User:Moribund the Burgermeister

I was born in 2003 in the Midwestern United States. I am a huge fan of the English language. I grew up speaking French but never studied it academically until High School. I'm continuing my studies of the language at university.

Well, many reasons. Firstly, English is both a Germanic and a Latin language. Those two registers—for any idea you take, you have two words. Those words will not mean exactly the same. For example if I say “regal” that is not exactly the same thing as saying “kingly.” Or if I say “fraternal” that is not the same as saying “brotherly.” Or “dark” and “obscure.” Those words are different. It would make all the difference—speaking for example—the Holy Spirit, it would make all the difference in the world in a poem if I wrote about the Holy Spirit or I wrote the Holy Ghost, since “ghost” is a fine, dark Saxon word, but “spirit” is a light Latin word. &mdash; Jorge Luis Borges, 1977 on Firing Line: with William F. Buckley Jr.