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Zackback
Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: Kyungbuk
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:50 am Post subject: Which language is most like English? |
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It's either Greek, Spanish or French.
I know for sure it isn't any others.
So which one is it? |
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Fox

Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:58 am Post subject: Re: Which language is most like English? |
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Zackback wrote: |
It's either Greek, Spanish or French.
I know for sure it isn't any others.
So which one is it? |
Norwegian, Dutch, and Afrikaans are all more like English than any of the above. Greek isn't even close. There might be closer. |
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Brooks
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 1:03 am Post subject: |
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Danish or the Dutch dialect Frisian, spoken off the mainland of Holland. |
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thrylos

Joined: 10 Jun 2008
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:56 am Post subject: |
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English has borrowed the most words from (Norman) French and (Middle-High) German, while most scientific words come from Latin and Greek.
Linguistically, Frisian, and to a lesser extent, Dutch and Danish, are the closest to English, as Brooks mentioned, though I wouldn't call Frisian a 'Dutch dialect' as it is it's own language. (As opposed to Flemish and Afrikaans, which are Dutch dialects). |
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metalhead
Joined: 18 May 2010 Location: Toilet
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:25 am Post subject: |
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The OP knows for sure that it is not any language that is not Greek or Spanish or French, so why mention other languages? The OP clearly knows what he is talking about. |
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Zackback
Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: Kyungbuk
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:01 am Post subject: |
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metalhead wrote: |
The OP knows for sure that it is not any language that is not Greek or Spanish or French, so why mention other languages? The OP clearly knows what he is talking about. |
Sorry, I had a momentary lapse of reason. |
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metalhead
Joined: 18 May 2010 Location: Toilet
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:22 am Post subject: |
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Out of Afrikaans, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian Afrikaans should be the easiest to learn, grammar-wise, as it has no gender distinctions when it comes to nouns. But I am not sure what you mean by most similar in any case, you wouldn't be able to understand any of them merely by reading or listening to these languages without knowing any of them. I purposely left out Danish because anyone who has listened to Danish for any period of time will know that the pronunciation is whack.
With Dutch you will most likely struggle with the 'g' sound, while with Norwegian there is no standard Norwegian so it really depends what dialect you learn (spoken Norwegian always seems to sound happy and sometimes silly because of that to my ears), and obviously with Swedish that horrid Skåne accent from the south would be tough for any native speaker. But yes, you could learn one of the above languages fairly quickly as a native English speaker, they're easier (grammatically at least) than German I would say. For something like Swedish where the whole country is based on everyone being equal there isn't really a polite way to say something/address someone so that makes it easier, too. |
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ttompatz

Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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I am pretty sure that American is probably closer to English than any of the other European languages.
. |
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aq8knyus
Joined: 28 Jul 2010 Location: London
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:12 am Post subject: Re: Which language is most like English? |
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Zackback wrote: |
It's either Greek, Spanish or French.
I know for sure it isn't any others.
So which one is it? |
Scots language is far closer than any of those.
Here is a sample text from wiki.
"This is the storie o the birth o Jesus Christ. His mither Mary wis trystit til Joseph, but afore they war mairriet she wis fund tae be wi bairn bi the Halie Spírit. Her husband Joseph, honest man, hed nae mind tae affront her afore the warld an wis for brakkin aff their tryst hidlinweys; an sae he wis een ettlin tae dae, whan an angel o the Lord kythed til him in a draim an said til him, “Joseph, son o Dauvit, be nane feared tae tak Mary your trystit wife intil your hame; the bairn she is cairrein is o the Halie Spírit. She will beir a son, an the name ye ar tae gíe him is Jesus, for he will sauf his fowk frae their sins.”
Aa this happent at the wurd spokken bi the Lord throu the Prophet micht be fulfilled: Behaud, the virgin wil bouk an beir a son, an they will caa his name Immanuel – that is, “God wi us” |
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krnpowr
Joined: 08 Dec 2011 Location: Midwest, USA
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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Zackback wrote: |
metalhead wrote: |
The OP knows for sure that it is not any language that is not Greek or Spanish or French, so why mention other languages? The OP clearly knows what he is talking about. |
Sorry, I had a momentary lapse of reason. |
As well as a major lapse in linguistic knowledge if you think Greek, Spanish, and French are the most closely related languages to English. You just dropped the ball completely on this thread. |
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andrewchon

Joined: 16 Nov 2008 Location: Back in Oz. Living in ISIS Aust.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:59 pm Post subject: Re: Which language is most like English? |
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Zackback wrote: |
It's either Greek, Spanish or French.
I know for sure it isn't any others.
So which one is it? |
You're wrong, South Korean is Korean+English. Therefore it is the closest language to English. English-only speakers haven't learnt the Korean part yet, that's all. At least, that's what the children who tell me that they speak better English than me in Korean.
샘보다 더 영어잘해요! |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 5:26 am Post subject: |
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Lower German, a language which is spoken by some in the area that the Saxons originated from before they left for Britain is supposed to be very similar to Old English. Many Lower German words are supposed to be almost the same or the same as English. Lower German is different from Higher German which is the common language in Germany. |
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EastisEast
Joined: 29 May 2014 Location: Canada
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:50 am Post subject: |
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Atlantian...from the Pre-Hyborian Age.
I'm sure Conan spoke it. |
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