Borrowing of verbs vs. nouns [fwd from Dell]

[Theresa Kishkan]

I remember celebrating my 21st birthday (this is many years ago now, sigh)
at Le Drug Store, a nightclub in Monte Carlo -- I was visiting French
friends who lived in Roquebrune Cap Martin and despaired for and of the
purity of the French language...!

Theresa K.


>That nouns are more easily borrowed than verbs has been my experience with
>Native American languages in Oregon and Washington and elsewhere.   I think
>it is generally accepted, a sort of 'truism' in the field.
>   Comparison of European languages points in the same direction.
>English has many more nouns from French than verbs.  When medicine and
>other disciplines
>seek sources of names, usually the names are of things, objects, creatures,
>parts of same.  Not always but mostly.
>   Someone out there may well know far more than I about this, but I
>guess that most linguists take this as common sense.
>
>           Sincerely,
>
>               Dell
>
>
>--
>"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how
many diseases he has!" -- anonymous
>
>
>
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Theresa Kishkan
RR1 Site 20 C11
Madeira Park, B.C.
V0N 2H0
(604)883-2377
Red Laredo Boots (1996); Sisters of Grass (2000); Inishbream (2001)