07-07-2005, 05:48 PM
Quote:However, History shows that English was actually not even officially talked (Old French was) by "englishmen" for a long time, and that latin influence is actually that people was probably talking, for that long time, a kind of "pidgin" between Old English and Old French to the point where, when English gained official status, the French influence was intervowed with the fabric of the language in a way it couldn't be removed.
If germanic and baltic roots are present close to 50/50 proportion, it means that the Goths (if Germanic) talked Baltic languages for a long time; if Baltics, they talked Germanic for a long time; or that Ulfila did wrote in an obscure pidgin himself (which is perfectly possible, for all we know: he didn't write for himself, but for a small Goth-related tribe, we lack enough information to make generalizations, that were done nevertheless).
Of the top of my head, another possibility is that the Goths were analogous to the English: a group of Germanic people with a assimilated Baltic ruling class, or vice versa. Actually, Anglo-Saxon continued in some "official" uses for quite a while. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle ends around 1154, at the end of Stephen's reign.
Which brings up a rhetorical question: what ethnicity do the English claim? In a remote, linguistic-historical way the English could be considered Germanic, but judging by modern culture and politics, the English might easily be considered to be their own ethnicity.
Felix Wang
