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The English language is made up of phrases from many different languages. Phrases like “restaurant” and “boulevard” come from French, for instance, whereas Italian lends phrases like “pasta” and “finale.” However is there a language that shares English’s Germanic roots—and even makes use of an analogous grammatical construction?
It’s possible you’ll be shocked to study that there’s not only one language that’s closest to English. There are three languages that share English’s Germanic roots—and so they’re not simply totally different dialects of English. When you have a strong understanding of English vocabulary and grammar, you could possibly decide up these carefully associated languages simply.
Frisian is the closest language to English
The closest language to English is Frisian. This Germanic language is spoken by about 400,000 folks in an space traditionally generally known as Frisia—now throughout the trendy areas of Netherlands and Germany. The principle dialect of Frisian is Frysk (West Frisian), one of many official languages of Friesland within the northern area of the Netherlands. Two extra dialects of Frisian, Nordfrasch (North Frisian) and Seeltersk (South Frisian), are spoken in smaller populations of Germany.
Whereas English and Frisian might look totally different, their widespread Germanic roots tie them collectively. A well-known Frisian rhyme that connects English with Frisian is Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk. Whenever you attempt to learn it in English, you’ll discover it’s pronounced “Butter, bread, and inexperienced cheese is nice English and good Fries,” and that’s additionally its English translation.
Word the same sentence construction between English and West Frisian in different sentences:
| English | West Frisian |
| The person lives in a home. | De man wennet yn in hûs. |
| My buddy works out there. | Myn freon wurket yn ‘e merke. |
| We introduced a e-book to high school. | Wy brochten in boek nei skoalle. |
Dutch is the closest main language to English
Whereas Frisian is the closest language to English, Dutch—the official language of the Netherlands—can be carefully associated to English. With 22 million native audio system and a further six million who converse it as a second language, Dutch is the third most generally spoken Germanic language on this planet (after English and German).
Many English audio system discover Dutch simple to study due to its similarity to English. For instance:
| English | Dutch |
| The person lives in a home. | De man woont in een huis. |
| My buddy works out there. | Mijn vriend werkt op de markt. |
| We’d like a e-book for college. | We hebben een boek nodig voor college. |
Dutch pronunciation and vocabulary are barely totally different from English and West Frisian however comparable sufficient to make the connections between the languages simple to see. Whenever you use Rosetta Stone’s TruAccent speech recognition engine, you’re certain to get the pronunciation proper it doesn’t matter what language you’re studying.
German shares roots with English
German can be near English and one other that many English audio system discover simpler to study. Spoken by 134 million folks world wide, German is a standard language for English learners to decide on as a second language.
You’ll discover vocabulary and grammar similarities between German and English, although they’re barely additional aside than English and West Frisian. For instance:
| English | German |
| The person lives in a home. | Der Mann lebt in einem Haus. |
| My buddy works out there. | Mein Freund arbeitet auf dem Markt. |
| We’d like a e-book for college. | Wir brauchen ein Buch für die Schule. |
Whereas saying German phrases and sentences doesn’t sound precisely like English, English learners can usually interpret a number of elements of a German phrase—even with out understanding any German in any respect.
These 4 languages are related by their Germanic roots, relationship again over 1500 years. Earlier than the Anglo-Saxon invasion within the early fifth century, most individuals in England spoke Celtic languages or Latin. With the Anglo-Saxons got here a brand new language—Anglisc—which grew to become generally known as Outdated English.
Whereas the linguistic beginnings of Outdated English are largely undocumented, linguists and historians agree that Outdated English, Outdated German, Outdated Frisian, and Outdated Dutch derived from a Proto-Germanic language in that area of Europe. The vocabulary and sounds of Outdated English started to separate from this department of West Germanic languages by 700 C.E.
Even with the unfold and affect of Latin Christianity all through eighth-century Europe, these languages maintained their Germanic syntax and grammar, preserving them associated to this present day.
How Outdated English grew to become Center English
Because the English language progressed all through historical past, it adopted different influences past the borders of England. Within the eleventh century, the Norman conquest of Britain introduced many French phrases and phrases into the English language, main Outdated English to change into French-influenced Center English. Center English dropped the Germanic grammatical gender in favor of pure gender, and it added many Romantic phrases to its vocabulary throughout this era.
How Center English grew to become Trendy English
Many students mark the change from Center English to Trendy English between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, with the invention of the printing press in 1476 C.E., the works of William Shakespeare, and the publication of the primary English dictionary in 1604. Many trendy modifications to English embody Latin and Greek-inspired phrases and roots, cognates from languages across the globe, and the affect of know-how crafting new conversational types. Nonetheless, its Germanic syntax and grammar nonetheless maintain English related to Frisian, German, and Dutch.
Examine English to its closest languages
Now you already know that English is carefully associated to West Frisian, Dutch, and German—however how shut are all of those languages to one another? Widespread phrases seem with widespread spellings and pronunciations all through these Germanic languages.
| English | West Frisian | Dutch | German |
| howdy | hallo | hallo | Hallo |
| buddy | freon | vriend/vriendin | Freun/Freundin |
| man | man | man | Mann |
| household | famylje | familie | Familie |
| e-book | boek | boek | Buch |
| night time | nacht | nacht | Nacht |
| college | skoalle | college | Schule |
| eat | ite | eten | essen |
| home | hûs | huis | Haus |
| sleep | sliep | slaap | schlafen |
What number of dialects of English are there at this time?
Right this moment, over 1.1 billion folks converse English. However as any English speaker is aware of, not each dialect is identical, and the variations can embody greater than pronunciation. Most types of Trendy English come from British English, because the British Empire unfold its affect all through the world within the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. However within the years since, these dialects have change into their very own distinct variations of the English language.
The foremost dialects of English at this time are:
- North American English
- British English
- Australian and New Zealand English
- South Asian English
- African English
Inside every department of English, you’ll discover many distinct dialects and accents influenced by that area’s native languages and neighboring nations. For instance, North American English contains all American English dialects, corresponding to Southern and Midwestern dialects in addition to Canadian English dialects. British English incorporates dialects that embody RP (Acquired Pronunciation) spoken in London, Scots, and Irish dialects.
What’s the best language for English audio system to study?
Because of the similarities, West Frisian, Dutch, and German are among the many best languages for English audio system to study. Translation will be less complicated between these languages for starting audio system, and the same sentence cadence makes it easy to kind sentences extra rapidly within the studying course of.
Indo-European languages
English audio system might discover that different languages within the Indo-European language household, corresponding to Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, are additionally simpler to select up. Whereas vocabulary and grammar change into extra faraway from English—and in instances like Danish, many extra vowel sounds seem within the alphabet—English learners can apply their information of English when studying these Germanic languages.
Romance languages
English audio system additionally discover that romance languages aren’t too troublesome to study. Whereas English shouldn’t be a romance language, it borrows many Latin-based cognates from Spanish, French, and Italian, making vocabulary acquisition a bit of simpler. Romance languages contain grammatical genders and various sentence constructions that differ from English, however they’re comparable sufficient to one another that when you’ve discovered one, the others come rapidly.
What’s the most distant language from English?
Linguists contemplate languages that use logograms—written symbols that characterize complete phrases as a substitute of letters—to be the hardest languages to study for English audio system. Languages like Mandarin Chinese language and Japanese are among the many most distant languages from English as a result of their pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary are very totally different from the Germanic languages.
| English | Mandarin Chinese language | Japanese |
| howdy | nǐ hǎo (你好) | kon’nichiwa (こんにちは) |
| buddy | péngyǒu (朋友) | yūjin (友人) |
| man | nánrén (男人) | otoko (男) |
| household | jiātíng (家庭) | kazoku (家族) |
| e-book | shū (书) | hon (本) |
Whereas these languages are tougher for English audio system to study, they’re actually not inconceivable. However English audio system ought to concentrate on mastering the alphabets and writing techniques of languages like Mandarin Chinese language and Japanese, fairly than making use of their information of English for primary translation and grammar acquisition.
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