@Ængelfolc ... Yes, I could have written that better. How about this:

English, at its heart and roots, is a Germanic tung. However, it was forever altered on that fateful day nearly a thousand years ago in the year 1066 ...

In Anglish:
However, this was forever changed on that wanweird day nearly a thousand years ago in the year 1066

Mark:
change is of Celtic upspring.
wanweird = unfortunate ... wan = lacking; weird = fate/fortune/destiny

On another note, I've dug up some old words and meanings:

bewry - to cover, hide, conceal, clothe, protect ... was a strong verb in OE and ME but by 1599 it was brooked as a week verb. (I've alreddy brooked it today!)

beclap - trap or grab suddenly, catch ...

latch = catch; many of the meanings of latch were taken by catch ... even the conjugation! It was latch, laught, laught ... It was catch, catched, catched but the verb changed to match laught ... thus caught! Not only was the word swapped but also the conjugations! (However snatch seems to be a loanword and weak.)

ppl. laught, as noun: rapine, prey

outwrite - transcribe
bewrite - had describe and copy listed as meanings ... copy, I found an upspring for but I can't find one for it being brooked as describe tho it is kind of like Ger. beschrieben.

gainstand - oppose, resist ... to stand against

foredeal - advantage
afterdeal - disadvantage

So it goes, I add words every day.

I wrote another blog today ... "Dived agin Dove" ... and slipped in a few more words ... bit by bit, word by word ...

@Niceone ... Actually, it was over a year before that comment was made and while I agree with it, I usually ignore broad and unfounded accusations like the one by Sara.dee72. It's better to let those benighted words stand for themselves.

Oct. 14 ... The Battle of Senlac Ridge (Hastings) ... Anyone mark by "Talk Like a Saxon"? :) http://lupussolus.typepad.com/blog/2011/10/talk-like-a-saxon.html

@Jayles ... I think see where the problem is! I'm still working this thru. As you have point out before, in English, word order matters.

Jill comes home and says, "Jane screwed up again."
Bob says, "What are you going to do about it."
Jill, "What can I do besides complain?"

Complaining does not work here! ... UNLESS you throw in a time modifier to betoken an ongoing action ... and maybe a comma to betoken a pause. Even then it still sounds awkward.

"What can I do, besides complaining all the time?"

But if you put it up front, "Besides complaining, what can I do?" Then it fits. I think that the "all the time" is implied when it is up front because now it is a continuous or multiple action. When it is at the end, it is a one time deed.

As for betold, in that case, I need to hold back betold for bezahlen! lol ... I think beteld, betild, and betolden works.

@Brus ... Believe it or not, I don't hate latinates. I even like a few. I like the word "prey" and its kin "predator". The short latinates, like prey, when brooked sparingly, can put a little "flavor" to a writing. But when you start getting four and five-syllable words; or when most of the nouns and verbs are mainly latinates; or when some word like "excoriate" or "extricate" is brooked, that is a little much. That's just showing off or trying to benight the true meaning as in this bit:

"This specific architecture was selected largely because it utilizes an evolvable development approach, which allows NASA to address high-cost development activities early on in the program and take advantage of higher buying power before inflation erodes the available funding of a fixed budget," NASA officials wrote in a statement."

And while I "oppugn" (another one that I like) the thought that latinates are "more elegant" (nothing elegant about the quote above), I wouldn't try to cleanse them from our wordbooks. Rather, I'd like to see them listed as "archaic" and known mostly to those who need them to understand writings of days gone by.

What I want is to keep (or hain) the Anglo-Germanic words from being forsaken as not good enough; not "elegant" enough.

We're not stuck with brooking the latinates. We can always choose to brook the Anglo-Germanic word. We can even choose to ed-quicken words like gern (eager[ly]), erd (native, earth), benim (deprive), hof (I like dim-hof ... a place of concealment), asf. or make better brooking of forefasts like um-, wan-, ed-, ur-, or-, gain-, asf. before they are lost ... I chose to brook them.

I'v set off another firestorm about the Anglo-Germanic - Latin fight! lol

http://painintheenglish.com/posts/view/4677

@Brus ... Half of the worldstock is latinates ... Think about that. You think that is a good thing? I think it is sad. Think of all the Anglo-Germanic words that either are no longer brooked or clinging to life as "archaic" or "obsolete".

Do you think that half of the wordstock of German is latinates? Icelandic has almost no latinates. Do you think that German scientific papers are stuffed full of latinates? You'll find a few but not near as much as in an English paper and many of those come from English.

I don't think that the newspaper writer would have made the mistake had he been using anglo-germanic words.
excoriate - to skin or in the sense to criticize - lambast
fear - AS word
exhausted - drained (or with a pre-1066 latinate ... forspent)
scattered is germanic, if you want an AS word - strewn
indulged - fulfilled, yielded to, gave in, sated, wallowed in the hunt for queem (also queme) or wyn(n).

Do you think it is good that English speakers need Latin classes so as not to make those mistakes?
Do you think it is good that folks learn despair but not wanhope?
Why add a latinate forefast to trust to make distrust when there is wantrust?
What does surrounded do that umbeset doesn't?
For that matter, umbe (around) as both a preposition and forefast um- has almost died ... umbeset, umbecast, umgang (circuit), asf ... all still in the wordbook with dust on them. Umwelt is a loanword but the um- has the same meaning.
Why is advice, advise better than rede?

"Much meatier and immediate, and usually more suitable for less formal expression than Latin-derived ones." ... This is were we split on our thoughts. This is the old wives tale that just won't die. I don't need those latinates to write in German so why do I need them to write in English? Or are they only better than AS words but German words are on an even-footing with them?

You do know that the Anglo-Saxons had a court system with lawyers? They didn't need all those Latin words! They had doctors, lawyers, and even astronomers (astronomy was tungolcraft).

You just have the mindset of nearly 1,000 years of slanting (bias) and bigotry against Anglo-Saxon words. I know its hard but you only need to reach inside yourself and get in touch with those Anglo-Germanic roots. It feels fremd at first to stop brooking the latinates but it becomes eath over time. :)

@Ængelfolc - spend OE spendan ... O.H.G. spendon, Ger., M.Du. spenden, O.N. spenna ... from L. expendere?

@Jayles ... Could use your grammar insight here.

"What can I do besides complaining" sounds wrong to me but I can't say why ...

I think it should be complain. What can I do besides complain. What can I do but complain.

However, "Besides complaining, what can I do?" sounds ok.

Any thoughts? Or am I completely off base here?

Being a former cop ... the police-speak comes from the wont of writing and talking as if everything is going to be brooked in a courtroom ... since it often is! It's a form of legalese! lol