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Re: Which is simpler: /y/ or /iw/?

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 16:01
Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:

> On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 10:55 AM, caeruleancentaur > <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote: > > Perhaps it's because 'simplify' was brought into English from the > > French 'simplifier' (according to the AHD). The other words came to us > > directly from the Latin participles. > > Ah, so it took a side trip. Well, that explains the existence of a > discrepancy, even if we haven't yet established how the details worked > out over in Gaul...
I don't think it explains anything. If "simplify" had been directly from a Latin participle, it'd been "simplificate", and the nominalization still "simplification", not **simplication. The real question is, why were the Latin verbs formed in different ways? I doubt any particular answer can be given - the language had multiple ways of making verbs from adjectives, and in each case a particular one happened to be employed. -- Andreas Johansson

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Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>