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The roots of English

PiercedPixie2

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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:20 pm

Of course everyone knows that English is a melting pot of so many languages!
Today my sister came by and gave me a book i wanted to share with all of you ^^;;

'The Roots of English' by Robert Clairborne

The back of the book you look up words, and it gives you a root.
You then go to the front and look up the root, and then it tells you the origin :3

Its honestly the most detailed word origin i've had.

Random words and the desc.

* Persuade (SWAD) - Latin Derived, suadere advise 'recommend as pleasant'

* Catch (KAP) - Latin Derived, capere to take, to seize.

Does anyone else have books/literature which deserve praise on the roots of English, or the roots of linguistics in general?

Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:00 am

I have a book called The Story of French that my french teacher gave me on prize day at my school..its actually very interesting..it tells you all about hte history of the french language, how its changed over the years and how its been influenced, and gives tons of exanples of english words taken from french (which is actually about half of our language anyway =])

i'd totaly recomend it to anyone...now i know that the academie francais is bullshit and all they do is sit around and make a dictionary..and by the time theyre done, it's already out of date...lol