• Lvxferre@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    12 hours ago

    so Germanic words are fine

    Not all Germanic words; it depends on how they found their way into the vocabulary. For example something like “sky” should be still removed, even if Germanic - because it’s an Old Norse borrowing.

      • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        8 hours ago

        That is correct but it does not contradict anything that I said.

        Even if Old Norse is Germanic, Old Norse words in English are still borrowings. “Borrowed” does not mean “not Germanic”, it means “not inherited”, both things don’t necessarily match.

        This is easier to explain with a simple tree:

        Only words going through that red line are “inherited”. The rest is all borrowing, the image shows it for Old Norse words but it also applies to French (even if French is related to English - both are Indo-European) or Japanese (unrelated) or Basque (also unrelated) etc. words.

        But I digress. In Anglish borrowings from other Germanic languages should still get the chop, as seen here and here.

        From a quick glance The Anglish Times does a good job not using those borrowings. The major exception would be “they”, but it’s rather complicated since the native “hīe” became obsolete, and if you follow the sound changes from Old English to modern English it would’ve become “she”, identical to the feminine singular. (Perhaps capitalise it German style? The conjugation would still be different.)