Published on 12, July, 2020
Words fascinate me, I love them and I know so many and can even spell a few of them! I find different words give so much more texture and depth to what we say. I find the origins of words as interesting as the words themselves and the different uses for the same word although it can all get confusing when you have to work out which witch to use and weather/whether it will make a difference to waht you're saying.
Is English the only language to have so many similar words or words that change with context?
I also have a theory that that dialect words and accents follow the boundaries of the old Anglo-Saxon countries, if you look at a map of the original kingdoms pre Alfred the Great, then the variety of accents beccome more apparent. Of course i some areas such as the North East you have to factor in a large amount of Scandinavian words and accents too and along the borders of Wales.
Do you have favourite words and least favourite? I do't like the word "genre" mostly because it's hard to stop saying it and it ends up with a few extra "re-s" takcked on the end as you run out of breath whilst saying it.
I also gecome faascinated with "F" and "Ph", such as fantastic and phantasmagorical
I made up the word 'doggery' recently.
Cattery - doggery.
Much more sensible than 'kennels'.
Doggery, thats a word that deserves a place in the English language!
I made up the term "becatted" to describe the temporary inability to get up and the need for someone else to fetch me something, because my lap is being graced with a sleeping cat.
Brilliant! My brother has words for roadkill which make it more funny and less upsetting - Squadger, Squog, Squat, Squeagull. You get the point. It's so funny when you put Squ in front of your first and second name which I obviously couldn't do on here but if I was to be run over, my name here would become Squee Squirit. Heeee heee heee.
TheCatWoman
There are some words in Scots that come from the French language because of the close relationship the two countries had for many years. Some examples are:
Sybies/syboes (spring onion) from ciboule
Ashet (large plate or platter) from assiette
Aumry (cupboard) from armoir.
Also historically 'gardy loo!' (watch out I'm throwing the contents of the bedpan out the window onto the street) from 'gardez l'eau'.
Some of our words also have roots in old Norse, for example
Kirk (church)
Kist (chest or box)
Bairn (child)
Skelf (splinter)
Greet (cry)
Midden (dump)
Muckle (big)
Flit (to move house)
Ken (know)
Keek (peek)
That's what makes it so fascinating, you can tell so much about who was where and when as well as relative social positions. Beef, Lamb and Pork are words from Norman French, whereas Cow, Pig and Sheep are Anglo-Saxon words, one set of words for the animals in the fields used by those who work the land and another word for when it's on the table. Most ordinary people couldn't afford meat and the diet was mostly vegetarian and carb heavy.
If Bede was right with his descriptions of the different peoples who came to be known as the Anglo-Saxons, presumably they all had different languages although they might of been able to understand each other, I've wondered for ages if many local dialect words and accents are ones brought here by those people. So did the Mercians sound Brummie, did the people of |Wessex sound like they came from Devon?
You missed out chutney, bungalow and many scientific words that are Arabic in origin.
I wonder how much of the Celtic language/s that were spoken here in pre-Roman times have survived? Modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton evolved down one route from pre-Roman Celtic, Scots, Irish and Manx from another often blended with Scandinavian languages. Lowland scots is a blend of Scandinavian, Celtic and Northumbian English.