Show TAKE MY WORD FOR IT By FRANK COLBY COLEY BaD sn Features wit WHY WE SPEAK A DOUBLE TONGUE I Wo We W who speak peak English seldom I realize the Jekyll Hyde personality of our native na five tongue that tha t literally a good deal of our language is talk double Not talk double-talk like frammi on the but talk double-talk like legal lawful-legal home home- residence use employ eat dine sing-chant sing construct build etc To explain the unique character of English let us take a small cap cap- capsule capsule sule of history At the Battle Batlle of Hastings on October 14 1068 1066 h 1 his Harold II was slain lain and the English forces farces were defeated by William the Conqueror of Normandy The French speaking French speaking Normans Normana found the English to be scarcely more mare than bucolt tribesmen who spoke a rude form farm of Low German called Saxon Anglo-Saxon As time went on the language of the Conquered English became greatly enriched by the adoption of I words from the more refined and tongue of the Normans Norman and by Latin words wards which were In in- in introduced traduced by Middle Age scholars When Modern English evolved it consisted roughly of these ele- ele elements ele ments French 35 per cent Saxon Anglo-Saxon 25 per cent Latin La tin 18 16 per cent Greek 14 per cent All others 10 per cent However English is still basically a Germanic tongue tongue its its grammar is Germanic its working words articles pronouns prepositions conjunctions etc are Germanic and the simple words of the nary affairs a of life are Germanic like man woman child house hause farm field bread food water eat It has been said that Saxon Anglo-Saxon is the skeleton of ot our language and French together with a little Latin La tin is the flesh fie sh and blood Our language then then Is li composed mostly of two antagonistic ele ele- elements ele- ele elements ments the Saxon Anglo-Saxon German German- Germanic ic and the Romance Roman e French and Vulgar Latin I |