RE: English origins (was Wanted: Opinions on a grammar book)

[peter -at- galley -dot- ie]

Sarah Bouchier wrote:

Which is especially a shame as English is a Germanic language...

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To which Dori Green replied:

According to my Linguistics professors, the inherent difficulty with English
is that it is a Germanic language to which the Roman conquerors forcibly
applied their Latin rules of grammar.  Those wicked short swords and the
threat of crucifixion were powerful motivators.  Anything less would
probably not have worked.

To which I will add:

And after the Romans came the Saxons, Normans, a couple of Dutch kings, and a couple of German kings (to say nothing of 
the Scots ones) all the influence of the Pope, plus the words imported when Britain had an Empire (bungalow, pyjamas, 
verandah, etc) which left us with a "rich" language.
I won't even mention the strange words that have recently crept in as a result of too much American and Australian 
television and multi-national companies.

Peter

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