AnWulf: "Ængelfolc you should certainly have your own blog for Ænglisc."

correction: "Also, that is not to say that the origin of the food, thing, or thought shouldn't carry its native name."

@jayles: "...words like "banana" and "potato" would be sensible."

They are, although many tongues have their own word (albeit usually a regional one): Polish "ziemniak"; German "Erdapfel (which was also used to tell about a 'globe'), Erdbirne, Grundbirne; Dutch "Aardappel"; Icelandic "jarðepli"; Swedish "jordpäron"; Nynorsk/ Bokmål ‬"jordeple" and others.

Think about this: the French word today is "Pomme de terre"; in the 16th c. the French said "Cartoufle" (cf. other German, Ślůnski, Danish, Russian, Icelandic words for "potato").

Banana can be said in many other ways like "Adamsfeige", "Paradeisfeige" (German, sometimes Dutch), "bjúgaldin" (Icelandic-rare), among others.

But, I guess what is easy and common prevails---especially when a word is decided on globally. Also, that is not to say that the origin of the food, thing, or thought should carry its native name. There is something to be said for that. It fits in with what I have said before: "Der Träger der Kultur sei die Sprache".

Cheers!

@dogreed: "This site concerns itself with English..."

While the site www.painintheenglish.com does deal with English, these rolling remarks within this site deal with the question of Anglish and its relevance to English growth and development.

@dogreed:

Thank you for asking, but I don't know why you are asking me this. Read my writings on this blog for the answers you seek. "Global-English" (being the World Lingua Franca) is a real issue for English. I'd say that is one of the greatest issues of English today. And, it goes way beyond the corruption of the tongues itself; there are socio-economic overtone's to deal with. What's more, English's "global language status" comes at the great expense of other languages, threatening other tongues survival---English included.

"Living languages" are to gain new vocabularies and ideas; there is no strife about this. To my mind, "living language" does not mean "take on as many and as much of all other languages in the World", in the misguided notion that diversity, acceptance, and cultural understanding will be achieved. These ideas are both dangerous and foolish.

Furthermore, I am not an "Anglisher", rather I am for English (Ænglisc). I am with you about "Anglish"; I have likened it to Tolkien's "Elvish".

Please expound on your question. Thanks.

@jayles: "...the entire concept of a "pure" language is misplaced. Yes we don't want to be flooded with unnecessary borrowings, but words like "banana" and "potato" would be sensible."

Yes, I am of the same mind as you. I guess that everyone means something different by "pure", but it is folly none-the-less. Indeed, Anglo-Saxon (before the 7th century) had few Latin loans that it got through trade before they came to Brittania because of where their homeland sat. They were too far out of Rome's reach.

Once the Anglo-Saxon's came over, the Celtic speakers helped to add about 200 Latin words (like street) to the A.S. wordstock (although, only a few Celtic words such as 'whiskey', 'flannel', 'bog', and a few others).

"Language Purity" movements are not uncommon. You mentioned the Hungarians, but also the Danes had an aggressive movement against French in the 18th and 19th centuries. German did, too, against Latin (and it was successful). English has had several movements over the last 700-800 years off and on. I am all for it, if it thoughtfully gets rid of unnecessary foreign influence.

Technical borrowings needn't be foreign. A good 'byspell' is Television. In German today, one can say "die Television". I find that terrible. There is nothing wrong with "das Fernsehen" or "der Fernseher". Icelandic has "sjónvarp". In German, we also say "der Rundfunk" for radio, broadcasting. Icelandic says "útvarp". AUTO is German (can be said auto), but the true word is "der Kraftwagen". Others in German are: cellular/mobile phone "das Handy"; airplance "das Flugzeug"; computer "der Rechner"; photograph "die Aufnahme, das Bild"; electricity "der Strom", asf. So, technology words do not have to necessarily be borrowed.

"...my made-in-Australia car and discovered "OPEL " on the engine..." You must have a HOLDEN (Opel is branded as Vauxhall in England)! Let me add "insult to injury": Opel is subsidiary of General Motors. ;-)

Something else interesting about the Polish tongue fitting to this blog:

According to Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, "Unabridged Polish dictionaries presently contain some 200,000 entries; one-third of these are foreign adaptations, while about one-fourth are still close to Old Slavonic words."

Seems Polish suffers from the same thing!

@jayles: I cannot speak about Russian, but I do know the Slavic words for beech, larch, and yew trees are borrowed from Germanic.

I do speak Polish (not well, but enough). French sway is easily heard, since Polish has a lot of likeness to French in it's fricatives and nasal vowels. Also, there are a lot of Germanic and French words in Polish. Some German words are: 'chleb'

This link isn't about English, but I think it fitting here. It also underscores what I mean by "Der Träger der Kultur sei die Sprache".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110604/ap_on_re_us/us_postcard_the90_year_dictionary_project

1) I guess one could use "loft" or "heaven" instead of "sky". SKY, however, still means "the upper air; the upper atmosphere of the earth". I don't see it as a stretch for this sense. Words for "air" tend to be words like wind, brightness, sky in I.E. tongues anyway. AIR is a very old borrowing from around 12-1300, where it began to edge out O.E. lyft, luft (today's loft), so maybe it's okay.

AIRCRAFT, AIRWAY, AIR WAR are all Latin-Germanic compounds. We could have Flightcraft, Flightway, and Flight War instead, right? "Airs and Graces"? Isn't that like "pomp and circumstance"? Who needs that? This sense is from the French from 17th/18th c. I would call it "grandstanding and comeliness" or "flaunting and loveliness" or "showboating and lithesomeness", if asked. Why can't one "freshening or drying cupboard" ('cupboard' is another Latin-Germanic compound)?

2) Things would have to change, and other words made or used to tell about these things (if English were to change, of course).

3) How about "war-runebreaker" or "? ;-)

4) I've never heard of this. Isn't this just a "butcher"? Not only did early Saxons enjoy it, but almost all Germanic folks--- still in Germany today. Also, never heard of the tool you mentioned either.

"I also notice they still want Russian as a language." Well, Russia is in the news again, and not in good way. Russian is in good company with the other tongues mentioned. I never learned Russian; maybe I should start.