Greco-latin

Berber is written with Greco-Latin characters in Algeria.

My neighbours, the Wongs, who are multiracial from Fiji, seem intimidated by, and simultaneously jealous of, Latinate culture. Once a British colony, Fiji was never a "donkey" as was my homeland, the Philippines. I suspect that many Anglophones with less than a university education still squirm at long acrolectal Greco-Latin words in English, and they try to settle in their basilectal Anglo-Saxon speech. Tangentially, I much admire French-influenced paradises like Tahiti and Mayotte. Maybe, the Wongs should learn Dutch.

In 1781 they framed "Articles of Confederation,” and in 1789 the “Constitution of the United States of America," from which we have an Extract and Table, showing sixty-two per cent. Greco-Latin and thirty-eight Gotho-Germanic; whereas Ethelbert's Anglo-Saxon Code of A.D. 597, which is the oldest English writing, containse six per cent. Greco-Latin and ninety-four Gotho-Germanic; the code of Alfred the Great, A.D. 890, numbers six per cent. Greco-Latin and ninety-four Gotho-Germanic; and the Bill of Rights, 1688, counts sixty-three per cent. Greco-Latin, thirty-six Gotho-Germanic, and one per cent. Celtic.

The Greco-Latin coincidences are presumably due to the independent preservation of elements of the most ancient IE. vocabulary. They do not necessarily imply any intimate relationship between Greek and Latin leading to the postulation of a pre-historic 'Italo-Greek' unity.

The German sense of Geist does not take its measure from the technical philosophical sense of the Greco-Latin spiritus.

The enrichment of the English vocabulary by Greco-Latin words was continuing, and the role of Greco-Latin vocabulary as the language of education was here to stay.