English as a North Germanic language?

The problem with assigning English to the North Germanic languages solely on the basis of word order is that while the standard Western V2 order weakens in Middle English, it is still present. To explain this feature, you would have to suppose that while Old English submerged in favor of North Germanic forms in the Danelaw, as it did for many quite common words (knife, steak, dirt, ugly, window), Western Germanic V2 word order somehow resurfaced in Middle English in ways more similar to German, Dutch, and Frisian.

It also seems quite arbitrary to assign German, Dutch, and their various dialects to an SOV order simply because the V2 word order applies to a single finite verb in the Western group instead of compound verbs in the Northern or because in subordinate word order, V2 becomes VL (last). And of course English is the only Germanic language that isn’t V2 thanks to the Normans.

Linguists distinguish Germanic languages in three groups, based on its closest family.

-Northern peoples, Scandinavian languages such as Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic (North Germanic lang).

-North Sea peoples, Anglos, Saxons and Frisians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Nort...

-Oder and Vistula peoples, Goths, Vandals, and Burgunds belonging to East Germania.

.

So that differentiation is partly explained because of their language family or which is closely related to each other, and their geographic location.

Don't forget, however, that England suffered the Normand invasion in 1066. That imposed an old version of French into the country. Take a look at Old English Beowulf (800s) and only a few centuries there is Chaucer with Middle English.

Still, I don't understand when people in modern English curse and use the four letter grunts and groans, they say "Pardon my French". That really should be "Pardon my Anglo-Saxon."

The family tree version of historical language relations do not account for borrowings and language contact after two branches 'split.' It is not the only way to think about historical relations between languages. I prefer the 'wave' theory, which is more nuanced.

"Germanic_languages - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages

"English is a Dialect of Germanic - The Traitors to Our Common Heritage - Stephan Stiller":

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=6654

Citation": It is quite easy to demonstrate the German-ness of English.

German and English are closely related.

"List of dialects of the English language - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_t...

"Dialect Map of American English":

http://robertspage.com/dialects.html

"Pennsylvania German language - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_German_l...

"Germanic languages - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages

"German dialects - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_dialects

"English language - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

Cheers ebs

Reply to my other answer!