I'm curious, I'm absolutely no expert in the field of linguistics, but it appears that linguists insist that the hierarchy of language families is a strict tree [1]. In OO terms, that there's no multiple inheritance.
Really, how unlikely could that be? Why can't English be both North and West Germanic?
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_family "A family is a monogenetic unit; that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor, and all attested descendants of that ancestor are included in the family."
Really, how unlikely could that be? Why can't English be both North and West Germanic?
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_family "A family is a monogenetic unit; that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor, and all attested descendants of that ancestor are included in the family."