So for me, as I stumble and bumble my way through learning French (mostly through DuoLingo, hey), I’m often thinking about this issue.
Now-- on the surface of things, Modern English is almost exclusively comprised of German & French, and almost every word in these sentences are specific examples of such in terms of direct etymology. Which is a big part of why I’ve typically regarded French & German as my sibling languages. It’s a nice, bright thought, anyway!
Let’s take the modern English word “fight”-- WP claims:
From Middle English fighten, from Old English feohtan (“to fight, combat, strive”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan, from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to comb, tease, shear, struggle with”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear”).
My point is that there’s so many ways to run with that over time… in any language whatsoever! Indeed, IIRC there was a “fisten” variation which meant an entirely different thing in earlier German.
But, “shear?” Yes, yes back in my schoolyard days, I wanted to shear my opponent like a little lost lamb, but… I don’t think that’s right.
So here’s my point, assuming you’ve lasted this far. Modern German in fact split from modern English maybe around ~~800AD? And Modern French, around… perhaps slightly earlier than the Norman Conquest (1066), meaning that even though Modern English is absolutely PACKED full of French & German pronyms, we can’t just assume they mean the same thing, anymore, as with the examples above.
It sort of breaks my heart, but it’s just reality, non?
And the most vulnerable of those languages are always the ones that people simply don’t even notice to exist, because they aren’t associated with some independent government. Ask people about Polish, they’ll point to a country in a map; but if you ask them about Sorbian, they’ll simply say “there’s no Sorbia country”. Same deal if you ask them about Sardinian, Galician, Occitan, Low German varieties, etc.
It’s never caused solely by easier communication though; it has to do with the loss of the sense of identity between the speakers of those languages. Often forced - like a Franco or a Vargas telling you “use the country language or we’re going after you”, but sometimes through “softer” means (like turning a blind eye to linguistic prejudice).
Sorry for rambling about this. This topic is emotionally relevant for me.
Sorry for rambling about this. This topic is emotionally relevant for me.
Oh!! That really speaks to me.
Now is there a way I might touch on that in future, as I explore Euro-style art & comics across this community?
(I get a big boost out of responses to my content, and I’m very grateful for that)
Now is there a way I might touch on that in future, as I explore Euro-style art & comics across this community?
The nearest that I’ve seen about the topic in comics fashion was not from Euro comics, but from a manga called Heterogenia Linguistico. At a certain point the protagonist is thinking about his grandma, who passed away as the last speaker of her language - so as she died so did her culture.
That said this topic is specially relatable for plenty Europeans, I think, so I’d be really surprised if we couldn’t find any Euro comic talking about it.