The "CENTRAL" language of the West Germanic langua
As most of you know, there is a sort of a dialect continuum throughout the West Germanic speaking region, whereby High German is on the far eastern end, and Anglic languages of the British Isles are on the far western end, although I don't think the Anglic languages are part of the dialect continuum, which I believe is limited to the continental West Germanic languages.
High German is close to Low Saxon, which is close to Dutch, which is close to Frisian, which is close to English. You get the drift.
I'm wondering which language could be defined as the "central" language within the group, the language that is at the central point between the two ends of the continuum.
I see English being on one end, and High German being on the opposite end. So for me, Dutch is the "central" language. So, for those interested in learning the West Germanic languages, Dutch would be the best starting place. What would you guys say?
Benjamin [inactive]
Re: The "CENTRAL" language of the West Germanic la
Porthos wrote:
High German is close to Low Saxon, which is close to Dutch, which is close to Frisian, which is close to English. You get the drift.
It doesn't quite work like that. Some linguists actually place Low Saxon into the Anglo-Frisian group, and if you're looking at present-day mutual intelligibility with English, you might find it easier to understand than Dutch or even Frisian.
Porthos wrote:
I'm wondering which language could be defined as the "central" language within the group, the language that is at the central point between the two ends of the continuum.
No language could be defined as such, because this sort of thinking is not proper linguistics.
Porthos wrote:
I see English being on one end, and High German being on the opposite end.
Do you make a distinction between Standard High German and Swiss German?
Porthos wrote:
So, for those interested in learning the West Germanic languages, Dutch would be the best starting place. What would you guys say?
For this sort of question, I'd actually recommend learning both English and German.
Porthos
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Do you make a distinction between Standard High German and Swiss German?
Yes. From what I hear, the numerous High German dialects are not always mutually intelligable. So Austrian and Swiss German would be different, yes.
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It doesn't quite work like that. Some linguists actually place Low Saxon into the Anglo-Frisian group, and if you're looking at present-day mutual intelligibility with English, you might find it easier to understand than Dutch or even Frisian.
It wasn't meant to be precise. I was merely giving one an indication by drawing it out in geographic terms.
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No language could be defined as such, because this sort of thinking is not proper linguistics.
So??? You don't have to limit your thinking ability to the confines of what is "proper linguistics". Surely you can compare languages, and I find that some seem to be in between two other languages. They might not be "exactly" in between, but in such a case, we wouldn't be concerned with being exact.
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For this sort of question, I'd actually recommend learning both English and German.
But if someone was looking for their first language within the family to learn, the one language that would allow them the greatest comprehension of all the other languages, I wouldn't recommend German or English, both of which are on the far ends of the spectrum.
