Interesting and very suprising. I'd think that English is more similar to the other West Germanic languages, especially Dutch and Frisian, since it is more closely related to those. I wonder what methodology they used in this study. On the study website they write:
Basic principles - "Linguistics & math, using methodologies like in biology...":
-> Model of "language identity markers" to detect and quantify common origin.
-> Right balance between signals' strenght and resistance to bias by chance.
Basic principles - "Linguistics & math, using methodologies like in biology...":
-> Model of "language identity markers" to detect and quantify common origin.
-> Right balance between signals' strenght and resistance to bias by chance.