Re: Is English a creole? (was: Indo-European Studies)
Anthea F Gupta (ellgupta@leonis.nus.sg)
31 Jul 1995 02:15:46 GMT
Glynis Baguley (gmb@natcorp.ox.ac.uk) wrote:
: In article <DCADII.Bqx@austin.ibm.com> seumas@vnet.ibm.com (James Walker) writes:
: >
: > This analysis completely ignores the language-contact situation prior to
: > the Norman invasion: the viking invasions and the establishment of the
: > Danelaw (viking-occupied England) in the 9th century. This, more than
: > the French occupation, is likely to have led to the levelling of grammatical
: > paradigms, because the "Danes" and the Anglo-Saxons in these areas
: > would have been in intimate and prolonged contact and would have
: > been intermarrying, a situation that did not hold with the later French-
: > speaking nobility.
: Is this known for certain? Was there really no intermarriage between
: the Normans and the English? Why not? This seems somewhat implausible.
It's a question of numbers. The Normans were few in number & of
generally higher social class. It's what happens among the toiling
masses that matters....
Anthea
_________________________________________________________________________
Anthea Fraser GUPTA
English Language & Literature
National University of Singapore
Kent Ridge e-mail: ellgupta@nus.sg
Singapore 0511 telephone: (65) 772 3933
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