Re: Latin - English derivatives, German

> >Yes. German is more genuinely Germanic. So it is a much
> >better source of information when studying Germanic
> >languages.
>
> Perhaps. But one has to take into consideration that...
> "what gives", namely that in German there is an apparatus
> of morphologic possibilities still alive and kickin', that
> is of greater help than in e.g. Romance languages and English
> to build new words by translating (lehnübersetzen). And
> this was exercised on purpose by generations of intellectuals
> who dealt with a sort of purification of the language, esp.
> betw. the 18th-20th c. (Just take a few texts of the 18th
> century, you'll be amazed how many Fremdwörter, esp.
> French, you'll find in them.)

I agree, of course. I was just talking about the current situation.

>
> OTOH, modern German is fulla Fremdwörter though (many
> of them English; some even invented by Germans: "handy"
> = chell(ular) phone :-)

And this sounds funy to English-speakers.

Eva