The purpose of Anglish is: English with many fewer words borrowed from different tongues. Because of the fundamental adjustments to our language, to say that English folks in the present day speak Modern English is like saying that the French speak Latin. The actual fact is that we now speak an international language. The Anglish project is meant as a method of recovering the Englishness of English and of restoring ownership of the language to the English people.
The goal of the Anglish project differs from individual to individual, but principally it is to discover and experiment with the English language. This exploration is pushed for some by aesthetics, for the ethnic English by cultural needs, and yet for others it is only an attention-grabbing diversion or pastime. Language performs a big position in our lives, so to be able to play with that language, and shape it to our own needs or desires may be very important. For this reason, writing or talking in true English is a positive end in itself, in as much as it provides an other outlet for this need.
However there is also the further idea that Anglish is a recognition and a celebration of the English part of modern English. For, although it has borrowed 1000’s and hundreds of words all through its life, there still exists a real English core to English, the most important everyday words which no sentence or uttering may manage without. By stripping away the layers of borrowings, Anglish lets us higher admire that core and the function it plays in our language.
The very best way to search out out where a word comes from is to look it up in a dictionary. Most decent desktop dictionaries will embody quick etymologies for a lot of of their entries, which give a little knowledge of where the word arose from, and the way it was used or written within the past. Some online dictionaries have this knowledge as well, such as the Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com and Wiktionary. There are also dictionaries dedicated to word etymologies, which are a goldmine for knowledge about English words. The On-line Etymology Dictionary is perhaps the most effective available online.
But these will only tell from where and when a word came into English, however not whether it must be thought ‘borrowed’. Some immensely old and very basic words, similar to ‘cup’ and ‘mill’, are indeed borrowed from Latin, yet nobody would say these words aren’t English. Conversely, words like ‘thaumaturgy’ and ‘intelligentsia’ are clearly not of English origin, and have been borrowed relatively lately.
Where to draw the road between English and ‘borrowed’ is yet an different space of personal selecting, and there are various views on this among Anglish proponents. A really broad rule says that anything borrowed from French, Latin and Greek in the last eight hundred years must be thought borrowed. A more discerning view would say that any word which was introduced into English to fill a real want or gap in vocabulary ought to be kept, but these words borrowed to “adorn” or “enrich” the language but in reality push out current words, needs to be weeded.
Are there truly that many borrowed words in English?
Yes. English is renowned for having borrowed so many words from different languages during the last thousand years. The core of English is Germanic, however only about 25% of the words in English at present derive from such a root, and that features those of Norse, Dutch, German and others, as well as English. Which will sound like many, one in each four words, however not so much when one thinks that Latin and French every account for 29% of the English vocabulary. Greek yields an different 6% of words, with the final 10% being from different languages, derived from personal names, or just unknown.
Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, the core of the English language still principally consists of English words, which makes an undertaking like Anglish possible.
When a word is taken out from English, where do replacement words come from?
There are many roots for words to interchange these which have been removed from English. Generally, a word which is removed will have a commonly known English synonym already present. Words like ‘quotidian’ and ‘illegal’ can simply be switched for ‘everyday’ and ‘unlawful’ without shedding which means or intelligibility. When there may be not a readily available English word for use, a new word should be found or made. Some old or obscure words might be introduced back to life and reused; new words might be calqued from English morphemes utilizing the old word’s pattern; other times wholly new words, “neologisms,” can be put together from existing words and affixes. None of these methods are proper or wrong, but each has its stead in making a wide and assorted lexicon for Anglish, and each is used in accordance with the context and particular needs of a word.