| Right, English is a hybrid of the Latin and the Germanic. That could come about only by successive changes that invariably outraged some.
We all laugh at the pathetic attempts of the Académie française to safeguard the purity of the French language. It simply can't be done. Even the Nazis failed in their campaign to 'regermanicize' German, i.e get rid of Latin words and replace them with contrived Germanic clunkers. People just refused to use them, and these were the same people who were otherwise slavishly doing pretty well everything they were told to.
"I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything."
-- Viscount Melbourne |