@jayles: ""I was wondering if you could save a schwarzbrot for me." Response: "VVVhy do you always VVVunder???"" LOL! That's too much! This way of speaking seems unsettled and wavering. It lacks heart/boldness from my standpoint.

Why should there be anything wrong with saying:

"Please save a Schwarzbrot for me."

"Excuse me, when is the bus coming?"

Why do these sentences come across as too sharp? They are more blunt, but that makes them better understood, feelings aside.

One of the things that I have found to be true, talking about too many loans in English, is muddled, murky meanings.

Well, we are all frank Franks! That's what I meant to say.

"I'm terribly sorry sir, but you seem to have come to the wrong counter. I was wondering if you would like to go over to the other one please".

It is overwhelmingly wordy!! Are so many words a "must" in England? Really?! Although, the whole sentence (word-string) is English, save "counter" (L) and "please" (L). Good show, jayles!!

German is much more direct. This sometimes comes up in my English (or whatever tongue I am speaking). It is one of the reasons why Germans are often called "rude" or "abrasive", even when they are not. We're all FRANK! LOL

@jayles:

Or better yet...

"The new hire must work without oversight."

Why make it too wordy with "able"? Isn't having the "ability" assumed in this example? Isn't it more to the point?

@jayles:

"The new hire must be able to work without oversight."

"Job" is only Celtic if one accepts it to be from Irish "gob" (lump), but it has not yet been borne out as true. What is known is that "Job" is from Mid.Eng. jobbe "piece, article (of work); a cartload" > Wow! It is a mongrel name if I ever read one! 2/5 Germanic, 2/5 Latin, 1/5 Celtic. Something for everyone!

"...clearly autonomously is closer to independently, and "on your own" might mean "alone"."

It seems that "on your own" can mean "autonomously" or "alone". Why is it "clearly" closer to independent? The two meanings of the phrase do not take away from the either meaning in context. One could consider "on your own" to mean autonomously and "by yourself" to mean alone, right?

"The new hire must be able to work by himself, without too much oversight."

Yes, cut away the unneeded loans!

"One has to wonder if those nuances are there because there was a real need for it or are the there just because of our perceptions."

It is the way English speakers were taught to understand a single words shades of meaning, as well as, how the words were used by the folks everyday; This is how meanings shift.

I do not think that "latinate words have a very specific and irreplicable meaning, nuance, or neutrality" at all. English speakers were taught (through academics and living amongst French speakers and clergy) that these words had this kind of worth. I guess the truth of it hangs on through which window one looks out from.

My 2 Marks.

@AnWulf: "English has a lot words of French origin"

The thing is, is that many words that are taken as "French" (Latin/Gaulish) are really "Frankish" (Germanic), and in some cases "Scandinavian" (Old Danish, Norwegian, asf).

@AnWulf: "I'll go on your word that "try" is old Frank and possibly Germanic ..."

It is seemingly more and more likely that "try" it is from Frankish. Some say that "try" is from Gallo-Roman *triare, but is "of unknown origin". Yet others stop at the Old French word trier (‘separate, sift’) as the root. Still others write that it is from Vulgar Latin *trītāre (p.p. of Latin terere (to rub). When one, however, puts a little elbow grease into the research, one can find the truth of it all. Looking at all of the root meanings, it becomes clear that the root is in all likelihood PGmc *tiranan, *tirōnan (“to tear, separate from..., tear apart”). The Old French trier, whence English "try" meant “to choose, pick out, separate from..., sift, cull”.

In years gone by, academics always believed a French/Normaund word to have a Gaulish-Latin root. Today, those old findings are being found to be untrue in many, many cases. Take the word 'farm'. It was always said to come from Latin firmo, firmus, firmāre, but this is not so.

As it happens, the Romans borrowed Germanic *fermō, *ferhumō, whence firmo, firmus, firmāre. Latin lestagium is from Old English last; L. bannus