>>109209874>>109209245This similarity lies in both medieval contact and more ancient roots. In ancient times Germanic was a dialect continuum- Goths lived in Gotland, Burgundians in Bornholm, Rugians in Rugen and they later migrated from these islands around 300 BC to colonize Poland, Ukraine and eastern Europe. They form the East Germanic language family, which is known primarily from the Silver Bible of King Theodoric.
The other branches, West and North, remained mostly in one place. North was divided into Norwegian and Dano-Swedish branches, while West can be divided into High, Middle and Low.
English is part of the low group.
Low has the most similarities with the North Germanic family, Norwegians and Danes will occasionally remark that certain English words are quite similar to Scandinavian words. This is both because of it's position in the dialect continuum and because the Great Heathen Army established the Danelaw in England for 100 years, however the influence from the Danelaw on English is questionable because English dialects are primarily derived from South England, which was never controlled by the Danes while North England is usually seen as a joke by britfags with their scouse accents and obesity.
In any case Dutch is Middle West Germanic, which was primarily Frankish 1500 years ago. Dutch itself is generally considered to be directly descended from Charlemagne's native tongue, however the Gallo-Romans remained the majority in the parts of the Frankish realm that became France and the Frankish tongue that developed into Old Dutch was the majority in the low countries (along with Frisian, which is closely related to English and Scots).
In any case the positions of the languages in the dialect continuum mean they have many similarities even thousands of years later. Also there was the invasion of William of Orange, which introduced many things to England- such as gin, which killed many Brits because they drank it like beer and got poisoned.