29: Brief Talk on Roots Jan 6, 2015

Many of you may have noticed that lots of the origins of the words posted about on Word Facts have come from a Germanic language or from Latin and Greek. There are reasons for this. English is quick to borrow words from other languages, primarily from its conquerors, the Romans and the Normans. English has very few borrowed words from such languages as Chinese languages. This is due to the lack of interactions until fairly recently. What words are borrowed are borrowed through transliteration. Certain words such as 'kung fu' English has borrowed but has not retained any of its meaning, "achievement of man".