> (Ps: The word Germany or Teutschland was used as a designation of the lands > inhabited by German speaking people long before Germany became a state)
Concur, but like all languages of the time that which we call the German language was in development. I can read Beowulf in the original, as I can Chaucerian Middle English, but most German's, French and English of today can't read their own languages as they were written and spoken at an earlier time. I am not an acedemic linguist but I think I can safely say that language changes. English is probably the most mixed up, a combination of the Celtic ancient Briton, the Teutonic tongues of the Angles and Saxons, the Danish of Knute, and the newly learned French of William's norsemen of Normandy (the language of the "English" court for almost two centuries). The Friesians of the Netherlands speak a Teutonic language that has such relation to modern English that there is the phrase "good butter and good cheese is good English and good Friese". But you make a good point. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
