Describes the English language in a manner of speaking at independent college (8)
I believe the answer is:
germanic
'describes the english language' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'a manner of speaking at independent college' is the wordplay.
'a manner of speaking' becomes 'german' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'at' says to put letters next to each other.
'independent' becomes 'i'.
'college' becomes 'c'.
'german'+'i'+'c'='GERMANIC'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for germanic that I've seen before include "Typical of the largest member of the EU and its people" , "Teutonic" , "Relating to people of northcentral Europe" , "language used in the old days" , "Like Dutch" .)