Valentine Pontifex

Check the feedback at The Talk.Origins Archive for January 2002:

<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/feedback/jan02.html" target="_blank">http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/feedback/jan02.html</a>

Then do a search for text "Dave Teegarden" for a bit of debunking of another common creationist claim: that languages are becoming simpler.

RufusAtticus

Languages change because of the unique and distinct history of its speakers. Take for instance the new meaning that "Survivor" has taken on in the last two years. Speakers and receivers also have conflicting desires. Speakers want shorter words so they can get their point of quicker. Listeners want clarity so that they understand the speakers easily. This ends up producing a cylical situation where words are shortened until understanding is compromised and then new things (words, grammar,..) are added to the language to restore understanding. The cool thing is that this is readily observed in the actual dynamics of language.

-RvFvS

NeilUnreal

A lot of linguistic change occurs when specific words take on metaphoric meanings, and then the metaphor is forgotton. My favorite language change of recent decades is the way the suffix "-gate" is now used to denote a scandal. My niece's generation will probably be one whose members will have largely forgotten its Watergate origin.

-Neil

scigirl

I have nothing to add to this thread except to say. . .hi neil!

scigirl/froggie

DireStraits

There is not a single word in English that ends in -tion that does not have a Latin root. Not one. Why is that?

John R

I suspect that the Yorkshire vernacular 'Gumption' (meaning common sense or initiative) might be an exception to that.

RufusAtticus

Because -tion is actually the Latin nominization ending -tio anglicized.

Oh yeh, Hi NeilUnreal.

-RvFvS

Kevin Dorner

Hydration, chemically adding water group(s) to a compound. Root word is Hydro, a variant of Idiro (water) which is Greek.

Edit: And dehydration, a far more commonly used word (condition of shortage of water in an organism.)

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: Kevin Dorner ]</p>

DireStraits

DS: Seems I overstated my case somewhat! Mea culpa.

Hydration, chemically adding water group(s) to a compound. Root word is Hydro, a variant of Idiro (water) which is Greek.

DS: Got to give you that one.

I suspect that the Yorkshire vernacular 'Gumption' (meaning common sense or initiative) might be an exception to that.

DS: Ouch! Touche. Actually the word is in common usage all over Britian. And it’s meaning is closer to “courage”.

Because -tion is actually the Latin nominization ending -tio anglicized.

DS: Not quite. It is not really an anglicised form. European writers from the Middle Ages, when Latin was the international language of intellectual discourse, to the present, have been selecting Latin words in this way. The French spelling for many of these words, for example is identical to the English spelling. That was my point. They have undergone a little mutation (L. mutare - to change), selected and they have survived, gave rise to offspring because they themselves were suited to their environment.

That sounds like at least a quasi-evolutionary process to me.

NeilUnreal

Hi scigirl/froggie! Hi RvFvS! BBS life is rather like a complicated novel where you have to follow more than one thread at the same time ("Meanwhile, back at the BaptistBoard…"). My work life is getting busier of late, so most of the threads on a fast-paced board like this go stale before I get a chance to pencil in my own marginalia. I am still following the plot!

-Neil