Every English language word I can think of that refers to linguistics derives from the Latin word lingua. I can’t think of any that derive from Greek. Best I can come up with is phonetics, but that more means “sound of”, right? Like, as a suffix? bienvillephonetics (or bienvillephonics) would be the sound of bienville, not so much the language of bienville, right?
So, what would the appropriate Greek root be to denote “language of” or “speech of”?
Oh, and in anticipation of all you television-lovers who want to tell me I shouldn’t get hung up about mixing Greek and Latin roots and I should just use “lingua”, well, Homey don’t play that.
Philology isn’t (wasn’t? are there still philologists in the technical sense?) linguistics, but does involves (ed?) a sensitivity to nuances of meaning and an understanding of the history of languages etc etc.
Hmm you’re right I can think of plenty of words (glossa- (i.e. glossary), lexicon, dialect) but anything used as a root that things are added on seems to derive from Latin.
IIRC, “-ology” means study of, so it’s not a straight word, he’s looking for the root/suffix that’s tacked onw hen you want something to be about language. Ology would be tacked on in study (i.e. biology).
In “philology,” “philo” means something like “the love of” and “log” means (in this case) “words.” Its analogous to “Philosophy,” which “means” “the love of wisdom.”
*Glossa * (*glotta * in the Attic dialect) is the Greek word for “language.” Most literally it means “tongue,” and “language” is a transferred usage. It’s like the Latin *lingua * which does double duty for both “tongue” and “language.”
We get words like *polyglot * and *glossary * from this word.