atw: Re: Greek, etc
- From: "Hallett, Michelle" <Michelle.Hallett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 08:09:22 +1000
Why not just opt for clear writing regardless of the origin of the
individual words?
Unsure if your writing is clear? Use a reviewer, preferably from your
target audience.
Even technical writing is not a science and there are no hard and fast
rules, only guidelines. I have seen clear, easily understood text with
many Latin and Greek-derived words and poorly worded text where most of
the words were Germanic in origin.
Michelle
P.S. Case in point, Bob's use of the non-existent word 'woofle' in the
email below is clearly understood from context and it's similarity to
the correct (albeit colloquial) word 'waffle'. (At least, I think it's
'waffle', I haven't seen it written that often. Is it Germanic, Greek or
Swahili? Maybe it's French, le waffle, anyone?)
P.P.S. I love studying and discussing the history of language and
derivation of words. But when I write I like to use all the language and
enjoy finding the right word, regardless of derivation, which makes the
meaning of the text clear.
________________________________
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Trussler
Sent: Monday, 7 May 2007 10:18 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Greek, etc
James,
I like it, but I avoid abbreviated Latin.
Abbreviations must be used carefully and Latin abbreviations are just
silly, so avoid them."
Why use eg when for example works well, or even better?
Why use ie and run the risk of confusion with eg when 'that is' says it
unambiguously?
Why use etc. when and so on is better?
Why use et al when and others is simpler?
Just something I always put in my writing standards, and woofle on about
when given the opportunity.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Bob T
On 5/7/07, James Hunt <jameshunt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 07 May 2007, at 1:02 PM, Christine Kent wrote:
Basic rule is speak English not Latin (or Greek, or
Latin via French). English words tend to be simple single syllable
words that everyone understands; Latin and Greek have many syllables and
are designed to differentiate between the working classes (the Celts
etc) and the upper classes (the invading Romans, Normans etc. )
There are many polysyllabic words of Latin and Greek origin in
English. They are often technically precise and appropriate in context.
However, the idea that all Greek-derived words are polysyllabic
monstrosities designed to obfuscate or serve some political purpose is
simply not true, and dropping Greek-derived words from English texts, or
limiting their use, is not a practical idea. I give you a list of short,
common, Greek words in English - from allergy to horoscope (which starts
with a rough-breathing omega):
allergy, amoral, anaesthetic, apathy, arctic, arithmetic,
asthma, abyss, agate, archangel, angle, anchorage, aerobics, athlete,
academy, acme [features in RoadRunner cartoons, along with Ajax, the
Greek hero], acoustic, guitar [through Spanish], alphabet, amygdala
[heard on a science program on television - Greek there too - recently],
anorexia [but obesity is Latin], .....
...organ, police, programmer, sarcasm, philosophy, telephone,
system, chaos, chiropractor, psychology, idea, cinema, drama, climax,
coma, dyspepsia, zone, catastrophe, nectar, hydrogen, electric,.....
...phenomena, pedophile [in newspapers a lot, a few years ago],
rhododendron, rheumatism, Mesopotamia [had a revival in the political
press recently], centre, calypso, idiot [very, very common in popular
discourse!], theory, paradox, geography, autopsy [amazingly frequent on
television], asylum...
The modern working classes use a lot of these words. If you
refer to an acoustic guitar, or an electric guitar, or asylum seekers,
or complain that someone doesn't know their alphabet, or go to water the
rhododendrons, or mention your mobile phone, you are using Greek. It's
everywhere.
The words may well have originated in a literate class and
filtered down the social scale in some past era, but it would be hard
for us to do without these words today. I once came across a claim by a
Greek philologist that there are at least 40,000 Greek loan words in
English. I have no way of checking this, but considering the amount of
Greek we use in everyday speech and writing, I would not be surprised if
the claim were true.
In the final analysis [yes, that's Greek too], the old rule
applies: know your audience, and use words that the audience will
understand. It doesn't matter where the words came from. Any attempt to
limit your text to words derived from only one of the historic strands
of English is a pointless exercise. It's all English now, whether it
came from Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, Norman French, Dutch, Hindi,
Chinese...
JH
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