G'day Cuilionn,

You might note that English is also classified as a Germanic language.

I have been browsing my recently acquired Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language and paying a lot of attention to the Middle and Old Texts reproduced. One point that stands out immediately is the number of words in the Middle English that are now considered Broad Scots.

The identification of Broad Scots as a separate language. rather than as a dialect, is something discussed in one of my earlier acquisitions, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. This cites the political forces underlying such definitions. For instance, the mutually incomprehensible languages of China are generally called dialects because the Chinese want to stress that they are one nation yet the Scandinavians, all of whom can easily understand each other's speech call Danish, Swedish and Norwegian separate languages because they wish to emphasise their political separation.

Regards,

Bob Bolton