Why did English survive?

[Queequeg]

Listening to John McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, he goes in to great depth on the influence Cornish and Welsh had on the development of the English verb and gerund.  It's extremely interesting, but it strikes me that English is really the exception, language-replacement wise.  The Norse invaded, conquered and settled the British Isles, Russia, and Normandy and most of it didn't amount to much, apart from fucking up the English noun.  The Norse don't seem to have had much influence on Scots Gaelic or Gaelic, or French, and the influence on Russian is pretty goddamned minuscule compared to the early influence of the Uralic and Iranian languages, as well as Gothic and Old Church Slavic.  Turkish succeed in part because it came with a faith and continuous migration over a 600 year period, but the Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes and Franks who made up the initial Germanic settlement of England were pretty much a one-time affair, and in terms of numbers probably not a huge amount more than the German settlement of the Western Empire. 

Were the Vikings just a lot more willing to adopt local customs when compared to the Saxons?  Were the Gaels and Slavs better at assimilating people?  I think the second makes a degree of sense, cause the early Slavs were pretty amazing assimilation machines, and the Irish still have that reputation. Did English replace some kind of weird Celto-Romance that we don't know much about, but was maintained in regions with minimal Roman influence?

[Admiral Yi]

I could swear we had this exact discussion not that long ago.

[Eddie Teach]

QQ's language threads all kinda blend together. Looking forward to his children's book though. 

[Queequeg]

 

[Sheilbh]

Norse had quite a big impact on English. They're the source of lots of our personal pronouns which is apparently very rare, it's a very intimate base-level assimilation. From what I've read it suggests they became very integrated into English society very quickly.

There's an interesting sound of paper by some linguists in Norway that argue that English is more of a Norse language than a Germanic one. Don't think it's available in English yet.

[citizen k]

Norse isn't Germanic? When did this happen?

[Sheilbh]

Norse isn't Germanic? When did this happen?

Okay. Norse and North Germanic rather than normal German/West Germanic

[The Brain]

"Normal" German?

[The Brain]

If the French hadn't fagged up the English tongue it would have been great. Great castles though.

[alfred russel]

If the French hadn't fagged up the English tongue it would have been great. Great castles though.

Without the influence of the French, the English language would have dozens of words to describe homely girls, but not one for hotties.

[The Brain]

If the French hadn't fagged up the English tongue it would have been great. Great castles though.

Without the influence of the French, the English language would have dozens of words to describe homely girls, but not one for hotties.

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life don't make a pretty woman your wife.

[Razgovory]

English didn't really survive, not anymore then Latin did.  The language of the Saxons is gone, and what replaced it can't really be called the same thing.

[Liep]

English didn't really survive, not anymore then Latin did.  The language of the Saxons is gone, and what replaced it can't really be called the same thing.

Well, if you get butchered all the time, than it's not easy to survive.

[Queequeg]

English didn't really survive, not anymore then Latin did.  The language of the Saxons is gone, and what replaced it can't really be called the same thing.

But we aren't speaking a Celtic language.  That's my entire question. 

[Queequeg]

Norse had quite a big impact on English. They're the source of lots of our personal pronouns which is apparently very rare, it's a very intimate base-level assimilation. From what I've read it suggests they became very integrated into English society very quickly.

There's an interesting sound of paper by some linguists in Norway that argue that English is more of a Norse language than a Germanic one. Don't think it's available in English yet.

Scholarly terms are North and West Germanic.  English has roots in southern Jutland and clearly had close ties to the Proto-Norse, perhaps closer than their more continental contemporaries like the Suebi.  I wouldn't be surprised if we're somewhere almost exactly in the middle between North and West.