ENGL 4301:001
Spring 1998
Dr. Tim Morris

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HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #4

This assignment is due in class on Tuesday 3 March.

Look up the 20 words in the list given below in four languages: French, Italian, Spanish and Latin. Most libraries have several English-to-other-language dictionaries, so the assignment should be easy to get basic data for. There are also several multilingual dictionaries on-line.

Then, propose at least two rules that determine how sounds in one of the modern languages (French, Italian, Spanish) descend from Latin.

Then, write briefly (at least a paragraph, no more than two pages) commenting on regularities and irregularities that you find in the words in the modern languages. Are there any really strange forms that don't add up, for instance?

  1. arm
  2. ear
  3. elbow
  4. eye
  5. finger
  6. foot
  7. hair
  8. head
  9. heart
  10. hip
  11. kidney
  12. knee
  13. leg
  14. liver
  15. mouth
  16. neck
  17. nose
  18. shoulder
  19. thumb
  20. toe