English language

Classification and related languages

The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is Scots (Lallans), a West Germanic language spoken mostly in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. Like English, Scots is a direct descendant of Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon.

Related Topics:
Germanic branch - Indo-European - Scots (Lallans)

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After Scots, the next closest relatives are Frisian?spoken in the Netherlands and Germany?and Low Saxon, spoken primarily in northern Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch, Afrikaans, German and the Scandinavian languages. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (pronunciations are not always identical, of course), because English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from French, via the Norman language after the Norman conquest and directly from French in further centuries; as a result, a substantial share of English vocabulary is quite close to the French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional differences in meaning.

Related Topics:
Frisian - Low Saxon - Germany - Dutch - Afrikaans - German - Scandinavian languages - French - Norman language - Norman conquest

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