English is a mishmash of dozens of different languages - just as the English people are derived from many different racial and ethnic groups. There are a lot of terms which are derived from Latin (or Latin-based languages, particularly French which was imported by the Normans in the 1066 invasion). My guess is that many of these were introduced either because the existing language had no sufficiently precise term, or (legal/scientific/medical terminology) carefully chosen to "prove" that the person that used such high-falutin' words was educated. Greek was probably even better!
Intersting view. But you forgot to mention the Romans colonized England and that's probably where the first "intake" comes from. The ancient Greek mathematics heritage has also reached us through Latin in Middle Age (through few original versions and Arabic texts translated for the "Europeans", starting with Fibonacci. You should not regard the use of Latin as a posh, well educated privilege, but rather as an enrichment, as if you had mastered Tibetan... And I think it still does help knowing some of it in Science and Medicine, it did help me! English is very useful in that there are so many different words meaning almost but not quite the same thing that you can, with care, make yourself understood very precisely. It's exasperating that the process of change continues. If you ever try to read medieval English (e.g. Chaucer) you will find the language almost unrecognisable; early English (pre-1066) is even worse, modern Dutch is probably easier to decode assuming you haven't studied either Dutch or early English. Most languages (even Italian) possess these features, but nowadays more and more people seems to gain a poor knowledge of their own language so that being "precisely understood" is becoming difficult (I wonder if you are experiencing the same in Britain)! I read some ancient English texts (Donne, Chaucer, Shakespeare) and also ancient French texts and have found them fascinating : every language evolves (Latin did evolve at its time) as mankind evolves (well, ...), now most people of different countries correspond in English as they were corresponding in Latin or French before, and one day perhaps people shall correspond in Chinese or Icelandic (who knows?). Well, sorry if I have annoyed you and the other list subscribers with this issue when we should be talking primes... I got carried away !!! Kind regards, Eugenia Naviga e telefona senza limiti con Tiscali Scopri le promozioni Tiscali adsl: navighi e telefoni senza canone Telecom http://abbonati.tiscali.it/adsl/ _______________________________________________ Prime mailing list [email protected] http://hogranch.com/mailman/listinfo/prime
