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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1
stranger
stranger
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1
Vis a vis budget being a mongrel word that went into english from french, was transformed and then went back into french with a new sense, when the Romans conquered England, many Latin words came into English, of course, but several English words went into Latin and then came back into English as Latin words. I simply don't understand why the French get upset when words from other languages enter theirs.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Not quite sure what a mongrel is. It seems from the way you're using it, it's what historical linguists call a loanword. I can't think of any words that went from English into Latin and then back into English. When the Romans were in Britain, the tribes who later became the English were still mucking about in Jutland and NW Germany. Latin had pretty much ceased to be a first language by the time that Old English is recorded (e.g., roughly the 7th century CE). The French may be upset by it, but their language has lots of loanwords, besides the base vocabulary from Latin: e.g., a few Gaulish words, Frankish words, Spanish and Italian words, some from Provencal. As for budget, it seems to have come into English via Norman French, which got it from Latin. The Romans had borrowed a Celtic word; I'm not sure if this word was from Gaulish or some other Continental Celtic.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.

Moderated by  Jackie 

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