Why do some here wish that English was linguistically pure?

***Damian, do you speak Scots?***

Most definitely. I use it when it's appropriate to do so.

***As in the allegedly separate language?***

Most definitely - to your ears and to those of others from outside of Scotland not familiar with Scots it would be anyway - that's why we speak it. Right now I'm in an area where it's widely used.

<<Why not just revert back to Old English while we're at it? >>

Ok!

<<Really? What's replacing them? Certainly not the made-up words you wrote in that post. >>

Nothing is replacing them. Whenever you have an excess of something, replacement is not needed. And correct, the words I cite in my post are certainly not replacing them. I don't you to tell me that (@sshole). And they're nto made-up, Genius, they are in fact real words, albeit archaic/obsolete or revived words attested in older forms of English.

(bastard)

<<I think it's a small penis thing. They wanna be able to say "we have a pure language so it doesn't matter". >>

Yeah, we wanna be like all those French f*ckers with small members.

<<"I think it's a small penis thing. They wanna be able to say "we have a pure language so it doesn't matter"."

Haha, that's it! >>

LOL, you've got that on lock don't you ;]

Some real fruitcakes in here.

<<Some real fruitcakes in here. >>

Oh Yeah?
Is your name really "Darky"?

"Darky". Geeze

<<Really? What's replacing them? Certainly not the made-up words you wrote in that post.>>

He also made up a story called Beowulf. You can find it on the internet and it has a whole bunch of other words he made up.

<<He also made up a story called Beowulf. You can find it on the internet and it has a whole bunch of other words he made up.>>

JohnnyC you are an idiot as usual. Beowulf *is* a made up person. Just because he's on the internet does not make him real. Or any more real than the words he made up in that post. FYI so called old English usually means the language you hear in old Hollywood films where they say *say* and *why* before they talk and they say *why i oughtta* all the time. It's 3 stooges talk.

How do you say "5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol" in PURE ENGLISH?

I don't think you can say it without using some words that are related to bacteria or germs. Since pre-latinate English predates microscopes I don't think there's a way to express concepts related to microscopic creatures like bacteria. You could say "bugkiller" but it wouldn't be accurate. Hell I don't think anyone here has sufficiently defined "pure English".

How do you say 'nuclear magnetic resonance imaging' in PURE ENGLISH?

I myself think that this kind of approach is rather extreme, and honestly I do not see the purpose in trying to purge English of either extremely technical Romance or Latinate vocabulary which really is not replaceable through Germanic forms or extremely nativized Romance or Latinate words. A more realistic approach that can actually be practiced is to not use Romance or Latinate when there are surviving Germanic forms that can fit the same function sufficiently, even in technical writing. This is much more doable than trying to resurrect lost Germanic words, and is far more doable than trying to create Germanic equivalents for forms like "5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol".

All this talk about using Germanic words but I've yet to see one proper example...

Can someone show me how to write in an intelligent way while avoiding unnecessary Latinates?

The matter is that such would require at least significantly modifying the literary register one uses, as most people these days, myself included, are used to using literary registers which are highly Romance and Latinate in nature compared to most everyday speech. Of course, such is easier said than done in practice in itself.

<<Since pre-latinate English predates microscopes I don't think there's a way to express concepts related to microscopic creatures like bacteria.>>

Wow. You don't see the mis-steps in the logic of the statement you just made??

They are just fabricated words. Latin and Greek also predate microscopes, but that didn't stop people from making up words (like 'micro-scope') to name all those things with roots from those languages.

The same can easily be done with anglo-saxon roots.