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From: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Horrible Hack to tell Scand. Languages apart
Message-ID: <331@unc.unc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Oct-85 15:35:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.331
Posted: Wed Oct 16 15:35:09 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Oct-85 07:43:25 EDT
References: <518@tjalk.UUCP> <126@crin.UUCP>
Reply-To: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann)
Organization: CS Dept, U. of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 31
Summary: 


>>Icelandic is the most inflected of the Germanic languages ...

In article <126@crin.UUCP> tombre@crin.UUCP (Karl Tombre) writes:
>I'm not sure Icelandic can be considered as a germanic language
>In fact, in the good old days when the normans were rampaging whole
>Europe and were discovering America (several centuries before C. C.),
>they spoke a common language known as 'norro"n'. Later, they bacame
>more civilised and had many contacts with The British Isles and also
>Germany ( Bergen was as member city of the Hansa ). But Iceland
>remained very much alone in the far north, and there specific
>norro"n culture and language were kept better. So Icelandic is
>a nearer parent of the old viking language than the other scandinavian
>languages.
>Now, maybe the specialists consider the norro"n family to be part
>of the germanic family...
>--- Karl Tombre @ CRIN (Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Nancy)

Actually, the norro"n family (Old Norse, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish,
Norwegian, etc.) IS considered to be part of the germanic family.
The germanic language family consists of three subdivisions:

	1) north germanic -- the above-mentioned Scandinavian languages.

	2) west germanic -- modern German, Dutch, Yiddish, Old English

	3) east germanic -- the various extinct Gothic languages, of which
			    the only remaining trace (that I know of) is
			    a Gothic bible translated from the Latin.

	Frank Silbermann