Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

jayles

Member Since

August 12, 2010

Total number of comments

748

Total number of votes received

228

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Latest Comments

“Anglish”

  • April 16, 2013, 5:05pm

Which brings us to the following:
1) There are words like "asset" and "item" which though having roots in Latin/French, have not just been borrowed straighforwardly; are more akin to new mintage. We cannot baldly root out all latinate words willy-nilly; and not allow that English had no growth of itself from 1066 onwards. If these are truely needed borrowings then they are no better or worse than other borrowings like "potato", "tomato", "bazaar" and so on.
2) If English borrowed 600 or so words from Latin before 1066 (like shrive, offer and so on), then why must we toss out all and every Latinate borrowing after 1066? Forsooth, we should allow everyday borrowings at the same rate after 1066, not those unwillingly stamped upon English by the overlords or academics, but those which filled a gap, where there is no straightforward ME word of the same meaning, or where the ME word has now died utterly. For instance "debit" and "credit".
3) This still leaves words like "liabilities" (in the bookkeeping meaning), which are more technical in meaning and hard to instead. ("Beholdens" ??)

“Anglish”

  • April 16, 2013, 4:46pm

@AnWulf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambton_Worm

Chorus
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs, (=Be quiet, boys, shut your mouths)
An' aa'll tell ye aall an aaful story, (=I'll tell you all an awful)
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An' Aa'll tel ye 'boot the worm.

I heard this sung off the cuff by the Newcastle lads in about 1960.
Hardly understood a word......

“Anglish”

  • April 14, 2013, 9:13pm

@Ængelfolc: Collocations (or "set wordstrings") are noteworthy when learning or teaching English: one needs to know the wonted string before straying therefrom. (Likewise in German, one needs to know "eine Entsscheidung" + "treffen" [rather than +machen] before going further). Awareness of set wordstrings is just a teaching tool. Nothing to stop you stepping outside the box though, if you know what you are doing.

I liked the "wan" words.

“Hope had grown grey hairs,
Hope had mourning on,
Trenched with tears, carved with cares,
Hope was twelve hours gone.”
(GMHopkins)
Teacher's mark: Quite well done but should have "stounds" instead of hours
Must try harder ! B-

“Anglish”

  • April 12, 2013, 4:52pm

@ Anwulf thanks for your help

“Anglish”

  • April 11, 2013, 11:53am

@Gallitrot yes betell is stil in the wordbook but unlike German it never meant to pay in English it seems. "Tell" still has the meaning of "count", as in "tally" but not "pay". "Yield" still has the meaning "pay" in the wordbook and works for me in "She yielded me $100" but not in "She yielded for lunch". (Sounds like I paid for lunch and she yielded!)
When talking of gelt "Yield" is mosly used to mean "produce a return" on an stakeholding, so the is room for much muddling. "be-yield" ???

“Anglish”

  • April 10, 2013, 8:16pm

@Anwulf "payroll is good and short but one could note 'wagelist'"
In truth "wagelist" is mostly good but does not sit well in the wordstring "payroll software", where 'payroll' inholds all the reckoning and scot-unfree withholdings, that is a software-linked meaning. (see wiktionary.org for the othersome meanings). It's a shame that 'scot-free' still lives on but 'scot' has died ... it would be muddled with Scot. As for pay itself, 'he yielded the bill' ?? Sounds as if he handed over the bill rather than the gelt. But there seems little else ... ME schotten died too.

“Anglish”

  • April 10, 2013, 12:44pm

deadly deathly mortal lethal fatal - is this "enrichment" or just overkill?
What new meaning-shades do mortal/letal/fatal bring in?

“Anglish”

  • April 7, 2013, 6:34pm

folytatodik: it's all cultural you see - de gustibus non est disputandum, multo in parvo, paulatim ergo certe, gloria in excelsis, kyrie eleison - it's all greek to me.... who needs Saxon?

“Anglish”

  • April 7, 2013, 6:24pm

@Ængelfolc Whilst teaching in Central Europe, I sometimes pointed out that there is an alternative to head-on rebuttal; alternatively one can stand alongside the other person, acknowledge the world as they see it, and only then begin to show them the way to one's own little world. The latter often works better with some English people.

“Anglish”

  • April 7, 2013, 6:14pm

@WW oh dear! I did not wish to nettle you. Many of the points you make are quite valid.
It seems to me sometimes that what we have here is more of an anti-establishment or anti-academic protest or outlet than a nationalistic feeling.
I am not anti-Latin - indeed I wrote an email in Latin a few months ago - it's just not very useful unless one is a priest, medic, or botanist. Nor am I a great fan of German - it's just very Teutonic! My real interest lies more in Russian and Hungarian (despite the Jobbik). However delving into the roots of English has made me more aware when teaching: for instance, "when push comes to shove" - push from French and shove like schieben in German.
Na zdrowie!