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Sunday, January 20, 2019
Fact of the Day: Largest Vocabulary
Due to the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Old French/Latin based words, English (a Germanic language) has the most words of any language.
But we give back too. English words are infiltrating into a lot of other language -- even back into French itself, much to the annoyance of French purists.
Arabic doesn't have such a strong tendency to absorb words from other languages as English does. In fact, as languages go, Arabic has an unusually low number of foreign loan words. Aside from French, English has absorbed a vast amount of Latin and Greek roots which are our main source of new technical terms. The English-speaking world is a major center of cultural and technological innovation and is constantly generating new words for all the new things it creates. The Arabic word-formation system is potentially very productive, but it doesn't have the same occasion to generate many new words for things.
Hi! I think so too.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! However, I've heard that Finnish has the most words for different kind of snow, hah! :)
ReplyDeletexxx
E from Helsinki, Finland
http://www.elisabethrundlof.com/
No wonder it confuses many
ReplyDeleteInteresting, love that lettering
ReplyDeleteWe steal from everybody!
ReplyDeleteBut we give back too. English words are infiltrating into a lot of other language -- even back into French itself, much to the annoyance of French purists.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Arabic?
ReplyDeletehttps://en.rehitu.com
Arabic doesn't have such a strong tendency to absorb words from other languages as English does. In fact, as languages go, Arabic has an unusually low number of foreign loan words. Aside from French, English has absorbed a vast amount of Latin and Greek roots which are our main source of new technical terms. The English-speaking world is a major center of cultural and technological innovation and is constantly generating new words for all the new things it creates. The Arabic word-formation system is potentially very productive, but it doesn't have the same occasion to generate many new words for things.
DeleteI really wondered why English was such a frikked-up language. I guess we can blame the French :-D
ReplyDeleteYou've barely scratched the origin of all the words in English.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't surprise me.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing to know.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I speak it. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd such a pity that English speaking world "so-called" leaders can't put a sentence together correctly! I wonder to whom I refer??????????????
ReplyDeleteColin
This is definitely interesting!
ReplyDeleteMany of students were Mexican and trying to teach English was crazy. I told them that English is a big pot of stew.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting to know, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
English has some crazy rules....must be hard to learn.
ReplyDelete