George Z. Patrick

It is fun to sit around and read this book. Seems that some of the words, given a common word root, show bias built into the language, or an attitude toward some group. For example, the word for "German" has the same root as "mute" or "dumb," and "westerner" comes from the same word (pad) as "to fall" or "decline, decay, breakdown." Probably related to the sun goes down in the west. "To forgive" shares a root with "to say good-bye." It's interesting to see a list of words connected in these show more ways. show less

I have just started to use this book, but it has already been helpful. Besides giving accent marks on all the words, the author provides sample sentences with each of the words. There are also exercises in the back of the book. the book isn't exhaustive, but it is sufficient in its scope. This book is great for the budding linguist who likes to "figure out" the language.