Re: CHAT: Is there a conlang inspired in Old English?

Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:

> En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:
>
> >
> > IIRC the argument is that French (and Gallo-Romance varieties of
> > Italian) acquired front rounded vowels from the Celtic substrate.
>
> I thought this was considered an areal feature, [...]
> IMO areal contamination doesn't need any justification apart from itself.
> After all, why should the changes that happen in a language be born in the
> language itself only?
Well, right.  I don't think anyone disputes the reality of
areal features in general.  What's under debate here is whether
these particular linguistic features are not just the result of
interaction between two languages, Gallo-Romance and something else,
but particularly between Gallo-Romance and the Celtic languages
that used to be spoken in the various Gauls.  Personally, I'd
find it much easier to believe that French acquired front rounded
vowels from invading Germanic tribes (who later contributed a not
insignificant share to French vocabulary) than from Celtic
tribes, the sociolinguistic circumstances of whom we know almost
nothing.  And of course, it's always tempting to say a language
borrowed the feature in the first place, since it's rather boring
to claim that French innovated the feature on its own, separately,
which is another entirely reasonable claim to make.

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Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
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