[78-L] ^What fresh L is this? was Re: Turn around time for auctions

[Chris Zwarg]

At 20:45 03.12.2008, you wrote:

>>As far as I know, European languages derived from latin apply the 
>>latin rule that the last consonant before the suffix is doubled - 
>>unless there is no vowel before this consonant, therefore it is not 
>>'doublled'. That's the way I learned it.
>>
>>Alex
>
>English isn't a Latin language. Old English was Germanic, and over 
>the centuries it has been influenced by many other languages, 
>including Romance languages (especially French).

...which by-and-large followed the traditional Latin rules! Also, consider that in medieval times those that were able to read and write English usually had some knowledge of Latin grammar as well, and naturally applied its rules to the written English language (the idea that other languages than Latin have a grammar of their own is a comparatively recent one; in those days Latin was considered the base of all learning, and its structure was assumed to be present in every other language as well; up to this day we use many terms borrowed from Classical Latin grammar to describe the English language, even though many of them don't have exactly the same meaning today as originally intended). 

This is one reason for the "oddities" (from today's viewpoint) of modern English spelling and usage; some say that one-third of today's English is Latin, one-third is French, and only one-third derives from Germanic Anglo-Saxon.

Chris Zwarg