The English languages (also called the Anglic languages or Insular Germanic languages) are a group of linguistic varieties including Old English and the languages descended from it. These include Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English; Early Scots, Middle Scots, and Modern Scots; and the now extinct Yola and Fingalian in Ireland.
English-based creole languages are not generally included, as only their lexicon, not their linguistic structure, comes from English.
| Old English (Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, West Saxon) | |||||
Famous quotes containing the words english and/or languages:
“French rhetorical models are too narrow for the English tradition. Most pernicious of French imports is the notion that there is no person behind a text. Is there anything more affected, aggressive, and relentlessly concrete than a Parisan intellectual behind his/her turgid text? The Parisian is a provincial when he pretends to speak for the universe.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)