I’m probably going to look very foolish when proved wrong on this because my information comes from a friend in Academia who is a Germanophile. He told me quite forcefully that although there are a lot of French words in the English language that of the 50 to 100 most commonly spoken English words most are of German origin e.g. ‘‘can’’.
Early into my stint at relearning basic German I have to admit that I am noticing some useful similarities between German and English.
So I’m hopeful those similarities continue so that life doesn’t become too tough as I try to scale the foothills of this particular moutain
You will have easy life (except for articles which English does have not - die, der, das - remember? This will be the pain! - hehe).
The situation when I was in middle school and a German cupple asked me for a bus to Bled in German and I boldly, without fear answered in English not being even aware at first they’re speaking German and they actually understood me, speaks toward the facts for your easy life with learning German. After I’ve "babbled out everything I had on the subject of explaining them where the bus is and when it departs, I only realized they spoke German and they only then were aware I actually am speaking English aswell.
So i bet next year in Austria they won’t know you’ve just re-learned the language.
The first two were in former East Germany (GDR or DDR).
The third was in West Germany (FDR).
I think they are all to some extent artificial constructs, arising partly at least out of the post-war reconstruction of Germany into two separate republics. I’m not sure if there was any border adjustment following reunification.
I have no idea if they bear much, if any relationship to the people we think of as the Saxons, who invaded Britain, and became what we call the Anglo-Saxons. Probably not.
This is quite interesting, but I don’t think there is a simple answer to your question:
I’m sure there isn’t because I am aware I haven’t a clue where the Angles came from or what they spoke! I have always presumed they mainly stayed in the east (East Anglia) but that makes one wonder ‘where was West Anglia?’ I know a pope was supposed to have sent St. Augustine to convert the Angles because he saw some captives whom he thought so beautiful they must be angels!! I presumed the name ‘Angleland’ becoming ‘England’ came about because that’s what the pope called it!!!
I believe the “Angles” are supposed to have come from the Angeln peninsula:
In more recent centuries, this has been disputed territory between Germany and Denmark, but of course, at the time of the “Anglo-Saxon Invasions”, there were no countries as we understand them.
Similarly, the “Jutes” are supposed to have come from Jutland (in modern Denmark), and the “Saxons” presumably from “Saxony”.
It’s possible that the people who came from what is today Danish territory were at that time speaking more of a Germanic, rather than a Nordic language, which they took with them to Britain, so that when later the Vikings invaded Britain, they didn’t have too many communication difficulties with the people they found here, and English at that time became a glorious mixture of Germanic and Scandinavian, later of course to be influenced by Norman French.
Fascinating topic and shelves of books have been written on it, of which I have only read a few.
More than I have, I’m sure… because all I really cared about was that I really found English not much like modern German with all its long long words made of little words joined up! Whereas Latin seems to leave its mark and all languages influenced by it seem so much easier to pick up!!
But diolch yn fawr for finding out about the Angles, which I’d always been too lazy to do!! (Still don’t always remember that the internet means I don’t need to visit a library!!). I had presumed ‘edge of Denmark’, so was about right!!
