Re: [tied] Re: PIE *kwokt

From: P&G
Message: 19428
Date: 2003-02-28

>Normally a speaker should not make any
> difference more when using a word, about the origin of this word. Once a
> word entered the language and become used, it is treated as an "own"
> word

Leaping sideways from this theme, it is interesting to observe that there
rules within some languages which treat some words differently according to
a grouping which sometimes reflects their origin. For example English
makes -o- compounds with Latin and Greek words, but not with Germanic
(spatio-temporal, historico-geographic Judaeo-Christian etc). I am not
claiming that speakers "know" the origin of words, only that they know that
some words do this and others don't.

Can we think up other examples of how English treats words from different
sources differently?

Peter