Re: Estimation of latin words in German


benlizross wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote:

benlizross wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote:

Oliver Cromm wrote:
* benlizro@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

For a list of them you might try one of the dictionaries of
"Fremdworter". German seems to have rather strict linguistic
immigration policies -- words can be considered "foreign" even if they
have been in common use in German for centuries, or even if they were
born there, if their parents were foreign (Anthroposophie, Dadaismus).

The immigration rules in English may be laxer, but the foreign ones are
still excluded from some inner circles, like -er comparatives.

Eh? Eng. -er/-est comparatives are native Gmc (cf. German!), more/most
comparatives are French (and are encroaching on -er/-est -- now in some
two-syllable words and occasionally even in one-syllable words).

Huh? Are either of you talking about the English I am familiar with?

nicer, braver, cuter, finer...Non-Germanic words with -er comparatives.
I thought of those in less than a minute, so I'm pretty sure it's not
the total list.

I don't know what _you're_ talking about; -er/-est don't suddenly
become Romance in origin when attached to Romance-origin words.

Ah, so when you said "-er/-est comparatives are native Gmc", all you
were doing was making a historical statement about these suffixes, not
saying anything about the adjectives to which these suffixes are (now)
attached? Then it would appear you misunderstood Oliver Cromm's point,
since he was talking precisely about which words do and do not take
these suffixes, and claiming that "foreign words" were excluded.

He can't possibly have said such a ridiculous thing.

And while you might find a majority of more/most comparatives are
French, since (I'm guessing) a majority of polysyllabic adjectives in
English are of French origin, it's certainly not a rule: a quick trawl
through some real English came up with forthright, hellish, lopsided,
outlandish, unbelievable...all taking more/most comparatives.

Or would either of you like to re-formulate your claim?

I have no idea what you're going on about [omit the "going" if you're
Brit]. No word, whatever its origin, of three or more syllables takes
-er/-est except jocularly ("curiouser and curiouser").

Probably true. But this was not what you said above. What you said was:
"more/most comparatives are French". I'm still waiting for an
explanation of what you meant by that.

One cannot say in German "Du bist mehr dumm als ihm."

One cannot say in French "Tu es stupideur que lui."

.

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