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[Samuël van Laere]

English and Dutch are both Germanic languages
(http://softrat.home.mindspring.com/germanic.html). I would have expected a
connection between Saxon and English too, but Saxon seems to be on a
completely different branch.
Latin, French, Italian, Portuguese are Italic languages. Italic and Germanic
have Proto Indo-European as common ancestor.

I've allway's believed that English was a Anglo-Saxon language.
Bit confused now, though I found this list i'm not yet convinced about
English being Germanic..:

Celtic Branch
Welsh : Irish Gaelic : Scottish Gaelic : Breton
Cornish : Gaulish : Cumbrian : Manx : Galatian

Germanic Branch
English : Dutch : Flemish : Frisian : Afrikaans
German : Yiddish : Danish : Swedish : Norwegian
Faroes : Icelandic
Anglo Saxon : Old Norse : Frankish : Gothic
Lombardo : Visigoth : Vandal

Romance (Latin) Branch
Italian : Sardinian : French : Provencal : Catalonian
Spanish : Ladino : Galician : Portuguese : Romansh
Romanian : Moldavian
Latin : Oscan : Umbrian : Faliscan : Sabine : Dalmatian

Slavic Branch
Russian : Belorussian : Ukrainian : Polish : Sorbian
Czech : Slovak : Slovene : Croatian : Serbian
Kashubian : Bulgarian : Macedonian : Bosnian
Old Church Slavic

Baltic Branch
Lithuanian : Latvian
Prussian

Hellenic Branch
Modern Greek
Mycenaean : Koine : Byzantine Greek
Classical Greek (Attic : Doric, Ionic, Aeolic)

Illyric Branch
Albanian

Anatolian Branch
Hittite : Lydian : Lycian: Luwian : Palaic

Thracian Branch
Armenian
Thracian : Phrygian

Iranian Branch
Farsi : Kurdish : Pashto : Baluchi : Ossetian : Tadzhik
Persian : Avestan : Scythian

Indic Branch
Hindi : Urdu : Nepali : Bengali : Assamese : Oriya
Kashmiri : Punjabi : Sindhi : Marathi : Gujerati
Bhili : Lahnda : Maithili : Magahi
Konkani : Sinhalese : Maldivian : Romany
Sanskrit : Pali Tokharian BranchTurfanian : Kuchean

 

[Oli Filth]

AFAIK, English is derived from Old and Middle English, which are
Germanic languages, but was heavily influenced by the Romance languages
when the Normans invaded, and from then on the nobility often spoke French.

Hence, in modern English, many simple words (which have Germanic
derivation) have posh-sounding synonyms (which have Latin derivation),
e.g. "eat" => "consume", "watch" => "regard", etc.

Oli

 

[Dylan Parry]

Hence, in modern English, many simple words (which have Germanic
derivation) have posh-sounding synonyms (which have Latin derivation),
e.g. "eat" => "consume", "watch" => "regard", etc.

Well we're getting totally off-topic here, but it is quite interesting
(well for me anyway). One other thing about English is that animal names
tend to be Germanic whereas the food from them comes from the French,
eg. Cow -> Beef.