A Different English

Supose for some reason France never becomes a major power, wether through division into micro-states or intense "isolationism". This would lead to French being used less in the diplomatic world.

How would this affect the English language? How would it sound with more a more Germanic tone to it?
 
English went through its great latinization as a result of the norman conquest. If you remove that, english will remain much more germanic.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
It would be very bland and 100% Germanic.
Not quite. If it remained isolated, on the fringes of Europe, then it would be more Germanic, but certainly not 100%. Remember that up until fairly recently the language of scholarship was Latin, which was also the lingua franca of the Church in the West. You can't just wave that influence away (and, indeed, the sheer percentage of Latin loans in English is approximately equivalent to French).
 
Not quite. If it remained isolated, on the fringes of Europe, then it would be more Germanic, but certainly not 100%. Remember that up until fairly recently the language of scholarship was Latin, which was also the lingua franca of the Church in the West. You can't just wave that influence away (and, indeed, the sheer percentage of Latin loans in English is approximately equivalent to French).

Indeed, most scientific terms are Latin or Greek.
 
English went through its great latinization as a result of the norman conquest. If you remove that, english will remain much more germanic.

But this has nothing to do with the POD, actually. Normandy at the time, and for several hundred years after, was rather loosely under the suzerainity of Paris. If, due to a few bad decisions, the Kings of France LOST power instead of gaining it, you could easily have France be a geographic term rather than a national one - with a dozen independent statelets.

In this case, English would likely be very similar to OTL English, as the aristocracy is still Norman.
 
It would be very bland and 100% Germanic.

Apart from the already mentioned immense Latin influences, one also needs to ask what type of Germanic it was. Old English was a northern Western Germanic language, related to Frisian, but with some North Germanic influences as well. Those Northern Germanic influences might have increased, for all I know.
 
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