cas (04/17/83)
I would like to remind you all that there is no such thing as an "English" word. They *all* came from French or German (or Greek, or Latin, or Japanese, or Martian...). All of our "rules" are statistical peculiarities. Cliff Shaffer ...{mcnc,we13,seismo}!rlgvax!cvl!cas
ray (04/19/83)
So all English words come from French, German etc etc. What you are saying is either that these languages are somehow different in that they are root languages and English is not, or that perhaps no languages are root. Rubbish. All languages including English have many root words (mostly Anglo- Saxon in English) and many words derived and adapted from other languages. Most basic English words that I can think of right now should probably be given in rot13, e.g. f**t, f**k, s**t etc!!
cas (04/20/83)
Further comments and clarifications on this subject follow in net.nlang - I suggest we move this conversation (and the original "weird" conversation) there. Cliff Shaffer ...{mcnc,we13,seismo}!rlgvax!cvl!cas
mjl (04/21/83)
While it is true that all languages have words and phrases borrowed from other cultures, English seems to be particularly prone to such assimilation. I, for one, think English is all the richer for this. Just look at all the synonyms for a simple word like house (domicile, mansion, cottage, etc.), contemplate the subtle connotations of each, and realize that much of this subtlety is due to the diverse origins of the words. Of course, we pay for this flexibility and expressiveness with the baroque spelling "rules" of English. It is also interesting to note the fanatic intensity with which the purity of French is upheld by the Academy, in cooperation with the French government. Not knowing French very well, I'd like to see a comparison of the relative ex- pressiveness of French and English. Further discussions of this and other language topics should probably move to net.nlang (that's where I'll be). Mike Lutz (ucbvax!allegra!rochester!mjl)