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Subject:Re: Latin vs. Germanic From:Barry Batorsky <bbatorsky -at- ADMIN -dot- NJ -dot- DEVRY -dot- EDU> Date:Fri, 1 Aug 1997 11:03:39 -0400
Well, it's not that Germanic is gutteral, it's a longer, older story, I
think. More like what you said, "when someone wants to sound 'schooled' they
use Latin words such as 'manual.' By contrast, a person trying to speak
more commonly would choose 'book.'" It goes back to the Norman v.
Anglo-Saxon thing. We still use the English/French thing in law, where the
need for all the population to understand was the issue, for example "last
will and testament". Same source, I think, for the sense that the French
(read Latin) root is more sophisticated, the Germanic (read Middle Enlish,
or Early Modern, I'm not sure) is vernacular. I think it might be a fact as
much as a feeling.
Barry Batorsky
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