Re: THEORY: English as a creole [was Re: Rant on partial understandings]

<< Quoting Matthew Kehrt <matrix14@...>:


[Theory proposed:  English loses the dual because Anglosaxons

needed to communicate effectively with invading Norsemen.]

> I've heard that this is the reason that modern English has no cases:
> the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse ivaders eventually settled on a lowest
> common denominator language that became English as we know it.  So
> English is essential a creole and was even before 1066.  I've heard.>>
    This was actually a homework problem in my class on Pidgins and Creoles.
It was to disprove the claim that English, after the Norman conquest of 1066,
became a Creole, with English as its superstrate and French as its substrate.
 (I'm looking at the quote right now--I just happen to have that assignment
with me.)  Seems an odd claim to me.  I'd think if you switched the words
"substrate" and "superstrate" then it might somehow be almost plausible...
Anyway, the evidence was that the French settled in small numbers and only
interacted in the highest circles, so they could not have affected the
language so much that French would become the substrate (maybe that was a
type-o?).  It compared English to Swedish, which had no language imposed on
it the way French was upon English, and you get I call, you call, he calls,
etc., vs. jag kallar, du kallar, han kallar...  Plus, if French were the
substrate, then the theory would be that you'd have English words grafted
over French morphology.  So, "Je t'aime" from French would be most likely to
produce "I you love", and I don't think that even sounds right in poetic
verse (unless, "It is I you love", in which case the roles would be
reversed).  The only morphological ruboff seems to be in isolated incidents
like "court martial" and "attorney general", etc.
    Anyway, the original post was in regards to the time before 1066, and I
think Thomas gave a good response.

-David

"Zi hiwejnat zodZaraDatsi pat Zi mirejsat dZaCajani sUlo."
"The future's uncertain and the end is always near."
                --Jim Morrison

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