Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 26th September 2021, 01:30 PM

I think English would be a swine of a language to learn.I'm glad I was born as a native speaker.

But it is I think a very marvelous language, a wonderful tool for communication. I am familiar with a few languages, none of the other languages I have met seem to permit the same universal precision as does English.

As to the invention of words, well it was good enough for Bill Shakespeare. Perhaps some of our personally invented words help us to remember or realise things that we otherwise would not.

But "re" is not uniquely English, it comes from early Latin and originally it meant "back" or "backwards", it now occurs in languages other than English, and in English it has a broad range of meanings. In English its attachment seems to be almost infinite.

26th September 2021, 01:30 PM	#30
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,697	I think English would be a swine of a language to learn.I'm glad I was born as a native speaker. But it is I think a very marvelous language, a wonderful tool for communication. I am familiar with a few languages, none of the other languages I have met seem to permit the same universal precision as does English. As to the invention of words, well it was good enough for Bill Shakespeare. Perhaps some of our personally invented words help us to remember or realise things that we otherwise would not. But "re" is not uniquely English, it comes from early Latin and originally it meant "back" or "backwards", it now occurs in languages other than English, and in English it has a broad range of meanings. In English its attachment seems to be almost infinite.