English - a German dialect? - Rotary Club of Munich International

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Vennemann, “English — a German dialect?”, page 8 _________________________________________________________________________ Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word order (1) Ac him hæfdon Pene one weg forseten. Aber ihm hatten Karthager den Weg verlegt This example shows the so-called sentence brace (German “Satzklammer”) for which the German language is famous (or rather: notorious). (2) hthere s de his hl forde, ..., hthere sagte seinem Herrn æt h ealra Nor monna nor mest b de. daß er von-allenNordleuten am-nördlichsten wohnte This example shows the position of the conjugated verb in the second position in main clauses (“Hauptsätze”) and in later (often final) position in dependent clauses (“Nebensätze”) — for which again the German language is famous (notorious). _________________________________________________________________________ A morphological detail (see above example 2, second line) Anglo-Saxon English Low German HighGerman h he he er _________________________________________________________________________
Vennemann, “English — a German dialect?”, page 9 Of course, the Anglo-Saxon word order shown in this transparency is that of German but no longer that of English: _________________________________________________________________________ Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word order (1) Ac him hæfdon Pene one weg forseten. Aber ihm hatten Karthager den Weg verlegt *But to-him had Carthaginians the way blocked But Carthaginians had blocked his way. Verb follows the subject; no sentence brace. (2) hthere s de his hl forde, ..., hthere sagte seinem Herrn hthere told his lord æt h ealra Nor monna nor mest b de. daß er von-allenNordleuten am-nördlichsten wohnte *that he of-allNorthmen northmost lived that he lived farther north than any other Norwegians. Verb follows the subject; no difference between main and dependent clauses. _________________________________________________________________________ I will return to structural differences later. To summarize what I have said so far: Yes, English is a German dialect; it is, indeed, a Low German dialect. *** Now, if this were in earnest the statement I wanted to make, I certainly would not have had the courage to stand up in front of you and talk about it; because this much is simply too obvious, and so simple that it is probably part of the curricula of good high-schools. This was merely the introduction. In the two main parts of my talk I will show that the answer is really wrong, namely: that it is only correct if one adopts a strictly historical — or: descent — perspective on language, without proper regard to what the language is really like, and why.
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English - a German dialect? - Rotary Club of Munich International

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