master of and which is very hard to debunk. It's a word of the 21st century even.

Have you ever heard about the 'Law of Bismarck' by the way ? That theory says that generally when two languages are in free concurrence of each other Latin languages tend to dominate Germanic ones and Germanic ones tend to dominate Slavic ones. Why Bismarck ? Because in the German Empire of Otto von Bismarck that was a truth in practice. In the West Francophones didn't assimilate but rather grow in influence. In the East Slavic peoples tended to become Germanised or were at least proficient in German.
I believe the theory is a load of claptrap. At least I think it's nothing a bit of open-mindedness toward linguistics can't solve.

08-29-2011, 09:43 AM	#23
kristloken Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 475 Senior Member	I noticed a while ago (it was only my own 'investigation' though) that German language (I dont know how Dutch or Flemish) has relatively little borrow-words, compared to for instance english or polish. Eg English is based on old germanic, but is very 'contaminated' by latin languages, while German I think is not, I compared once leaflets in German and english and I noticed this difference, in english words were of germanic root or of latin root, while in place of latin words in english in german were other german words. I may be wrong though, as it was only a leaflet of a few pages, but that was my impression, some german may correct me. Well, for Dutch (in the Netherlands as well as in Belgium) I can say most of the borrowed words we have come from French or Latin. Still I think Dutch is just like German relatively very pure Germanic when compared to Yiddish or English. We have many words of foreign origin though, more than French or your avarage Latin language has for instance (I think, that's an impression I have from my Germanic standpoint, much like you see it from your Slavic standpoint). Dutch, by the way, is the purest of the Germanic languages in sciences and mathemathics. This is something we have got to thank to Simon Stevin (a Southern Dutch scientist and linguistic purist from Bruges, known for promoting the decimal system). Where most European languages use Latin words in maths, we use Germanic words. We also have a whole deal of Hebrew/Yiddish words in our language, mostly curses and underground language. A lot of it has gone lost I believe, but most of it originates from the height of Dutch Jewry before WWII. Our country had way less Jewish presence, but most of these words are known here as well. We also make, like in any European language, lots of words from Greek rootwords when using philosophic terms. We even have one Greek-based words that only exists in Dutch (not even in Greek !). The word is 'morosoof' (or 'waangeleerde' in Dutch, 'scientist of delusion', Dutch expressed this better than English though). This is not a pseudoscientist. It's someone with an ill-conceived bizarre theory he alone is a master of and which is very hard to debunk. It's a word of the 21st century even. Have you ever heard about the 'Law of Bismarck' by the way ? That theory says that generally when two languages are in free concurrence of each other Latin languages tend to dominate Germanic ones and Germanic ones tend to dominate Slavic ones. Why Bismarck ? Because in the German Empire of Otto von Bismarck that was a truth in practice. In the West Francophones didn't assimilate but rather grow in influence. In the East Slavic peoples tended to become Germanised or were at least proficient in German. I believe the theory is a load of claptrap. At least I think it's nothing a bit of open-mindedness toward linguistics can't solve.
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