In message , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
In article , Roland
Perry writes
But which version of English? Americans claim to speak Englsih, but insist
on deviating from the original.
Oddly enough, it's British English which has deviated from the
original, while American English has stagnated.

Neither statement is true; both have deviated from Middle English in
various ways, and of course ME is in turn a deviation from Old English.
There are some characteristics - notably pronunciation - where American
has deviated less.

Ask the Dutch: 10th century English (though called Frisian) is an
official language in the Netherlands.
I'm told (although I've never been up there) that the German spoken in
the "Angeln", just South and West of the Danish frontier, is more or
less intelligible to English people with no knowledge of German.

Frisian, which I have heard, I can just about understand, though that's
more due to my knowledge of German and to a lesser extent Dutch, I
think.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

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