Editing English language (section)

== Classification ==
[[File:Europe germanic-languages 2.PNG|thumb|

'''[[Anglic languages]]'''
{{legend|#FFA500|English}}
{{legend|#FF8C00|[[Scots language|Scots]]}}
'''[[Anglo-Frisian languages]]'''<br/> Anglic and
{{legend|#FFD700|[[Frisian languages|Frisian]] ([[West Frisian language|West]], [[North Frisian language|North]], [[Saterland Frisian language|Saterland]])}}
'''[[North Sea Germanic languages]]''' Anglo-Frisian and
{{legend|#7FFF00|[[Low German|Low German/Low Saxon]]}}
'''[[West Germanic languages]]'''<br/> North Sea Germanic and
{{legend|#FFFF00|[[Dutch language|Dutch]]; in Africa: [[Afrikaans]]}}
...... [[German language|German]] ([[High German|High]]):
{{legend|#00FF00|[[Central German|Central]]; in [[Luxembourg|Lux.]]: [[Luxembourgish]]}}
{{legend|#008000|[[Upper German|Upper]]}}
...... [[Yiddish]]]]

[[File:West Germanic languages (simplified).svg|thumb|left|upright=1.13|The [[West Germanic languages]]]]

English is an [[Indo-European language]] and belongs to the [[West Germanic]] group of the [[Germanic languages]].{{sfn|Bammesberger|1992|pp=29–30}} [[Old English]] [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|originated]] from a Germanic tribal and [[Dialect continuum|linguistic continuum]] along the [[Frisia]]n [[North Sea]] coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the [[Anglic languages]] in the [[British Isles]], and into the [[Frisian languages]] and [[Low German|Low German/Low Saxon]] on the continent. The Frisian languages, which together with the Anglic languages form the [[Anglo-Frisian languages]], are the closest living relatives of English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related, and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and [[Low German]] are grouped together as the [[Ingvaeonic|Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic) languages]], though this grouping remains debated.{{sfn|Bammesberger|1992|p=30}} Old English evolved into [[Middle English]], which in turn evolved into Modern English.{{sfn|Robinson|1992}} Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other Anglic languages, including [[Scots language|Scots]]{{sfn|Romaine|1982|pp=56–65}} and the extinct [[Fingallian]] and [[Forth and Bargy dialect|Forth and Bargy (Yola)]] dialects of [[Ireland]].{{sfn|Barry|1982|pp=86–87}}

Like [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] and [[Faroese language|Faroese]], the development of English in the [[British Isles]] isolated it from the continental Germanic languages and influences, and it has since diverged considerably. English is not [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with any continental Germanic language, differing in [[lexis (linguistics)|vocabulary]], [[syntax]], and [[phonology]], although some of these, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.{{sfn|Harbert|2007}}

Unlike Icelandic and Faroese, which were isolated, the development of English was influenced by a long series of invasions of the British Isles by other peoples and languages, particularly [[Old Norse]] and [[Norman language|Norman French]]. These left a profound mark of their own on the language, so that English shows some similarities in vocabulary and grammar with many languages outside its linguistic [[clades]]—but it is not mutually intelligible with any of those languages either. Some scholars have argued that English can be considered a [[mixed language]] or a [[Creole language|creole]]—a theory called the [[Middle English creole hypothesis]]. Although the great influence of these languages on the vocabulary and grammar of Modern English is widely acknowledged, most specialists in language contact do not consider English to be a true mixed language.{{sfn|Thomason|Kaufman|1988|pp=264–265}}{{sfn|Watts|2011|loc=Chapter 4}}

English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares [[language change|innovations]] with other Germanic languages such as [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[German language|German]], and [[Swedish language|Swedish]].{{sfn|Durrell|2006}} These shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor called [[Proto-Germanic]]. Some shared features of Germanic languages include the division of verbs into [[Germanic strong verb|strong]] and [[Germanic weak verb|weak]] classes, the use of [[modal verb]]s, and the sound changes affecting [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] consonants, known as [[Grimm's law|Grimm's]] and [[Verner's law]]s. English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the [[palatalization (sound change)|palatalisation]] of consonants that were velar consonants in [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] (see {{section link|Phonological history of Old English|Palatalization}}).{{sfn|König|van der Auwera|1994}}