What is Anglish?

The most basic definition of Anglish is:

English written without words borrowed from other languages.

But beyond this definition, there is a wide range of personal interpretations of what constitutes Anglish. Some may only wish to write making the best of English words available, avoiding borrowed where possible, but accepting them where necessary. Other may wish to remove all borrowed words, and where there is no existing alternative in English, to invent an entirely new word to go in its place. These are perhaps the two most widely differing views on Anglish, and there exists many possible interpretations between them, depending on a writer's personal view.

Below are some of the more commonly asked questions regarding Anglish, but they are by no means exhaustive. Hopefully, the answers are informative enough to be useful, but short enough to be easily read.

What is the purpose of Anglish?
The purpose of Anglish differs from person to person, but mostly it is to explore and experiment with the English language. This exploration is motivated for some by aesthetics, for others by cultural needs, and yet for others it is purely an interesting diversion or pastime. Language plays a big role in our lives, so to be able to play with that language, and shape it to our own needs or wants is very important. For this reason, writing or communicating in Anglish is a positive end in itself, inasmuch as it provides another outlet for this need.

But there is also the further idea that Anglish is a recognition and a celebration of a certain part of the English language. For though English has borrowed thousands and thousands of words throughout its life, there still exists a very ancient core to the language, the most important everyday words which no sentence or utterance could manage without. By stripping away the layers of borrowed words, Anglish allows us to better appreciate that core and the role it plays in our language.

How do you know which words are English and which are borrowed?
The best way to find out where a word comes from is to look it up in a dictionary. Most decent desktop dictionaries will include short etymologies for many of their entries, which gives a little information of where the word came from, and how it was used or written in the past. Some online dictionaries have this information as well, such as Wiktionary, Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster. There are also dictionaries dedicated to word etymologies, which are a goldmine for information about English words. The Online Etymology Dictionary is perhaps the best available online.

But these will only tell you from where and when a word arrived in English, but not whether it should be considered 'borrowed'. Some immensely old and very basic words, such as 'cup' and 'mill', are actually borrowed from Latin, yet nobody would say these words are not English. Conversely, words like 'thaumaturgy' and 'intelligentsia' are obviously not of English origin, and have been borrowed relatively recently.

Where the line is drawn between English and borrowed is yet another area of personal choice, and there are many views on this among Anglish users. A very broad rule says that anything borrowed from French, Latin and Greek in the last one thousand years should be considered borrowed. A more permissive view would say that any word which was brought into English to fill a genuine need or gap in vocabulary should be allowed to stay, but those words which compete for space with already existing words should be considered surplus and removed.

Are there really that many borrowed words in English?
Yes. English is renowned for having borrowed so many words from different languages over the last thousand years. Only about 25% of the words in English today derive from Germanic sources (mainly English, but also Norse, Dutch and others). That may sound like a lot, one in very four words, but not so much when you consider that Latin and French each account for 29% of the English vocabulary. Greek gives another 6% of words, with the last 10% being from other languages, derived from personal names, or simply unknown.

Though as mentioned earlier, the core of the English language still mostly consists of English words, which makes an undertaking like Anglish possible.