% of English words from Latin and Greek

[Margaret Lee]

If I recall correctly, I once read that about 60 percent of English words come from Latin, and about 20 percent from Greek. Many years ago, I used to teach a course called Vocabulary Development, and I think this was in one of the course textbooks at the time. 
 
Margaret Lee

________________________________________
Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of English & Linguistics
Department of English
Hampton University 
Hampton, VA 23668
757-727-5769(voice);757-727-5084(fax)
margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu
mlee303 at yahoo.com

--- On Sun, 11/1/09, David A. Daniel <dad at POKERWIZ.COM> wrote:


From: David A. Daniel <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
Subject: Re: % of English words from Latin and Greek
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2009, 5:33 PM


It's all Greek to me.
:)


__________________________________________
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Michael Sheehan
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 1:24 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: % of English words from Latin and Greek



This may be an impossible question, but does anyone have any idea
(even rough) as to what percentage of English words came directly from
Greek and what percentage directly from Latin? Complicating things, of
course, is that many Latin words derived from Greek forms.

Mike Sheehan
wordmall at aol.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org





------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org