:O

[frecklegirl]

I'm sick of having this conversation. (Okay, it's only happened twice. I don't talk about this all the time. Really!)

Me: ...so, yeah, I can't believe [so-and-so] didn't know English wasn't a Romance language!
Person I Thought Knew This: English isn't a Romance language?

ENGLISH IS NOT A ROMANCE LANGUAGE. ENGLISH IS A GERMANIC LANGUAGE. Romance

Comments

[dewdropinn]

No word of a lie. I actually knew that.

[accela]

I knew that, but only because I didn't know that in high school and was rudely corrected by that demonic French teacher.

[frecklegirl]

Hahah, which one? Bullard? XD

[accela]

No way, I loved her!!

I meant.... FAUST.

[frecklegirl]

I thought she was the one everyone loved though?

[frecklegirl]

Well, even before Romance/Germanic languages there was "Proto-Indo-European", the early language all the other ones evolved from, spoken throughout Europe/parts of west Asia. Not much is known about it since it happened so long ago, but it explains the very tenuous connections that still exist between those languages. Such as 'no,' with the n sound = negative across many languages. no/non/nein and so forth. I don't think Spanish and English really have that much of a connection, or if they do, it's more due to French/Latin similarities than anything else. English and Spanish have historically never really had all that much contact--not enough to make a significant impact.

People not believing in evolution is... seriously ridiculous, and also mind boggling. >_>

[cacahuate]

English and Spanish are related, just more distantly than English and Spanish. A very large number of languages share as a common ancestor the theoretical language of Proto-Indo-European. Check out this chart for an outline. English and Spanish (for example) also share many features for other reasons-like the languages' populations making contact with one another and borrowing words.

The field devoted to this is called comparative linguistics, in case you want to find out more. :)

[soundboz]

I guess I'm just retarded, I thought that most European languages were Romantic.

[cacahuate]

I knew that. It's weird when people don't! But then, I'm a nerd.

I think you defriended me a while ago so I hope you don't mind my commenting!

[frecklegirl]

I don't even remember why I did that XD I think I just randomly went on a defriending spree but now I don't even know why. Let's be friends again, haha.