Given the original Greek and Latin words, is it possible to figure out their English cognates?

Answer 1

Hi, Most likely. Many words that did not pass from Latin into English had already passed from Greek to most Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic, Nordic, languages languages. Besides all belonging to a wider Indo European family, and hence maybe the Indo European root was kept by Anglos, Greeks or Latins.

Both languages are very useful as a bridge to learn other languages. If additionally you know the phonetic characteristic of the target language, what letters they have difficulty pronouncing and what they prefer instead you can modify the source word apply the phonetic incompatible word and you get the target word.

E.G. the Greek word poi - to be able, to do, passed into Finnish as voi, which has the same meaning, but since Finns have problems differentiating between plosive sounds like B or P they used V which is a very frequent letter in their language. This poi - poisi is the origin of such English words as poetry and power or Spanish like poesia and poder- be able to

Best
Santiago

Answer 2

Yes. Not in the case of every word but for many words.

Linguists use what is known as the comparitive method to determine which Greek and Latin words are cognate with a particular English word of Anglo-Saxon origin.

The comparitive method enables linguists to determine what are genuine cognates vesus words that are just chance occurrences. For example, the Persian word for bad is also bad but is not related to the English word. The similarity is just a coincidence.

Likewise, "yes" is nai in both Greek and Korean but the comparative method tells linguists that it too, is just a coincidence and that they are not cognates.

According to Frederic M. Wheelock in his book "Latin," some genuine cognates between English , Greek and Latin proven by the comparative method are:

ego, me esti, meter, phrater, deka (Gk)
ego, me, est, mater, frater, decem (L)
I , me, is, mother,brother, ten (E)

There are many, many more. They can be easily looked up in regular dictionaries of the English dictionary and especially in etymological dictionaries. A good one to star out with is "Kleins Etymological Dictionary of The English Language."

Sometimes, linguists can even determine the English relative of a Thracian, Phrygian, Dacian or Gallic (Celtic) word as well based on the little bit we know about these languages.

For example, the Thracian place name Strymon corresponds to English "stream" and modern Albanian rrym' (current); Phrygian bekos (bread) is English "bake," Gallic lubi (to enjoy) is English "love" and Bouribista the name of a famous Dacian king who gave the Romans fits is related to two Old English words beorn (warrior) and wis (wise), thus his name means "Wise Warrior."

Answer 3

No.

English Grammar has roots in Welsh (P-Celtic & Q-Celtic), Scandinavian, and Germanic languages as well as Latin and Greek. This applies to both vocabulary and syntax. One can trace some of the structure of formal English Grammar back to Latin and Greek, but informal English, often the dialect of spoken language is drawn at least as much from elsewhere.

A comedian might attempt to provoke amusement at issues "reproductive" by provoking cognitive dissonance at the juxtaposition formal and informal language; a gutter-mouthed medical consultation, or gangsters using high conceptual medical discourse.

We expect certain grammar and vocabulary in certain situations. The New England Journal of Medicine and toilet wall graffiti are only distantly recognisable as the same language.