AH Challenge: English-speaking country on the continent

I think holding onto Aquitaine is the best option. I once considered writing a TL on this but I know far too little about the 100 years war.

But if the English hold on somehow - we could see English starting as a "castle" language like in Ireland, moving to the commercial classes and eventually to everyone else. Maybe the Hugenots end up there after the French Wars of Religion or something. They'd be happy to learn English (as they did in London and New York).

But there is a difference between emigrating to an English-speaking country and learning the language to fit in, and undergoing language shift at home. Hanover did not become English-speaking despite being ruled by the British monarch for over a century.

Moreover, if the English monarchy holds on to Aquitaine, French might well remain the language of the royal court.
 
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What, no one's mentioned Grand Fenwick yet? :)

Seriously, some mountain valley mini-state (like Liechtenstein or Andorra) founded by a company of 100 Year War mercenaries is ... rather unlikely, but possible. Having it survive to the modern day is rather less likely, but both of those two did.

Actually, I had.:D
 
What, no one's mentioned Grand Fenwick yet? :)

Seriously, some mountain valley mini-state (like Liechtenstein or Andorra) founded by a company of 100 Year War mercenaries is ... rather unlikely, but possible. Having it survive to the modern day is rather less likely, but both of those two did.

Where in the continent could such a mini state be located? Northern France? Somewhere in the Low Countries? And how much could it possibly be stretched in its territorial extent so that it is at least a tad bit more noticeable on a map of Western Europe than Liechtenstein? It would be interesting if it survived through the ages as a possession of England long enough that it isn't cut off from the development of modern English but then during sometime in the 19th Century with the rise of nationalism, splits off from the UK and becomes an independent state and just to make it even more distinct, this state adopts a republican form of government. So we have an English-speaking republic in continental Europe!
 
Maybe if Elizabeth I had accepted the crown of the Netherlands (which was offered)? Holding it may be close to ASB, but if it remains in personal union with England in the long run, and maybe eventually merges into a single united realm, you may eventually see Dutch become largely peripheral (like Irish, Welsh, and Scots Gaelic), with English being the first language of the Dutch people.

Of course, there's also the possibility that "English" itself becomes more Dutch-influenced by all this.
 
Where in the continent could such a mini state be located? Northern France? Somewhere in the Low Countries? And how much could it possibly be stretched in its territorial extent so that it is at least a tad bit more noticeable on a map of Western Europe than Liechtenstein? It would be interesting if it survived through the ages as a possession of England long enough that it isn't cut off from the development of modern English but then during sometime in the 19th Century with the rise of nationalism, splits off from the UK and becomes an independent state and just to make it even more distinct, this state adopts a republican form of government. So we have an English-speaking republic in continental Europe!

Probably your best bet would be the Alps, with a French speaking Canton on one side and an Italian speaking one on the other. Or something.

BTW, no one said they had to speak MODERN English.:)
 
Saxon Normandy...

I once put together a TL where, having defeated William the Bastard at Netherfield in late August, a vengeful Harold decided William's lands were now his by right of battle.

Accordingly, in 1069, in alliance with the French King, Harold sends the English fleet across to Normandy and lands in a land barely held together by the young Robert. The two-pronged attack succeeds and Normandy is overrun and divided between the French King and Harold who establishes a Saxon Kingdom in what we call the Cotentin Peninsula and round to what we call St Malo linked to the Channel Islands.

The powerful English kingdom, fortified by silver and the wool trade, is able to develop a prosperous region.

Could it have survived to today ? Improbable I would imagine but worth a thought...
 
For all the talk about Frisian (which isn't all that close to English, anyway, beyond some similar tendencies for sound shifting), a rather easy (if a bit cheating) way to fulfill the parameters of this challenge would just be to have the Angles never leave for the British Isles in the first place, and simply stay where they are and develop into the independent state of Anglia, where the natives would likely speak, well, I dunno, Anglisk/Ænglisk/Anglisch/Englisch. This language wouldn't at all resemble the English we're familiar with, but it would be called English.
 

Zlorfik

Banned
For all the talk about Frisian (which isn't all that close to English, anyway, beyond some similar tendencies for sound shifting), a rather easy (if a bit cheating) way to fulfill the parameters of this challenge would just be to have the Angles never leave for the British Isles in the first place, and simply stay where they are and develop into the independent state of Anglia, where the natives would likely speak, well, I dunno, Anglisk/Ænglisk/Anglisch/Englisch. This language wouldn't at all resemble the English we're familiar with, but it would be called English.
You've just described Frisian
 
Sure, but nobody calls Frisian "English."
No, but it is rather similar to some North Eastern/Northumbrian dialects. I have seen reports suggesting that there was a level of mutual intelligibility between the two even about 100 years ago. With a sufficiently far back PoD, there could be enough impetus to turn similar accents from different languages into something closer still.
 
If you take 1066 as they POD, to be exact, before the Norman invasion and somehow make the Normans lose, you would end up with an English language much closer to Frisian than in OTL (that is unless some other power invade).
 
I think holding onto Aquitaine is the best option. I once considered writing a TL on this but I know far too little about the 100 years war.

But if the English hold on somehow - we could see English starting as a "castle" language like in Ireland, moving to the commercial classes and eventually to everyone else. Maybe the Hugenots end up there after the French Wars of Religion or something. They'd be happy to learn English (as they did in London and New York).

By 2015 you'd have a English speaking Protestant country roughly the same as the OTL French region of Aquitaine with 3 million people or so.
The English still had mostly Normand nobles that spoke French at the time. So English as a castle language ? Unlikely.
More interesting : frenglish, neither really Romance nor Germanic, in the case where Philip II Auguste's son does invade England and creates a Franco-English personnal union, or so to call it, Frengland. Definitely OP, but the Habsbourg could never really oppose this country, which didn't suffer as OTL from the HYW.
 
This is a really, really tough challenge.The only thing I can think of that is at all plausible is allowing Gibraltar independence as a compromise between Spain and the UK, but I don't see that happening.

P.S. The first thing that came to my mind was the Grand Duchy of Fenwick. :)


The official name of the smallest nuclear power is The Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
 
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