Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ptsfa.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!ptsfa!rob From: rob@ptsfa.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: the word "won't" Message-ID: <785@ptsfa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 01:21:51 EDT Article-I.D.: ptsfa.785 Posted: Wed Aug 7 01:21:51 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 23:01:22 EDT References: <1235@sjuvax.UUCP> Reply-To: rob@ptsfa.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) Organization: Pacific Bell, San Francisco Lines: 39 Summary: German's link with English: ancestry or influence Keywords: In article <1235@sjuvax.UUCP> iannucci@sjuvax.UUCP (iannucci) writes in defense of his assertion that English "won't" came from German "wollen": >I can't think of another language which has had >more influence on English than German. Latin comes close, but not as close as >German. English is, after all, a member of that family of Germanic or Teutonic >languages. I think the many postings that "corrected" your original assertion that "won't" "came from" German "wollen" have a different notion of "influence" and "come from" than you do. English and German have descended from a common ancestor, which linguists call Germanic or more properly Proto-Germanic. (The "Proto" means that the language is hypothesized to have existed based deductions from existent and/or dead-but-documented languages.) The use of the word "ancestor" is a slightly misleading metaphor, since languages don't discretely get born from ancestors in the way living organisms do. A language will evolve and will evolve in different ways in geographically separated locations. English and German are very similar because they have evolved from a relatively RECENT common ancestor. That is, they DIVERGED from their common form not too long ago. However, this does not mean that they have had much influence on each other SINCE THAT DIVERGENCE. In fact, French and Latin have had MUCH, MUCH more influence on Modern English than German has. But again, this is not to say that English is more like French or Latin than to German. Au contraire. English and German are very similar, but the vast majority of the resemblance is due to common ancestry, not to "sibling influence". -- +--------------+-------------------------------+ | Rob Bernardo | Pacific Bell | +--------------+ 2600 Camino Ramon, Room 4E700 | | 415-823-2417 | San Ramon, California 94583 | +--------------+-------------------------------+---------+ | ihnp4!ptsfa!rob | | {nsc,ucbvax,decwrl,amd,fortune,zehntel}!dual!ptsfa!rob | +--------------------------------------------------------+