Whenever possible, use words with Germanic roots, not French

More unrelenting tosh.

Does anyone ever ask real language questions in this forum?

The vast, vast, vast majority of everyday English vocabulary is Germanic, for many Old French-derived verbs there are many Germanic-derivative phrasal verbs that are used more often in everyday speech. Using too much Latinate vocabulary in informal settings is looked down on, it's considered pretentious and snobbish.

There is only one Romance word that has been grammaticalized in English, the word "very", which is cognate with modern French "vrai"

And even in formal speech, such as Winston Chirchill's famous lines:

"we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender"

Every word except for "surrender" is Germanic, and in informal causal conversation the phrasal verb "give up" would be preferred

<<Every word except for "surrender" is Germanic, and in informal causal conversation the phrasal verb "give up" would be preferred >>

Actually, 'street' is an early Latin borrowing, but may be thought of as a Germanic word because it was borrowed at a very early stage, and is common in most Germanic languages (cf Dutch 'straat', Germ 'Strasse').

<<There is only one Romance word that has been grammaticalized in English, the word "very", which is cognate with modern French "vrai"
>>

Concerning 'very', it found favor as a replacement for earlier English 'sore' ("very", cf Dutch 'zeer', German 'sehr') which ended up sounding to much like 'so' (cf "I am sore afraid" vs. "I am so afraid"; "your answer was sore good" vs. "your answer was so good"). 'Very' meant "truly" and was extended to fill the gap left by 'sore'.
Just a nugget.

in the context of advise for writing what they are trying to say is be as direct and brief as possible. It's for research arguments and academic essays, and speeches, that you are advised to get to the point best as possible. The Old English derived words are usually, though certainly not always, the most direct and simple. It has nothing to do with affinity for one language family or another- just the goal is to get and keep the reviewers attention, and "too elegant a parlance" ultimately comes off as a shield for not having much to say. That said, prior to University, use as many big words as you want cause the teachers will probably not know what they mean and just award you for a strong vocabulary.

Now if your writing a short story or poem use whatever words you want or even make up a few.

<<<<Every word except for "surrender" is Germanic, and in informal causal conversation the phrasal verb "give up" would be preferred >>

Actually, 'street' is an early Latin borrowing, but may be thought of as a Germanic word because it was borrowed at a very early stage, and is common in most Germanic languages (cf Dutch 'straat', Germ 'Strasse'). >>

Yeah I think 'street' is still counted as a native word because it was borrowed into West Germanic and so was already a part of the English, Dutch and German languages once they had started to develop. I guess it would be comparable to counting words of Greek origin in the Romance languages as native because they were already part of the vulgar Latin language before it split into the romance languages.

<<in the context of advise for writing what they are trying to say is be as direct and brief as possible. >>

Oftentimes too, students will pad their writings with big words in a way to cover up for the fact that their writing has little or no true substance. This drives English teachers bonkers, and it's rather insulting to them, as if they wouldn't know!

<<Oftentimes too, students will pad their writings with big words in a way to cover up for the fact that their writing has little or no true substance. This drives English teachers bonkers, and it's rather insulting to them, as if they wouldn't know! >>


Not really, don't forget that high school teachers are not very smart. A smart final year student (future scientist/president/academic/etc) is usually a lot smarter than some lowly English teacher (someone who couldn't hack it and had to fall back on the last-resort "teaching option").

<<Not really, don't forget that high school teachers are not very smart. A smart final year student (future scientist/president/academic/etc) is usually a lot smarter than some lowly English teacher (someone who couldn't hack it and had to fall back on the last-resort "teaching option"). >>

Thanks, GW!
I'm glad to see your keeping yourself busy these days :)

Getting back to the original poster's question, the reason journalists and other writers in the persuasion business may have been advised to use a preponderance of Germanic terms over Latin-derived ones is that in many cases, the Germanic version has more of a visceral impact on a reader, and that is what they are going for -- the gut punch, the instant emotional connection.

Academic writers, on the other hand, may find that the latinate terms lend a certain amount of prestige and a veneer of authority and credibility to their work, as those words are somewhat more emotionally removed -- in keeping with academic objectivity -- and have indeed often been coined or borrowed explicitly for the purpose of describing academic concepts.

Ordinary people, of course, use whatever word is handy for what they want to talk about. Most people don't think about a word's origins when they are speaking; the relative effects of Germanic or latinate words are subtle and largely subliminal. And probably a good many of them are entirely neutral, regardless of origin -- there are only certain ones that these guidelines would apply to.

The divide between the two types of synonyms is largely due to the fact that while they may mean roughly the same thing, there are nuances that differ between them, and a clever writer exploits those shades of meaning to their fullest. Whether it's rational or "fair" has little to do with it; this is just the way these things shake out.

I was looking to find corroboration of the fact that Churchill's "Fight on the Beaches" speech is primarily made up of word of Germanic origin, and that "surrender" the only French or Latin descendant. Which, this website has provided, so thank you for that.

What I find vaguely hilarious, is that there are a number of people posting about the "pomp" and "formality" of one set of words (Latinate) vs another (Germanic), arguing over who is correct, or that an English speaker knows or cares about the origin of their language; effectively maintaining a relatively drawn out discussion about language and "correct" vs "proper" vs "formal" and such, and a lot of their postings are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors... "borrowded," "cause" for 'because,' there for their, consciously for conscientously -- not only a mis-spelling, but wrong word choice? Conscientiously =! consciously...

Anyway, thanks for clearing some things up, but if you're going to go off and argue about language, maybe try to proofread your bickerings? Just a thought.

<<Anyway, thanks for clearing some things up, but if you're going to go off and argue about language, maybe try to proofread your bickerings? Just a thought. >>

Around hear, polishing you're posts is'nt allways a good stratigy, since a good percentrage of them will just dissapear quickly.

pork swine pig

Swine is the classiest...
That's why we have SWINE INFLUENZA and not PIG FLU or PORK FLU.

Feelings vs Emotions
both are equally used

same for Freedom vs Liberty

in US English some Germanic words (like fall and eggplant) are preferred over French autumn and aubergine...

pork swine pig

Swine is the classiest...
That's why we have SWINE INFLUENZA and not PIG FLU or PORK FLU. //


Journalist: Hey Paris, are you afraid of the swine flu?
Paris - I don't eat that


So, in Paris case, it should be PORK FLU
lol

Logistics vs planning. Why?

Do the planners need a fancy name to make themselves feel more intelligent?