Language

I always thought English was a Latin based language.



Then one day I was watching some video that said "English, a germanic language..." What the hell? I was pissed. Don't you krauts be takin away mah English!



Well. Fuck if I didn't know the Angles and Saxons were Germans!



English are considered Anglo-Saxon, which were the two primary invaders from Germany, some 1,000 years ago.



It amazed the hell out of me, learning about their invasion. As they completely succeeded and destroyed the old British (Even the name England come from the Angles "Angleland").





Britain, pre Anglo-Saxon invasion, was Roman. They spoke Latin. Except of course for the roudy Celtic bastards who had been there for maybe 1000 years before that, and still didn't like their new neighbors. When the Roman Empire receded from Britain, it created a power vaccuum. And so the King of Britain, called in for mercinary forces to help against the invaders. The British king gave the Anglo-Saxon mercs some land in the south-east of England. Well, some payments were missed, and before the old Roman Brits knew it, the Saxons invaded their lands, and drove them out, taking over England.



As soon as word spread of this to the German tribes in the east, hordes came over, and populated the island.


Even more interesting, even though most of the Roman Britains were wiped out, England became highly Latinized again when the Normans invaded. Which actually invalidates the claim that modern English is a Germanic language. Linguistically, English is as Germanic, as it is Latin, as it is Celtic, as it is Norse, as it is French tribal, as it is Polish, as it is, etc. etc. etc.