Actually, Pet, I don't seem to recall ever arguing that Native American contribituted more to English than Norman French. In fact, if you re-read my posts, you won't see one reference to Native American langauges! I think this debate has gone on so long that everyone is confusing who said what and even what was said. I am probably as guilty of this as anyone else.

What I did aruge was that Norman French's impact on the English language was no greater than some other langauges (Latin and Old Norse). Having just seen that analysis of word usage the University of Toronto's web site, however, I realise that I may have been in error there. Like Icel, however, I do have to wonder if they analysed spoken Enlglish or written English or both. I would assume depending on whether they analysed spoken English, written English, or both, the results could well differ. At any rate, I think it can safely be said with that analysis that this debate is over.