English's loss of Latin

Deutsch = allemand = tedeschi = alemán.

Well, a good deal of French/Latin words in English are literary and rarely used in daily life but I am sure that such words like: people, finish, use, necessary, future, basic, family, pure, fact, art, exact, real, catch, story, pass, reason, continue, change are VERY ordinary and normally used by average English speaking people in DAILY LIFE. Mixed German/Romance vocabulary is something what makes English language very interesting and rich.

P.S.: ordinary, normally, average, vocabulary, interesting, language, rarely are of Romance too, I guess. Do I sound too sophisticated? ;)

I had a look at the 500 most common words in English. Some French/Latin words were in there which I could see are quite common such as part, money, stay, hour, minute, colour, etc but there are others which I think are a bit suspect, such as Numeral, vowell, noun, equate, surface, science, distant, correct, sentence, mountain, to name but a few. I cannot talk for other people, but for me personally these are words which do not crop up that often in everyday speech, if anything, hardly ever. But saying that, the most common 500 words wouldn't be the same for every person.

Fr : <money>, <stay>, <hour>, <minute>, <colour>, <numeral>, <vowel>, <noun>, <surface>, <science>, <distant>, <sentence> & <mountain>.

La : <equate> & <correct>.




Guest : « But saying that, the most common 500 words wouldn't be the same for every person. »
Absolument !

Mais : <able>, <accident>, <accuse>, <action>, <affair>, <age>, <announce>, <annoy>, <argue>, <bacon>, <band>, <beef>, <bomb>, <budget>, <bureau>, <café>, <camp>, <cancel>, <car>, <card>, <catch>, <cause>, <centre>, <chair>, <chase>, <cheat>, <cheer>, <classic>, <comic>, <common>, <count>, <county>, <court>, <eager>, <easy>, <example>, <face>, <farm>, <fault>, <figure>, <fool>, <fork>, <foreign>, <forest>, <future> etc etc etc.

<<Mais : <able>, <accident>, <accuse>, <action>, <affair>, <age>, <announce>, <annoy>, <argue>, <bacon>, <band>, <beef>, <bomb>, <budget>, <bureau>, <café>, <camp>, <cancel>, <car>, <card>, <catch>, <cause>, <centre>, <chair>, <chase>, <cheat>, <cheer>, <classic>, <comic>, <common>, <count>, <county>, <court>, <eager>, <easy>, <example>, <face>, <farm>, <fault>, <figure>, <fool>, <fork>, <foreign>, <forest>, <future> etc etc etc. >>

Its true they are common words of Latin origin. But lets not forget, other Germanic languages also have common everyday words of Latin origin, be it through French or Latin itself.

Here are some examples from German: kaufen, Mauer, Pferd, sauber, Ziegel, kurz, Kopf, sicher, Katze, Wein, Cheese, Pflaume, Kessel, Pfund, kochen, Küche, Socke, Pfanne, Körper, kämpfen, passieren. rollen, Problem, Fehler, Tisch, Fenster, Spass, schreiben, Pflanzen, Fieber, Pfütze, Strasse, stopfen, Butter, Kirche, Dusche, Rasieren, Taille, funktionieren, telefonieren, Becher, Gummi, Münze, Karte, Zentrum, kosten, klar, Familie, Lampe, Flamme, Nichte, Neffe, Papier, Platz, rund, Onkel, Tante, Klasse, natürlich, mischen, Punkt, Regel, falsch, Staat, kontrollieren, Linie, Maschine, Musik, reparieren etc etc etc.

It seems that English is less keen to make up new words from its own roots like the other Germanic languages instead preferring to coin Greco-Latin type words. It is almost as if the English language hates itself.

>>It is almost as if the English language hates itself.<<

It's more like you hate the English language.

On the contrary, I love the English language. I just wished it loved itself a bit more and kept faith with its own wordstock instead of using foreign words for new concepts.

The concept of "foreign words" is of course quite double, after all once it is use used within English vocabulary, then it simply is English. A loan maybe, but English nontheless.

Point is that every language uses words from other languages (the romance languages are probably one of the best examples) and that isn't a crime.

Its not a crime of course, but it does have its disadvantages. Like having to learn a totally different and unfamiliar vocabulary as you progress through the language. One example is adjective forms for animals. Until a few days ago I wouldn't have been able to tell you what 'Vulpine' meant. But if a word like 'Foxlike' was used instead the meaning would have been much more clearer. It is like Barnes wrote 'Whenever we happen to conceive a thought above that of a plough-boy, or produce anything beyond a pitch-fork, we are obliged to borrow a word from others before we can utter it'.

I really don't see the problem here, in German for example one uses quite a lot of loans when the "level" rises. It's not unique to English and it's not a real problem.