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Well, "Romance" linguistic groups probably have less to do with one another than Germanic and Slavic ones. Romance is technically a branch of Italic, but the French, for example, are much more Celtic by blood than anything else. Iberians, Romanians, and such likewise aren't "Italic." Romanians would naturally be closer to Slavs - and French closer to Germanics.
On the whole, though, I'd say Romance and Germanic are closer. Today, in Europe, traditional speakers of both language families are included (with the exception of the Romanians, perhaps) in the concept known as the "West." The West can be thought of as a kind of combination of Germanic and Romance (and Celtic) influences.
An off-topic question: should Uralic worthy of being classified as the fourth cultural hub in Europe?
Because Finns and Estonians share almost everything with the Germanic Europe, except the language, and Hungarian has a pretty unique culture, in the confluence of the Romance, Slavic and Germanic zones plus the common linguistic ancestry with Finland and Estonian.
An off-topic question: should Uralic worthy of being classified as the fourth cultural hub in Europe?
Because Finns and Estonians share almost everything with the Germanic Europe, except the language, and Hungarian has a pretty unique culture, in the confluence of the Romance, Slavic and Germanic zones plus the common linguistic ancestry with Finland and Estonian.
I don't know that they have quite as much in common with Germanic Europe as you're saying, but more to the point - I think the fact that Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian (and Basque, too, for that matter) are not Indo-European means pretty much nothing. It makes those ethnic groups no less European than others. So you can certainly group Uralics as a "cultural hub" of Europe.
An off-topic question: should Uralic worthy of being classified as the fourth cultural hub in Europe?
Because Finns and Estonians share almost everything with the Germanic Europe, except the language, and Hungarian has a pretty unique culture, in the confluence of the Romance, Slavic and Germanic zones plus the common linguistic ancestry with Finland and Estonian.
Uralic is the equivalent of Indo-European, so that won't bring us anywhere.
Finnish and Estonian are Finnic, Hungarians are Ugric.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snj90
I don't know that they have quite as much in common with Germanic Europe as you're saying, but more to the point - I think the fact that Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian (and Basque, too, for that matter) are not Indo-European means pretty much nothing. It makes those ethnic groups no less European than others. So you can certainly group Uralics as a "cultural hub" of Europe.
Not everything, but to be frank, Finnish and Estonian cultures are for the most part Germanic.
All countries that share a romanesque language and are Catholics are very similar, all countries that were part of the Roman empire and Holy Roman empire share many similarities. All countries that were part of the Eastern Roman Empire share many similarities. All countries that were part of the Hapsburg share similarities, all countries that were part of the Austrohungarian empire share some similarities, the Ottoman empire, Al Andalus, Normans-Muslims in Sicily, the Germanic Knights and slavic and Baltic regions they occupied share some similarities......the Hansa....etc, etc, etc.
An off-topic question: should Uralic worthy of being classified as the fourth cultural hub in Europe?
Because Finns and Estonians share almost everything with the Germanic Europe, except the language, and Hungarian has a pretty unique culture, in the confluence of the Romance, Slavic and Germanic zones plus the common linguistic ancestry with Finland and Estonian.
There are only not Germanic, Romance and Slavic divisions but also some other ´zones´ in Europe like Celtic, Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian), Greece, Albanian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
Uralic is the equivalent of Indo-European, so that won't bring us anywhere.
Finnish and Estonian are Finnic, Hungarians are Ugric.
Not everything, but to be frank, Finnish and Estonian cultures are for the most part Germanic.
Well, yes, culture wise Estonian one shares more similarities with German or Swedish than to eg Maris or Khanties. Same goes for Finns obviously. Certainly there might be some connections with eastern Finno-Ugrics but these are distant.
There are only not Germanic, Romance and Slavic divisions but also some other ´zones´ in Europe like Celtic, Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian), Greece, Albanian.
Baltic is more Slavic than anything else.
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