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Subject:RE: Who is an ESL writer? From:Slager Timothy J <Timothy -dot- Slager -at- dematic -dot- com> To:John Allred <john2 -at- allrednet -dot- com>, Fred Ridder <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com> Date:Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:07:59 +0000
Fred makes his point well. But by including "words" he shows a penchant for arguing. A shared Indo-European root does not make a word Latin-based. It is silly to imply otherwise.
Lauren might have done well to distinguish between later Latin and that coming through Old or Middle English, but her point is well taken and for the most part good advice.
tims
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+timothy -dot- slager=dematic -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+timothy -dot- slager=dematic -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of John Allred
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:25 AM
To: Fred Ridder
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Who is an ESL writer?
Interesting observations, Fred. I took the gist of Lauren's statement to be either that there was value in simplification or that certain readers might find one family of words or the other more understandable. You capture my thoughts on English's relationship to Latin perfectly. I was just wondering, if it were possible at all, how we might disentangle them.
~John Allred
On Mar 27, 2013, at 10:07 PM, Fred Ridder <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Lauren wrote:
>
> > On 3/27/2013 5:10 PM, John Allred wrote:
> > >
> > > With no argument intended, I'm curious to know why you recommend
> > > Anglo-Saxon over Latinate words in writing for ESL readers.
> >
> > Because the words are easier to understand for various reasons, like
> > that they are simpler, more direct, and have fewer syllables.
> > Anglo-Saxon is clearer, unless the person's native language is
> > Latinate.
>
> So let's strike the Latinate words according to the origins given in M-W Collegiate (online).
> "words" is arguably out because although it comes from Middle English and Old English, it is closely related to the Latin "verbum"
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