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0 pointsWalterBright4y ago0 comments

> A native English speaker would never have said that

English has its barbarian roots overlaid with French words from the Norman conquest of England. The French aristocracy moved in and took over. The modern result of that is the "English" words of French origin are tells of upper class origins. Americans use that, consciously or unconsciously. Sometimes it's referred to as "coded speech".

For example, someone from upper class America will "purchase" something while a lower class person will "buy" it.

It's not just slight accent changes that distinguish class in America.

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hervature4y ago

Very interesting. The connection to French is not immediately obvious as both "purchase" and "buy" would translate to "achat". However, "por chase" in French is "for the chase/hunt" which begins to resemble some definition of "purchase".

quickthrowman4y ago

Norman/Saxon meat/animal word pairs are interesting; the saxons were the hunters and farmers, and the normans ate the meat. This led to a bunch of word pairs:

  Beef/cow  
  Poultry/chicken  
  Pork/pig  
  Veal/calf  
  Mutton/sheep

There are other areas of English vocabulary with dual Saxon/Norman words as well.

Bill Bryson has a great book that explores how English became what it is now: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue It’s an easy read with lots of interesting info.

Mediterraneo104y ago

Please don’t recommend Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue. Bryson has no actual background in linguistics and there is a factual error or urban myth on nearly every page of that book. There are loads of pop-sci “history of English” books written by people who were actually competent in the subject.

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BrandoElFollito4y ago

In which French did you find "por chase”? (this is not aggressive, I am french and this does not mean anything but it may be a dialect or some as ancient French?)

jgwil24y ago

The etymology given by Wiktionary[0] is:

> From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”).

[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purchase

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0 pointsWalterBright4y ago0 comments

> A native English speaker would never have said that

For example, someone from upper class America will "purchase" something while a lower class person will "buy" it.

It's not just slight accent changes that distinguish class in America.

0 comments

hervature4y ago

quickthrowman4y ago

Norman/Saxon meat/animal word pairs are interesting; the saxons were the hunters and farmers, and the normans ate the meat. This led to a bunch of word pairs:

  Beef/cow  
  Poultry/chicken  
  Pork/pig  
  Veal/calf  
  Mutton/sheep

There are other areas of English vocabulary with dual Saxon/Norman words as well.

Bill Bryson has a great book that explores how English became what it is now: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue It’s an easy read with lots of interesting info.

Mediterraneo104y ago

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BrandoElFollito4y ago

In which French did you find "por chase”? (this is not aggressive, I am french and this does not mean anything but it may be a dialect or some as ancient French?)

jgwil24y ago

The etymology given by Wiktionary[0] is:

[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purchase

1 more reply

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