Let's start writing a few basic questions. We will certainly have similar doubts at the beginning of learning English. This is why English can't be grouped by basic words like Chinese. For example, "see" is obviously, but all the words related to "see" have "vis(d)" and "say" but there are always "dict" and "say".
I won't say much about the concept of "primitive Indo-European" here for the time being. If you are interested, you can look at this answer-(An Senyao: What are the incredible cognates in the languages of all countries in the world? In short, many languages in Europe and Asia can find the source of * * * "Primitive Indo-European (School)". If we simply look at the genealogy above, we will find that both English and German are languages derived from the west branch of the original Germanic language, and they should be regarded as brothers by rights. Latin has a grandfather at most with English, while French, Italian, Spanish and so on. All evolved from a language called "vulgar Latin"
For example, the current English is "see", which comes from the old English seon and the original Germanic word * sehwana. However, at present, English words related to watching rarely come from their own see, but from Latin vid, such as video (Latin first-person statement), which becomes video and video. Visit comes from the Latin past participle vis with the noun suffix it, while vision and visual vision only have an abstract noun suffix-ion.
Similar to "listening", the English word "hear" originally comes from the original Germanic language *hauzjan, but now German is H? However, in English, a large number of words related to listening come from the Latin etymology-Audi. Like video, audio, as the first-person statement of listening, also means listening in English, while audit means listening and auditing, audience means audience, and auditorium means auditorium and lecture hall (orium comes from Latin suffix, indicating location).
Then let's look at the English expression "say", which comes from the original Germanic word * sagjanan, and now German is sagen. However, there are many words related to say in English, which originated from the gerund form of Latin verb "propagate”——dict, and there are too many related words, such ate) dictation verb suffix" ate ",dictating and command with noun suffix -ion, dictator dictator, prediction (indicating the prefix in front), indicate, and of course, dictionary, which means" the carrier of writing language ".
There is also the word "write" in English, which comes from the original Germanic language * writan. However, in English, there are a large number of scribes from Latin to express this meaning, such as signing. Manuscript (manuscript); Description and so on, we will find that even the most basic human listening, speaking, reading and writing, English is influenced by a large number of Latin languages in addition to basic vocabulary.
However, what is the source of all this? Only those who have been exposed to European history will find it really necessary to talk about ancient Greece. In fact, ancient Greece, as a highly developed civilization bred by Egypt and Southeast Europe, is indeed the source of civilization. When Germans were still living with pigs in their hometown in northern Europe, people began to look for the depth of the universe and life.
Therefore, taking over Rome, the most advanced civilization in Europe, can be said to be unstoppable in terms of cultural, military and economic capabilities. Since then, Latin has become a "high-level language" that can keep pace with Greek, with a large number of philosophical, natural and literary vocabulary. Even Latin itself has a lot of Greek loanwords, which can be said to be armed to the teeth.
With the emergence of Julius Caesar, the two brothers occupied Gaul (present-day France), the largest base of the Celts in the northwest, and the territory of Rome reached a new height. However, a group of barbarians who came south from northern Europe and were called ger-mani (neighbors) among the Celtic population did not take advantage of later Rome. From then on, the feud between the Roman Empire and the Germans began for hundreds of years.
In fact, even China is the same. The Book of Songs and Historical Records are nothing more than the spoken vernacular of that year. However, with the rapid change of spoken language, this relatively stable old saying is also the source of a large number of new words. Just like you said "facial cleanser" and "beauty", you wouldn't say "facial cleanser" and "facial care", would you? Classical Chinese has not been used much since the New Culture Movement, but why can't we cancel classical Chinese education? After all, this is the soul of Chinese.
However, no matter how good your English is, you are standing on the shoulders of giants. And if I say this, you will also find that you know why there are so many languages in Europe, and when we recite GRE, we always think that those academic words are blind.
In fact, this is the meaning of learning classical languages. However, compared with the Japanese, the British are quite happy. After all, Latin, as a language with the same origin as Germanic languages, actually has a very interesting internal transformation law. However, the Japanese face Chinese which has nothing to do with their core vocabulary.