English-speaking polity on the Continent?

All the current disruptions and shenanigans going on in the EU and ex-EU make me reflect on the differences between the British and the Continentals, and also make me think of how in AH we periodically ask what kind of alternate nations could have arisen, such as a surviving Burgundy.

So how could there have been an existing English-speaking polity (preferably its own nation) in Europe? It's probably going to be Aquitaine, isn't it. If we have a low-butterfly zone, how would it have changed over the centuries, assuming a lot of the broader events of history still happen more or less the same?

Okay looks like it's been done before but I'm already aware of Frisia and their dialect/language isn't quite English, plus judging by the recent Dutch parliamentary elections, they probably are quite culturally different from the English anyway.

UPDATE: culturally English or British or Anglo is the focus, the language can be secondary. Think on the differences between Anglosphere countries and Continental ones.
 
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But Aquitaine already has the Occitan language and its rich literary tradition which would take centuries of policy as Paris-ruled France has had to stamp it out to even the degree the Occitan language is nowadays.

Something tells me Frisia might be the answer, considering how close to English Frisian is (surprisingly easy to read for modern English speakers, let alone anyone who knows a bit of etymology). Unify Frisia with English after the 6th century with England holding those islands, and you have an English-speaking state on the Continent. Albeit speaking a strange "dialect" of English, but it isn't like English doesn't already have a ton of strange dialects.
 
Also, unlike that other thread, I'm a little less interested in the language specifics (the possibilities they mentioned, like "Frenglish" or even Saxon English would be cool and acceptable), and more about a place being culturally English, or even culturally British, existing on the European mainland.

I guess I should edit the thread title, if I could.
 
Your best bet might be a combination of Normandy all the way up to the Low Countries. Together they ought to be strong enough to hold off the other European powers and the cultural mix might be close enough to replicate what happened on the Isles. Depending on the specifics of the timeline this is really just making it so any 'British' culture is really some sort of 'Channel' culture. But, you control the butterflies, so just make the end result more similar to OTL British.

Or just keep Calais as a 'Dominion'
 
Also, unlike that other thread, I'm a little less interested in the language specifics (the possibilities they mentioned, like "Frenglish" or even Saxon English would be cool and acceptable), and more about a place being culturally English, or even culturally British, existing on the European mainland.

I guess I should edit the thread title, if I could.

So more like Calais being a nice English-speaking city indistinguishable from a Kentish city across the Channel?
 
So more like Calais being a nice English-speaking city indistinguishable from a Kentish city across the Channel?
Calais used to be a Dutch speaking city. Not sure when it changed though. Dutch is probably close enough for it to flip to English if it stayed English long enough, but as I said, I don't know when Calais switched from speaking Dutch (well a Dutch/Flemish dialect) to speaking French (or a French dialect). It could be before it was occupied by the English.

That said, Dunkirk could work too. Dunkirk spoke Dutch until the 19th, maybe even earlt 20th century and had been English for a while (somewhere in the 17th century I believe), before it was handed over to the French.
 
I take it neither Gibraltar nor Malta count.

Calais used to be a Dutch speaking city. Not sure when it changed though. Dutch is probably close enough for it to flip to English if it stayed English long enough, but as I said, I don't know when Calais switched from speaking Dutch (well a Dutch/Flemish dialect) to speaking French (or a French dialect). It could be before it was occupied by the English.

That said, Dunkirk could work too. Dunkirk spoke Dutch until the 19th, maybe even earlt 20th century and had been English for a while (somewhere in the 17th century I believe), before it was handed over to the French.

Yeah, the retreat of the Dutch (Flemish) language was a slow progression from the Somme River (or so) northward from 1000 onwards it seems. Calais was a bit later.

But is Calais necessarily the best English holdout on the continent? Might it ever have an English name aside from the French loanword? Cales, maybe? You mentioned Dunkirk, which might as well be another option.
 
Could an Occitan-speaking state with heavily English-influenced culture and society exist in Aquitaine? What was Occitan culture like distinct from the Parisian variety?
 
Would an English speaking Heligoland count as being on the Continent?

The only other thing I can think of is a long-term Dunkirk or Calais. Anything else is too big and culturally distinct to be become English speaking.
 
Normandy or Bretony, perhaps. Brittany has strong cultural ties to Britain (the island), and for a time the Plantagenets ruled it. Normandy is the whole reason the modern idea of English exists, the melding of Anglo-Norman cultural mores. Both were also independent once before, albeit many centuries ago.
 
What about the possibilities of assimilating Hanover? Like no Victoria so the personal union remains and Hanover is kept outside Germany and eventually joins in an Imperial Federation with the UK, Ireland and a couple of Dominions. A couple of late 19th/early 20th century World Wars sees the UK and Germany on opposite sides leafing to movements in Hanover to de-Germanize its culture leadibg to adoption of Low German as an official language and borrowing much of English culture. It certainly wouldn't end up English-speaking with a 19th century POD but it could end up having more in common culturally with England than Germany.
 
actually ON the continent is hard (other than Gibralter ) slightly off it is perhaps easier. Malta actually becomes part of the UK, and then either ends up with a devolved administration like Scotland or leaves again possibly because of a difference over being in or out of the EU. Gladstone's commission in in the Ionian Isles ends up with Britain taking charge of the Islands, more through a failure to secure an alternative settlement than design. As a result of being effectively British English becomes the main language in either or both.
 
Normandy or Bretony, perhaps. Brittany has strong cultural ties to Britain (the island), and for a time the Plantagenets ruled it. Normandy is the whole reason the modern idea of English exists, the melding of Anglo-Norman cultural mores. Both were also independent once before, albeit many centuries ago.
Maybe a continued close cultural, diplomatic, economic and military bound between continental Saxons and Anglaise Saxons remains so strong, that they see themselve as one. Maybe they are rather converted to Christianity by English Saxons rather than by Charlemagne's Franks. Maybe they aid the English against Danish rule. Also Normannic conquest fails , so no French overlordship over Saxon England. English princes intermarry with Saxon nobles on eegular basis and their houses are highly connected by marriage bounds. ATL "English" is spoken by Saxons wherever they settle and have a distiguished identety from later Germans.
 
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I think that the funny thing about England keeping Normandy or Aquitaine is that we could see the interesting effect of England speaking more "french".
 
Get England to speak a French dialect (call it Anglais, if you will), like Norman French but with heavy Germanic influence. England retains Normandy, and there, the elite begin to speak Anglais, making it the prestige language.

Speaking as a geologist, a continent doesn't stop at a damp bit. The British Isles are not a separate tectonic plate.

Would "mainland" work as a term?
 
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