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Subject:RE: Wanted: Opinions on a grammar book From:mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com To:Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:55:12 -0500
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sarah Bouchier [mailto:Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com]
>
> >For the topside price of $55 I expect it to be good and
> heavy, so I can
> >also
> >drop it on their feet with good effect.
>
> Useful monitor stand, too.
>
> >It scares _me_! Looks like somebody had 'way too many
> Saturday nights
> with
> >nothing better to do, and too many years of Classical Latin.
>
> Which is especially a shame as English is a Germanic language...
<musings>
I've never been terribly impressed with that distinction.
I'm sure it's useful for linguists, and is of historical
interest, but how useful is it to "the rest of us"?
I never had classical latin training, though I think I'd be
a better writer if I had. It seems that the vast
majority of words and meanings that I encounter, or that
I try to derive in context, are based on Latin roots,
with Greek a distant second, then everything else way, way
back in the dust. After (my favorite) "shadenfreude" [sp?]
and of course, gestalt and zeitgeist, how many more words
do we commonly use in English that derive primarily from
German(ic) roots? I'm not trying to reveal my ignorance
here, I'm talking in terms of a handy-dandy lay-person's
reference that you could pick up for ten bucks at the
used book store, equivalent to such a book dealing with
Latin and Latin-derived words.
Yes, yes, structure and grammar (not so much), but once you get
the basics of those down, what you keep learning and expanding
all your life is your vocabulary. And for that, I have lots
more use for Latin than German. I'd have no use at all for
a book in-and-about the ancient root language(s) from which
precursors of modern German and modern English once branched.
Well.... guess the catholic church was good for something
after all. :-)
Hmm. Does the college bookstore carry Latin-connected English
reference books from the Vatican press? You'd think...
I should ask that over in CE-L - Hal from down-under would
know.
Kevin </musings>
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