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What Makes a Word English?
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What Makes a Word English? |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
At dictionary.com (whose source is The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language) we find yin and yang. Just because these words are in the english dictionary, do you consider them "English"? What do you think makes a word "English"? |
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Kaos Member
since 2001-08-02
Posts 317between space and time |
aren't most english words some kind of derrivative of latin? or am i supposed to be seeing something else here? well, that wouldn't work would it... b/c there's slang terminology to every language and they're a derrivative of nothing more than the lingo of that particular area? "Do not go gentle into that good night, |
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Michael
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666California |
Hmmm... Wonder if deja vu is found there. Haven't we been through this before? /pip/Forum8/HTML/000600.html |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
Repetition is the mother of learning. |
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steavenr Member Elite
since 2003-11-17
Posts 4058 |
“A wird (sic) is considered American English if it can be misspelled, mispronounced or mishandled in form, function, or fashion by users of differing dialects, deflections, or diacritical parsings. It may be monosyllabic, ethno-syllabic, neo- or classic syllabic, but must never be syllabic-syllabic. They may be rhymed or unrhymed, capitalized or socialistic, recognized parts of speech. The same word in English English is acceptable only when ‘propah’.” --copied from “When is a Word English, for Dummies” copyright 2009 sorry (he winks slyly) … I couldn’t resist… |
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Grinch Member Elite
since 2005-12-31
Posts 2929Whoville |
When a word is commonly used and the meaning understood by a majority of English speaking people it becomes part of the English language. It then tends to be misspelled, mispronounced and misused by Americans. (this is a joke no lynch mobs PLEASE)  |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
"it becomes part of the English language" Yes, a foreign part |
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ecrivan Member Elite
since 2001-12-10
Posts 3923my own state |
That English is not an exact science, has been said before. It has become modifed over time because of the influences exerted by the populations that inherited it along the way much the same way that French has become modified in Quebec and is distinct from it's Parisian base. English has it's Anglo-Saxon root which along with an influence of Latin and to a lesser extent other European languages, brought about the language used in the Middle Ages. Words crossed over from the French, the Spaniards the Danes not to mention other peoples, as cultures mixed and conflicts occurred. As time progresses words are adopted from cultures external to where the language originated much like the word "kiosk" became used as a word for newstand in Canada but wasn't prevalent in the 1920's. As a greater number of people began to use the word it gained more popularity and was 'adopted' into the English language, Canadian English that is. |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
But the English language still has its own "science" and the pieces or words thereof are still by far based most on that science, distinct in their formation, grammar, sounds, syllable-length, from foreign ways, that is in a specific dialectal way, because they are a specific dialect or group of dialects of Germanic known as English. "Paternal' simply isn't English in the same way fatherly is. Spiritual isn't English in the same way ghostly is, even if it is used more and more familiar to us now a days. Nor is Card- in Cardiogram or Cord- in cordial the same as the word heart, even though they come from the same root, and mean the same thing. One is a Greekish form, the other is the latinish, and the third is English for the word that means "heart" So even though foreign words may be part of the science, and even part of our English science, doesn't mean they are the same as those that come directly from English and English's roots. |
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