What language does English SOUND most like? (movies, accent)

[dragonborn]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

No but:

An interesting map, because it kind of shows how migration patterns have affected the genetic stock of people in Europe. This also highlights that many people in the British Isles originated from the Iberian Peninsula, hence how many Irish, Welsh and west country people have brown eyes and jet black hair, uncharacteristic of the Picts, Celts, Saxons or Vikings.

[Perfect Stranger]

Originally Posted by dragonborn

Icelandic people are descendents of both Viking and Gaelic settlers. There's also evidence that Iceland was settled by Irish monks prior to the Norse invasion. I read somewhere that the majority of Icelandic men are Nordic, while the women are predominantly of Gaelic origin. Iceland could almost be considered as much of a part of the British Isles as Scandinavia, but Nordic culture proved to be dominant, stamping out any remnants of Celtic culture long ago.

The same applies to the Faroe Islands, but the reverse occurred in parts of northern Scotland, the Orkney & Shetland Islands, where people ate pretty much of the same genetic stock/mix.

Monks don't have children.

[Mooseketeer]

Originally Posted by Geography Freak

Monks don't have children.

Priests were actually allowed to marry and have children in the "Dark" and early Middle Ages and though Monks in Monastic establisments were supposed to be celibate most were not and many came to that life with children to begin with. The Church used to turn a blind eye to it realising that most people came to the priesthood not because of deep faith but financial ,family or social reasons. There was little of a "vocation" for many more of a necessity when it came to joining the Church.



In fact the early Celtic Church was far more liberal than the Roman Church and only at the Council of Whitby ( 664 I think ?)did the Catholic Church as we know it today start to emerge . But rules were still lax until the Lateran council of 1139 ( ?? ish ) decided to make it official. Until then it had been a strong guideline but not a harsh rule. Celibacy had been discussed and ruled out earlier on in the Church for the priesthood.

I think though Celibacy was never really something many of the priestly classes followed, religious insitutions being renowned for their debauchery and loose sexual morals. Even Popes had children and did not seem to be harmed publically by it.

[Perfect Stranger]

Yes. Good point.

[LindavG]

Originally Posted by tvdxer

I do not speak Dutch, but was a big fan of Marco Borsato's pop hit "Rood" in 2006. One line that amazed me by its similarity to English was "rood is mijn bloed dat valt op de grond" or "maar jij brengt mijn vingers naar je mond, en je kust ze" (although I interpreted "jij" as "I"). I can totally understand why Dutch speakers have such an easy time with English, and speak it so fluently. But any English speaker who wants to learn Dutch has to deal with the Germanicisms that are Latinate words when translated to English (not to mention the awful guttural sounds).

That song is actually quite fast and I can imagine it's harder to follow for an English speaker. But if you take for example this one:



I'm pretty sure that most English speakers would grasp at least 50% of the lyrics even if they don't speak a word of Dutch. You just have to know that "zij" means she and that it's a love song. Try it

Chorus:

En zij, zij is de zon en de maan voor mij
Zij heeft het beste van allebei
Zo mysterieus en zo warm tegelijk
En ze doet iets met mij

Translation:

Spoiler

And she, she is the sun and the moon for me
She has the best of both
So mysterious and so warm at the same time
And she does something to me

Also notice the French influences, e.g. the first sentence of this song contains the world "kleur" which comes from French "couleur". Dutch has quite a few of those.

[Thomas R.]

Here's some Frisian singing. Not sure it sounds that much like English.


The Frisian Harmonizers - As der nea in Fryslân west hie - YouTube


Swalker, a Frisian song about wandering through Friesland - YouTube


De loft gûlt foar dij - Om'e Noard - YouTube

(Didn't intend to end on a Holocaust-involved song, that's maybe a "downer", it's just the third thing I saw.)

[LindavG]

As I said, in terms of sound I think Dutch sounds closer to English but in terms of linguistics, Frisian and English are very close. According to linguistic experts, Frisian is similar to what English would have sounded like without the French influences. They're sister languages. Here's a more informative video on Frisian:



Btw, for those who don't know, Frisian is a language spoken in Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands.

Here are some more "modern" Frisian songs (no offense, Thomas R.!)



Mixed Dutch and Frisian, rapping part is in Frisian, singing is in Dutch except for 2.03 - 2.18:


Doutzen Kroes (top model) is Frisian, here is her in a coffee commercial in Frisian (with Dutch subtitles):

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by sulkiercupid

The Dutch language certainly sounds to me like its very close to English...no surprises that most of them can pick up English quickly.

Don't know if its just me but Scots sounds like old English to my ears.

That's because Scots was largely derived from English.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by dragonborn

An interesting map, because it kind of shows how migration patterns have affected the genetic stock of people in Europe. This also highlights that many people in the British Isles originated from the Iberian Peninsula, hence how many Irish, Welsh and west country people have brown eyes and jet black hair, uncharacteristic of the Picts, Celts, Saxons or Vikings.

The description of the English people as a 'mongrel race' is apt. I can often tell that if a native British person, without any 'foreign stock' is dark featured, he is likely to come from the South of England or Wales. Many Irish also have the dark-featured. Weirdly enough I think of dark haired Irish women as being characteristically Celtic too. You could visibly tell that people in Northern England tend to have a more Northern European look, with paler skin, eyes, hair etc.

[Trimac20]

^ The Frisian song did sound somewhat English, actually.