Why do some here wish that English was linguistically pure?

"Yes. Have something intelligent to say and write it.

Manytimes, English speakers and readers equate intelligence with presentation (=how it is written/spoken) rather than substance (= *what* is written /spoken)

This is a great travesty. Our language, because of the Romance influx, has leant itself to allowing mere idiots to pass as scholars simply by letting them use a lot of Latinate words.

Think about it. How do we judge whether someone or something is intelligent? By how they write/speak and the words they use. Two people could say the exact same thing (and it could be the stupidest thing at that), and we would judge the Latinate user as "intelligent" and the non-user as uneducated.

We are stupid."

Utter garbage. If someone says or writes something stupid/unintelligent it will sound stupid/unintelligent no matter how latinate words they use. I suspect your subscribing to the whole weak Romance/strong Anglo-Saxon words idea that had some currency during the ultra-nationalistic period of the 19th/20th centuries.

<<Utter garbage.>>

Sorry Man
Didn't mean to blow your cover :\

<<I suspect your subscribing to the whole weak Romance/strong Anglo-Saxon words idea that had some currency during the ultra-nationalistic period of the 19th/20th centuries. >>

No.

"Sorry Man
Didn't mean to blow your cover :\ "

No need to apologize. I can apparently bamboozle everyone into thinking I'm super-intelligent by just peppering my speech/writing with latinates. That's quite cool.

<<No need to apologize. I can apparently bamboozle everyone into thinking I'm super-intelligent by just peppering my speech/writing with latinates. That's quite cool. >>

LOL,
That's what you think (big wink;)

:)

Writing with Latinates gets me an A+ rather than an A- like my classmates who don't use them, even when my essays are worse!

Wow, our society is so shallow.

<<Writing with Latinates gets me an A+ rather than an A- like my classmates who don't use them, even when my essays are worse! >>

<<Wow, our society is so shallow. >>

Yeah, cuz we're dumb

Yah we some dumbass mofos

Without Romance words, English would be fragmented and would lose its soul. Any "big" word in English is very likely to come from a Romance language.

<<Without Romance words, English would be fragmented and would lose its soul. Any "big" word in English is very likely to come from a Romance language. >>

You mean that without "big" or "literary" type words English would be fragmented and would lose its soul (btw--that's what they said when English lost all of its original Anglo-Saxon "big" words. We managed to get along anyway didn't we? Souls are very resilient and can be recreated :)

<Any "big" word in English is very likely to come from a Romance language.>

This is a description of what *is*; not what *must be*

If you have a big issue with latin/french borrowings you ought to take it up with the scholars and scribes who borrowed them into the language during the middle ages. Maybe they can be reasoned with.

<<If you have a big issue with latin/french borrowings you ought to take it up with the scholars and scribes who borrowed them into the language during the middle ages. Maybe they can be reasoned with. >>

I'm a modern scribe. Watch me work!

What does linguistically pure mean?

It means a language that is pure.

It's not about purifying the language. It's just about trimming the excess fat, and English has a LOT of excess fat.