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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: PBS is at it again---so are the Linguists
In-Reply-To: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk's message of Wed, 1 Mar 1995 22:49:32 +0000
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In article <794098172snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
(Phil Hunt) writes:

>In article <D4q8Jx.E9n@midway.uchicago.edu> need@bloomfield.uchicago.edu
>"Barbara Need" writes:

>>There is good evidence that Old English was strongly Germanic to the end of
>>the period (and you should read Thomason and Kaufamn (Language Contact,
>>creolization and genetic lingustics) re the influence of Norse on English
>>--mostly negligible).

>It was strong enough that some function-words in modern English come from
>Norse (eg "they").

But borrowing, even of "function words," does not a creole make.

>English can be regarded as a creole based on OE and Norman French.

No, it can't.  Read the book cited by Barbara Need for details.
-- 
Rich Alderson		[Tolkien quote temporarily removed in favour of
alderson@netcom.com	 proselytizing comment below --rma]

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