[Sca-cooks] globetrotting

[Philippa Alderton]

---Avraham skrev:
 Of course, since
> Greek doesn't have
> English's tendency to homophonous forms (does ANY
> other language?), phonetic
> transliteration is usually orthographic.

Well, the English language, as we know it today,
likely has as many homophonous forms as it does,
because of our tendency to import words from other
languages. It pretty much seems to have started as a
patois beteen the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons, so
you've got strong elements of both French and Germanic
languages there, and the French the Normans used, was
strongly based on Latin, and as we well know, the
Romans imported a number of words of Greek.

I think the reason that it's such a widely spread
language today is because of its flexibility. The
Brits imported quite a number of words from their
various conquests, when they were an Empire- ketjap,
among others, just as we Americans imported quite a
few from the Native Americans (pow wow, etc) and the
French Canadians- cache (we see THAT one every day
;-).

You'll also find that our Aussie and South African
friends have picked quite a few from their native
peoples....

Phlip

=====
Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

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