News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers.

Re:Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers by wheels on Friday November 27, 2009 @06:17AM (#963735)
Their "languages closely related" is way off. They should have just labeled it "easy languages", since that's apparently what they mean. Icelandic, in the third category, is uncontroversially more related to English than most of the (predominantly romance) languages in the first category, as English and Icelandic are both Germanic languages.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers by klipt on Friday November 27, 2009 @09:08AM (#963891)
While grammatically, English is Germanic, it did borrow a ton of vocabulary from French after the Norman invasion, so from a lexical perspective it's related to the romance languages by proxy.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers by wheels on Friday November 27, 2009 @09:19AM (#963901)
Yes -- and it also inherited French-style plurals (blessedly), and I believe is the only Germanic language with a gerund.
[ Parent | on HN ]