in reply to The Germanic language form

it is clear that the British are no more similar to the Germans, Swedish, Norwegians, Danish and Austrians than the Spanish, Italians and French

Well, that's not really true. The original Britons (as far as we know) were Celtic, and then the Saxons (Germanic) came over to England, which is why English has so many Germanic words. The French invaded, and became the ruling class. So the farmer words (eg cow) are Germanic, while the consumer words (ruling class) (eg beef) are French in origin.

In fact, the modern language most closely related to modern English is Frisian, whose speakers live near the border between the Netherlands and Germany.

Clint

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Re^2: The Germanic language form
by bart (Canon) on Jun 01, 2007 at 11:00 UTC
    Friesland is in the North of the Netherlands, not the East.
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      Friesland is in the North of the Netherlands, not the East.

      Ostfriesland (East-Friesland) and Nordfriesland (North-Friesland) are on the North Sea shores of Germany... that's East of Westfriesland... I hear the Dutch call it just "Friesland". So the Friesen are a nation split by the Dutch-German border.

      Cheers, Sören

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Re^2: The Germanic language form
by Anonymous Monk on Jun 01, 2007 at 15:49 UTC
    You forgot the linguistic influence of the Roman and Viking occupiers (lending pronouns, of all things).
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