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From: seumas@vnet.ibm.com (James Walker)
Subject: Re: Is English a creole? (was: Indo-European Studies)
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Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 14:11:00 GMT
Reply-To: seumas@vnet.ibm.com (James Walker)
References: <3upepu$bvf@nuscc.nus.sg> <3v2f4v$n7e@news.admu.edu.ph> <DCADII.Bqx@austin.ibm.com> <1995Jul28.173028.21844@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk> <3vheci$oks@nuscc.nus.sg>
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:41722 sci.anthropology:17514

In <3vheci$oks@nuscc.nus.sg>, ellgupta@leonis.nus.sg (Anthea F Gupta) writes:
>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.

I can't cite specific sources offhand, but check out Thomason and Kaufman
(1988), which was cited earlier in this thread, and possibly Barbara Strang's
(1970?) _A History of English_.  There was a large social gap between the
occupying Normans, who constituted the nobility, scholars and clerics, and
the Anglo-Saxons, who were the farmers, peasants, and soldiers.

>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....

The numbers may not matter.  In language-contact situations, a small number 
of speakers can exert a disproportionate influence.  What seems to me to be 
more important is the status of the group and its relationship to "the toiling 
masses".

James
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Walker, Toronto Information Development, IBM Canada
Alternate address: 061297@acadvm1.uottawa.ca
"You can have anything in this world provided you genuinely
  don't want it."  -- George Orwell
Disclaimer: The above views are mine, not those of IBM.
