It does appear that the split between West Germanic and North Germanic occurred not too long before the Anglo-Saxon period. Once one is familiar with Old English, Old Norse isn't too hard. At least I was able to read a few passages in Old Norse with a little knowledge of Old English. Sort of like reading Chaucer with a knowledge of Modern English.
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Then in 1066 William conquered Britain and imposed French upon us, such that English is strongly West Germanic in structure and strongly French in vocabulary -- I've read that only about 25% of English vocabulary is derived from Anglo-Saxon.
Actually, that is a bit of an oversimplification. William imposed French on no one; if he did, then we would be speaking a Romance language with some German vocabulary. True, the language of the Court and the nobility were French, but the people remained Anglo-Saxon -- remember, it wasn't uncommon for the rulers and the peasants to speak different languages. (Heck, even in the 18th century, George I barely knew any English.) Direct communication between the lord and the peasants was not considered a necessity. And, if it was needed, it was easier to learn English yourself (or hire a translator) than to force the mass of people, in an era without formal education or mass communication, to learn French.
What happened was that a segment of the people were effectively bilingual -- the next generations of the nobility eventually learned English (from their nurses if no where else), and probably the wealthier of the freemen and merchants learned French for practical reasons. So you had a large segment of people who were basically native English speakers with a second language from which to draw additional vocabulary as needed for new ideas or to put a finer point on older ideas.
Added by edit:
By the way, I've been meaning for a long time to learn more about the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and I just ordered and received my copy of
Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction by Benjamin W. Fortson IV. So I am soon to become an even more annoying fount of useless trivia.
Edited by Chiroptera, : No reason given.
Edited by Chiroptera, : Changed subtitle.
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