Is English closer to Dutch or French?

There are three separate dialects of the language, and it’s only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. However, the closest major language to English, is Dutch.

What language is modern English influenced by?

The Modern English language has a rich history, it develops and changes like many other world languages. The English language has mainly been influenced by Latin, Germanic and French over a period of two thousand years.

Does English have mutually intelligible with any language?

The Scots language has a significant level of mutual intelligibility with English. The two languages even have similar roots. The Scots language has Germanic roots and is spoken widely in Lowland Scotland and some regions of Ulster.

How similar is English and Dutch?

With the exception of Frisian, Dutch is linguistically the closest language to English, with both languages being part of the West Germanic linguistic family. These means many Dutch words are cognates with English (meaning they share the same linguistic roots), giving them similar spelling and pronunciation.

Are Dutch and Danish mutually intelligible?

Dutch, German, English, Swedish and Danish are all Germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. Danish and Swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but German and Dutch are also mutually intelligible.

Why can’t the English and German languages be mutually intelligible?

This is due to their heritage as being both coming from Proto Germanic languages. What makes it very difficult for these two languages to be mutually intelligible is that English language has roughly 40-50\% of it vocabulary from Romance Languages mainly from Old French from the Norman invasion of 1066 and from Latin.

What are the similarities between English and Germanic languages?

On the other hand, the English language is Western Germanic and appeared in the early stages of the medieval England period until it evolved to be the global language today. In addition to similar origins, the two languages have also experienced the same kind of influence namely Old Norse, Norman French, and Latin.

Are English and Frisian mutually intelligible?

It goes without saying that English and Dutch are not mutually intelligible. Perhaps the person asking the question is influenced by the knowledge that Frisian is supposedly the closest Germanic relative to English. Even so, English and Frisian are not mutually intelligible either.