Jim Wilkins wrote:

The French that came with the Norman Conquest was the language of the
ruling class and the educated. The peasants' speech (they couldn't
write) was substantially German from the Saxon invasion, which hasn't
diverged all that much from modern German although English grammer is
considerably different. Cow=Kuh, swine=Schwein,
hound=Hund, spade=Spaten, green=Grun ...

I was told long ago that its spelled grün, never simply grun.

wrote in message
...
Jim Wilkins wrote:

The French that came with the Norman Conquest was the language of
the
ruling class and the educated. The peasants' speech (they couldn't
write) was substantially German from the Saxon invasion, which
hasn't
diverged all that much from modern German although English grammer
is
considerably different. Cow=Kuh, swine=Schwein,
hound=Hund, spade=Spaten, green=Grun ...

I was told long ago that its spelled grün, never simply grun.

Or gruen, but I assume those who haven't learned foreign languages may
not have their browsers set to display non-English characters
properly, and an inserted "e" could be mistaken for a different word.
--jsw

Jim Wilkins wrote:

Or gruen, but I assume those who haven't learned
foreign languages may not have their browsers set

When I was in southwestern Germany, one of the people I was with was saying that correct spelling was more a matter of national identity (rivalry?). Gruen, green, groen as different from vert or verde.

wrote in message
...
Jim Wilkins wrote:

Or gruen, but I assume those who haven't learned
foreign languages may not have their browsers set

When I was in southwestern Germany, one of the people I was with was
saying that correct spelling was more a matter of national identity
(rivalry?). Gruen, green, groen as different from vert or verde.

This maps the diversity of European dialect, a relic of old tribal
territories, restricted travel and the division into hundreds of
city-states and small kingdoms that persisted into the mid-1900's. The
German nation dates only from 1871 and united Italy is only slightly
older. The USA has one of the world's oldest continuous governments.

http://cdn-images.9cloud.us/500/lang..._670481648.png

--jsw