Eli5: Why is English comprised of so many different languages? And why aren’t English speakers still speaking in old English, or an even older language?
In: 3
English has French and German roots because it’s almost a [creole language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language) (not quite one, according to most linguists, but it certainly shares features with them). Basically, when the Normans (who spoke Old French) conquered England (which spoke a Germanic language), you ended up with a bunch of French nobles ruling over German peasants. And over time, the two languages blended to form what we now know as English. In the process, English got simplified a lot, losing most of the inflection endings (survivors include *-ed* and *-ing* on verbs or *-‘s* on nouns) that are usually the hallmark of its language family, which makes English a very weird language in a number of ways.
Latin and Greek are common sources for every European language, because Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire were immensely culturally important to Europe. It’s the same reason that, say, Japan and Korea have tons of Chinese loanwords and even borrowed the Chinese character set (although Koreans mostly don’t use it anymore) – just as the Roman Empire was the big man in the room in Europe, classical China was the big man of Asia.
Latest Answers