atw: Re: Greek, etc

From: "Christine Kent" <c.bkent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 10:02:15 +1000
Oh my goodness, you guys are so "literal".  
 
Lighten up - shades of grey, shades of grey, shades of grey.  Guidelines not
rules; helpful ways of thinking, not rules; clichés, not concrete boots!
 
Now there's an idea.  ;-)
 
Christine


   _____  

From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Hallett, Michelle
Sent: Tuesday, 8 May 2007 8:09 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Greek, etc


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 <HYPERLINK
"mailto:jameshunt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"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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References:
- atw: Re: Greek, etc
  - From: Hallett, Michelle
atw: Re: Greek, etc

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