Date: Mon, 25 Mar 96 15:20:19 MET From: Greg Lehey <lehey.pad@sni.de> To: mrami@minerva.cis.yale.edu Cc: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: ports/editors/bpatch/pkg COMMENT Message-ID: <199603251423.PAA14933@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960325082856.1609N-100000@mramirez.sy.yale.edu>; from "Marc Ramirez" at Mar 25, 96 8:40 am
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>> The worst English has in this field is that its irregular verbs are >> being used in about 50 % of all verbs (my rough estimation). > > That seems at odds with the oft-touted statistic that eighty-someodd > percent of English vocabulary is of Latin origin. Or do you mean 50% > of usage? That could easily be true... I'd take that claim (the 80%) with a pinch of salt. First, you need to define what the English vocabulary is. I've forgotten the exact number, but I read recently that the latest edition of the OED has about 200,000 words. I'd be quite prepared to believe that 160,000 of them are of Latin origin. But if you take the day-to-day vocabulary, it's much lower. Take this message (so far), for example: a German about all German are German at German be German being German believe German but claim Latin could German day German define Latin do German easily edition Latin eighty German english German estimation Latin exact Latin example Latin far German field German first German for German forgotten German has German i German if German in German irregular Latin is German latest German latin Latin lower German mean German message Latin much German my German need German number Latin odds of German oft German or German origin Latin percent Latin pinch prepared Latin quite read German recently Latin rough German salt seems German so German statistic Latin take German that German the German them German this German to German touted true German usage Latin used Latin verbs Latin vocabulary Latin what German with German words German worst German you German In this list, I have 19 words of Latin origin and 47 of German origin. Take a simpler discussion and you'll find that even a higher percentage is of German origin (look at the words and you'll see why). I can't easily decide where the words without an attribution come from, but there aren't that many. Greg
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199603251423.PAA14933>