Unit 1: Selection Vocabulary 2

He called all his people together and told them his daring scheme.

I knew very well that all he said was ridiculous, not light for their darkness but flattery, illusion, a vortex pulling them from sunlight to heat, a kind of midsummer burgeoning, waltz to the sickle.

I knew very well that all he said was ridiculous, not light for their darkness but flattery, illusion, a vortex pulling them from sunlight to heat, a kind of midsummer burgeoning, waltz to the sickle.

“He reshapes the world,” I whispered, belligerent.

“And by changing men’s minds he makes the best of it. Why not?” But it sounded petulant; and it wasn’t true, I knew.

He told how the earth was first built, long ago: said that the greatest gods made the world, every wonder-bright plain and the turning seas, and set out as signs of his victory the sun and moon, great lamps for light to land-dwellers, kingdom torches, and adorned the fields with all colors and shapes, made limbs and leaves and gave life to every creature that moves on land.

English shares many cognates with romance languages—such as animal which is an English and French cognate, or drama, which means the same thing in both English and Spanish.

In fact, many of the words that we may think of as sophisticated synonyms today were borrowed or derived from French: rendezvous instead of meet, odor instead of smell, or autumn instead of fall.

What is more, almost half of Modern English’s vocabulary comes from Latin and French. It also led to the elimination of many Old English words and the gradual simplification of English grammar and spelling. This etymology of words also explains some of the varied (and inconsistent) grammar and spelling rules found in Modern English.

These pronunciations shifted over the course of centuries, with more complex alphabets beginning to develop in the sixteenth century to represent the changing sounds.

Eventually, French rule in England would wane, and English would again become the dominant language at all levels of society.