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Author Topic: Other: Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words  (Read 2737 times)

Juni

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Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words
« on: April 30, 2012, 05:27:45 pm »
An article on io9:

Quote
Your language is not your own. The words you speak have been borrowed, modified, and molded by the forces of linguistic evolution. And the sentences they form are not so much "English" as they are a shapeshifting hodgepodge of different languages that have intersected with English over the years.

Not that many of us would ever know it. Sure, the etymologies and histories of many words may only be a dictionary-reference away, but few of us have the time or inclination to investigate where these words — let alone entire sentences — actually come from.

Unless, of course, you're Mike Kinde, who maintains the ridiculously enthralling data visualization blog Ideas Illustrated. Looking to better understand the role of foreign words in his day-to-day use of the English language, Kinde whipped up a program that would allow him to actually see precisely that:

I thought the other word and language geeks on the forum might be interested. :)
« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 03:15:52 pm by RandallS »
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Annie Roonie

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Re: Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2012, 05:41:55 pm »
Quote from: Juni;52571

I thought the other word and language geeks on the forum might be interested. :)

 
That was cool! I went to his website and got my fix of cool info-graphics for the day.

Katefox

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Re: Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2012, 06:30:00 pm »
Quote from: Juni;52571
An article on io9:

I thought the other word and language geeks on the forum might be interested. :)

 
That was interesting.  Etymology in pictures, quite fun.

Except:
1) I'm too colour blind to make much use of the colour coded text or pie charts, alas.

2) That article starts with "your language is not your own" and well, yes it is!  Just because a word came from Latin, or Greek a few hundred years ago, they're English words now.  It is definitely very interesting to realise just how many words have foreign origins, but, well, it seems rather odd to characterise language change as "you're not really speaking your own language".

3) On the other hand, there's a quote I'm particularly fond of that's something like, "English doesn't just borrow words; it ambushes other languages in dark alleys, and rifles through their pockets for vocabulary."  Because while all languages tend to borrow from their neighbours, English seems to do so more than most languages.

spoOk

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Re: Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2012, 02:32:53 am »
Quote from: Katefox;52586
That was interesting.  Etymology in pictures, quite fun.

Except:
1) I'm too colour blind to make much use of the colour coded text or pie charts, alas.

2) That article starts with "your language is not your own" and well, yes it is!  Just because a word came from Latin, or Greek a few hundred years ago, they're English words now.  It is definitely very interesting to realise just how many words have foreign origins, but, well, it seems rather odd to characterise language change as "you're not really speaking your own language".

3) On the other hand, there's a quote I'm particularly fond of that's something like, "English doesn't just borrow words; it ambushes other languages in dark alleys, and rifles through their pockets for vocabulary."  Because while all languages tend to borrow from their neighbours, English seems to do so more than most languages.

 
haven't looked at the link yet,but I took a course called old English in college years ago and it was awesome how English evolved.
all based around trade and war.
look at a word like tea....in every language where it's the same...it's due to trade. countrys that already had their own tea...had their own word for it. etc.
and when we got conquered....the royals spoke the language if the winners,so we adopted French words etc. but the ones who the English conquered ,even temporarily? nope never adopted any of their words.
unless it was a word for a thing that was specific to that country or people that didn't exist outside of there.

and we got rid of all the extra bits of le la les de da ....masculine feminine etc. why?
simplicity.
for trade.
so language barriers could be more easily overcome.

but all this hasn't been without its problems.
English is hard o earn because or every rule we might ave there's a million exceptions....just look at the pronunciations.
due to adopting different languages we have all kinds of their pronunciations too.
rogue,rouge,centre,center,cent,scent,bored,board,boored,etc.
Ize bel zafen.
Ize bel daleen.

SunflowerP

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Re: Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2012, 11:29:54 pm »
Quote from: Katefox;52586
3) On the other hand, there's a quote I'm particularly fond of that's something like, "English doesn't just borrow words; it ambushes other languages in dark alleys, and rifles through their pockets for vocabulary."  Because while all languages tend to borrow from their neighbours, English seems to do so more than most languages.

 
The exact quote, according to the guy who said it, James Nicoll, is, "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

On the OP:  I am underthrilled that io9 saw fit to position this as something only oddballs are interested in or even aware of.  Though not surprised, because Gawker Media.

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Larix

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Re: Color-coded text reveals the foreign origins of your words
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2014, 06:31:12 pm »
Quote from: Juni;52571
An article on io9:



I thought the other word and language geeks on the forum might be interested. :)

 
Yes, I am a word and language geek - and I am interested! :)

Thank you for the link! :)

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