It is a fascinating difference that may have to do with climate. After the Ice Ages, fewer people had trickled back into Britain even by the time of the Romans. In contrast, people in Gaul had been able to survive even the Ice Ages, and their populations expanded much more quickly than further north in Britain.



So, even yet, the Germanic Franks,like Julius Caesar before them, arrived, saw and conquered Gaul. But unlike Julius Caesar, who had brought Latin and a greater civilization, the more rugged fur skinned Franks dropped their Anglo Saxon dialect, which is now generally shared by Britain, America, Canada, Australia and now much of the world.

Southern Europe still speaks variants of Latin, whether Italian, French, Spanish, Portugal, pockets elsewhere including Romania, and of course former and present colonies of France.

And, one might point out, the Anglo Saxon dialects that pushed into Celtic Britain changed Celt into a strange native dialect in western Wales, Scotland and Ireland. As for England, my middle name Arthur was really a Celtic Prince whose Camelot I have visited, and he was fighting off the Saxons, who took over.

And my geneology from my father confirms that back around 450 A.D we had a Saxon kind of warrior daddy arrive on the Dorset beach and decide the cutest Celtic girl in the nearest village was His wife. Thus my first name is Germanic and my second name is Celtic, and my last name is Saxon refined by the French Court as being senior, or the, of our district.

If you found that difficult to follow, I could say that the geneology of my father, which I met and confirmed with the Premier Baronet of Great Britain who is my distant cousin, our name was Celtic Ash and we fought against the Romans at the great ramparts I visited just outside of Dorchester in England.

Apparently some of us fled west and survived. Later, a Celtic great grand mother of mine was selected by a handsome Saxon stud who wanted a wife. We took over that area of Dorset and particularly the ashwood forests in the moist valleys. We survived the Norman onslaught by becoming trusted purveyors of ash for the king, the best burning wood, least smoke, most heat.

You could have your hand cut off if men of the king found you were using ashwood in your fire. It was reserved for the King.

This mixing in Britain and Ireland of Angles, Saxons, Danes, Norse, Dutch and all Nordic countries changed ancient Britain to a merging of these Germanic languages along the Dane Line, which basically was like an arrow between King Alfred in the west and the Danes and Vikings in the east.

Ironically, the English language evolved at this meeting point, where trading was allowed, and payments to the Danes to not advance west. Here, all had to agree on how to trade, say a horse for oats and barley and a pig.

The words were all different but common enough that even to count from one to ten evolved around the germanic ein, zwie,drie, funf, sax, seiben, acht, neuin under variations of zen, or ten.

Gradually evolved a somewhat common English. Now,a thousand years later, America and gradually much of the word have adapted these old Sanskrit words enough that to talk to anyone anywhere could be a variation of I hope you have ein fine day. Did you sneeze? Gesundheit.