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Purification of the English language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6718 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes  3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 1 of 27 13 July 2006 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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How do you find the idea of purifying the English language to its original Germanic state which should have been retained if the Norman Conquest had not occurred? If so, English now must resemble Dutch or German a lot. The purification can be achieved if people look deeply into Germanic roots, and use these roots to coin up new, pure Germanic English words. What do you think of saying 'writingware' instead of 'stationery'(German: Schreibware), or 'wordbook' instead of 'dictionary' (German: Wo(:)rterbuch)? It will be interesting and effective, because Germanic languages are simple in the way they have compound nouns, and personally, I think this simplicity is beautiful.
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| Saint Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6751 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Norwegian | Message 2 of 27 13 July 2006 at 6:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's an interesting exercise, but nothing more, really. It doesn't take a great deal of effort to turn your everyday speech into something almost entirely Germanic, but it strikes me as rather clumsy to combine words that way in English.
To really purify the language, you'd have to get rid of everything that the pre-1066 inhabitants of England had no knowledge of :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6890 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 3 of 27 13 July 2006 at 6:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's not a very good idea and would take a lot more effort that it's worth. English has far too many loanwords and too much influence from other languages, from French as well as many other world languages, to be reverted back to its 'original' form. Besides, English hasn't resembled its original form for centuries and the average person wouldn't recognise the language spoken in, say, 'Beowulf' as the ancestor of their modern-day language.
And what do we define as the English language's natural form anyway? The Romans were there for quite some time before the Anglo-Saxons (I think...history is not my strong point) so should we all learn how to talk Latin? More to the point, *why* would we want to purify English? What's wrong with its current form? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6718 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 4 of 27 13 July 2006 at 6:51am | IP Logged | ||
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When the Romans were there English was still being brooded in the continent. Celtic languages were spoken in the British Isles.
There is nothing wrong with the world language now. But from a philosophical point of view, it's somewhat lost its identity as a Germanic language. Try to find an academic article and you will find that nearly every word is from Latin origin. I just feel that this language should one day gain back its identity among the Germanic family, and am curious at the same time. I bet the language would be more straightforward if it were that way, and didn't seem supersilious due to Latinisms. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saint Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6751 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Norwegian | Message 5 of 27 13 July 2006 at 7:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it still maintains its Germanic identity. Just have a normal conversation with somebody around you and try to identify the words of Latin origin. There will be far fewer than there are words of Germanic origin.
I realise that a large percentage of the vocabulary of the language is Latin in origin, however, I do wonder what percentage of those words are technical terms.As you point out, academic articles are almost filled with Latin words - but we don't speak in academic articles, do we? English is classified as a Germanic language based not only on its grammar, but also on its basic word stock, which is predominantly Germanic. I bet that almost all of the hundred most common words are Germanic rather than Latin in origin. To purify English, you wouldn't have to drag it all the way back to Beowulf. You'd just have to choose different (but already existing) words for concepts. Edited by Saint on 13 July 2006 at 7:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6718 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 6 of 27 13 July 2006 at 7:46am | IP Logged | ||
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And coin up new words using Germanic elements, even obsolete ones. Why can't we produce something like 'farsee' rather than 'television'? (German: Fehrsehen). Also, it is good to have 'thou', 'thee' back. Modern English 'you' is so ambiguous that people even start saying 'yous' for plural!
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| Saint Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6751 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Norwegian | Message 7 of 27 13 July 2006 at 8:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Youse is a legitimate plural in some dialects, actually. It's developed as part of the language separately from the standard variant. I believe there are still dialects in Yorkshire and other parts of Northern England that still use thou and thee.
The thing about producing a word like "farsee" is that nobody would be able to take it seriously, basically. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6890 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 8 of 27 13 July 2006 at 8:35am | IP Logged | ||
I have to agree with that last statement. Reminds me of Orwell's 'Newspeak' for some peculiar reason! It also begs the question as to whether someone without the slightest interest in Germanic linguistics would know what 'farsee' was meant to represent. Had the television connection not been made above, I would have said it has something to do with telescopes. Edited by lady_skywalker on 13 July 2006 at 8:35am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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