Re: self-segregating morphemes

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@GREBYN.COM>]

Actually, it has certainly been argued that the Latin and Greek prefixes
and suffixes, in all their proliferation, makes English more expansible and
more suitable for its current role as a semi-worl language.  (I won't say
that I agree with this).  Certainly, though, the fact that people are able
to learn such large English vocabularies is probably somewhat related to
to productive uses of all those prefixes and suffixes.  You can learn
English wothout learning what these 'rafsi' mean in any concerted form of
study, but it is a truism that English speakers who have studied Latin, or
Greek, or even one of the Romance tongues, gains an understanding of these
'rafsi' that significantly enhances vocabularyand understanding.  (It also
makes possible the consideration of languages like Esperanto by English
speakers.  Given the resistance we English speakers seem to have to learning
languages, i suspect that if these roots were not part of the language, there
would be even more difficulty in learning French and Spanish, and hence even
fewer English speakers would learn another tongue).

Myself, I am pleased when I find all the Germanic cognates in Russian that
are so recognizable.

lojbab