The intention of Anglish is: English with many fewer words borrowed from other tongues. Because of the fundamental modifications to our language, to say that English individuals at present speak Modern English is like saying that the French speak Latin. The very fact is that we now speak an international language. The Anglish project is intended as a way 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, however largely it is to explore and experiment with the English language. This exploration is driven for some by aesthetics, for the ethnic English by cultural needs, and but for others it is only an fascinating diversion or pastime. Language performs a big position in our lives, so to be able to play with that language, and form it to our own wants or desires is very important. For this reason, writing or talking in true English is a positive end in itself, in as much as it provides an different outlet for this need.
But there’s additionally the further idea that Anglish is a recognition and a celebration of the English part of contemporary English. For, although it has borrowed thousands and 1000’s of words throughout its life, there still exists a real English core to English, the most important everyday words which no sentence or uttering could handle without. By stripping away the layers of borrowings, Anglish lets us better admire that core and the role it performs in our language.
The most effective way to seek 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 how it was used or written within the past. Some on-line dictionaries have this knowledge as well, such because 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 one of the best available online.
But these will only tell from the place and when a word came into English, however not whether it needs to be thought ‘borrowed’. Some immensely old and really fundamental words, reminiscent of ‘cup’ and ‘mill’, are indeed borrowed from Latin, but nobody would say these words should not English. Conversely, words like ‘thaumaturgy’ and ‘intelligentsia’ are clearly not of English origin, and have been borrowed comparatively lately.
The place to draw the line between English and ‘borrowed’ is but an other space of personal choosing, and there are many views on this amongst Anglish proponents. A very broad rule says that anything borrowed from French, Latin and Greek in the last eight hundred years should be thought borrowed. A more discerning view would say that any word which was brought into English to fill a genuine need or hole in vocabulary ought to be kept, however these words borrowed to “adorn” or “enrich” the language but in reality push out existing words, should be weeded.
Are there really that many borrowed words in English?
Yes. English is renowned for having borrowed so many words from completely different languages over the past thousand years. The core of English is Germanic, but only about 25% of the words in English immediately derive from such a root, and that features these of Norse, Dutch, German and others, as well as English. That will sound like many, one in each 4 words, but not a lot when one thinks that Latin and French each account for 29% of the English vocabulary. Greek yields an other 6% of words, with the last 10% being from different languages, derived from personal names, or simply unknown.
However, 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 numerous roots for words to replace 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 easily be switched for ‘on a regular basis’ and ‘unlawful’ without losing which means or intelligibility. When there’s not a readily available English word to be used, a new word have to be found or made. Some old or obscure words could be introduced back to life and reused; new words can be calqued from English morphemes utilizing the old word’s sample; other occasions wholly new words, “neologisms,” can be put collectively from existing words and affixes. None of these strategies are proper or fallacious, however every has its stead in making a wide and varied lexicon for Anglish, and every is used based on the context and particular wants of a word.