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Page 5 of 7 Origins of MixtureGiven that early Germanic is a mixed language, what arguments can be advanced as explanation? Mixed languages are not unusual; in fact, there may not be many which are not. Languages, as was noted above, characteristically absorb words from powerful or influential neighbors, often due to conquest. Thus modern Irish is replete with English words. English is possibly half French in origin. French has far more words of German (Frankish) origin than is often appreciated. Modern German relies heavily upon Latin but Latin relied heavily upon Greek. The core of each of these languages perseveres but the powerful neighbor in each case is very much in evidence. The earliest Germans, however, had no powerful neighbor. Far from it. In those times Indo-European people were expanding aggressively in all directions. Where the Germanic people emerged, Atlantic farmers have, in effect, disappeared. Proto-Lapp hunters and gatherers retreating far to the north were of no consequence. Conquerors do not admit contamination of their language by those they conquer. One would be hard-pressed to assemble a handful of Welch words accepted into English even though the Welch are very much a part of the modern English people. Modern French shows little evidence of Celtic vocabulary even while modern French celebrate their Gaulish origins. Germans who conquered Prussia had little use for Prussian words even while they proudly presented themselves as “Prussians”. All over Spanish America the Spanish mixed with natives to produce a hybrid population called “mestizo” but their language is not distracted by any body of native words. Had the Indo-European farmers conquered the Atlantic predecessors where the German people emerged, no hybrid language should have taken form.
There is one other explanation for the generation of language mixture. Not rarely do a people adopt wholesale the language of a powerful neighbor. In this case the core of their own language is abandoned, but mixture results. That is, adoption of language is rarely total. It is obviously difficult to assimilate the whole package all at once and, furthermore, it should be no surprise that people do cling to some, at least, of their native vocabulary. Thus, when Irish assay to speak English, native Irish words tend to intrude. Natives in Mexico (not mestizos) when speaking Spanish are prone to resort to native words not infrequently. English spoken in India or the Philippines suffers the same fate. In fact, all sorts of “pidgeon” languages tend to be awful mixtures. And so it is, that one is led to conclude that the northernmost Atlantic farmers, when confronted with aggressive European neighbors, decided to join them in order not to be submerged. They could surely see what was happening to the Gauls to their south.
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Germanic Origins 
