Where do English words come from? from ?

Part II
31 October 2007

Last time
Historical development of the English language(OE, ME, EModE, ModE) Celtic background (1st inhabitants?) Development from Anglo-Saxon to Modern English

Native English vocabulary

These are words that arrived with the Germanic invaders and are still used in Modern English. Some are g grammatical words, , such as be, in, that, while others are lexical words: father love father, love, name. Nucleus central mass; common words of the language

Native English vocabulary

Anglo-Saxon words are generally short and concrete; e.g. parts of the body: arm (OE earm), earm) bone(bn), chest (OE cest), ear (are), eye(age), foot (ft), hand ( (hand), ), heart ( (heorte) ); The natural landscape: field, hedge, hill, land, meadow,wood; , ; Domestic life: door, floor, home, house; The calendar: day, month, moon, sun, year;

Native English vocabulary

Animals: cow, cow dog dog, fish fish, goat goat, hen hen, sheep sheep, swine; Common C adjectives: dj ti bl k d black, dark, k good, d llong, white, wide; Common verbs: become, do, eat, fly, go, help, kiss, live, love, say, see, dell, send, think;

The influence of Celtic on English

The conditions of cultural contact between the Celts and the invading were such that the Celtic language could not have any serious impact on Old English. Only a handful of Celtic words were borrowed at the time, and just a few have survived into modern English. English Town names, river names, some geographical terms in southern and eastern England. Later on, on a few more Celtic words were introduced from Irish Gaelic in the 17th century: brogue, galore, shamrock, tory; and later on: banshee, blarney, colleen.

Celtic influence
From Scottish Gaelic come: clan,loch, clan loch bog bog, slogan, whisky. All in all, there are appr. two dozen g in English g loanwords of Celtic origin today.

The process of borrowing

When speakers imitate a word from a foreign language, and adapt it in sound or grammar to their native language, the process is called borrowing, and the word thus borrowed is called loanword or a borrowing. Terms inappropriate, because receiving languages never return the borrowed words. words Unlike other languages, English seems to have welcomed borrowings throughout its history. It is estimated that over 120 languages from all over the world have been sources of present-day English vocabulary. The history of a loanword may be quite complex, e.g. chess was borrowed into English from Middle French in the 14th century. The French word came from Arabic, which had earlier borrowed it from Persian shah king: so, direct or immediate source is French, but its ultimate source is Persian (as far back as we can trace it).

Latin words in English

Latin has been a major influence on English from the Germanic period up to modern times. E l contacts in Early i continental i l Europe, E b but not so many borrowings; In England, early borrowings: military domain, commerce, agriculture:

Latin words in English

These ese borrowings bo ow gs are: a e: Clothing (belt), buildings and settlements (wall, ceaster city,street); Mili Military and d legal l l institutions, i i i commerce and d religion: li i mass, monk, minster (monastery); Other: ancor,, butter,, chalk,, cheese,, dish,, mile,, p pepper, pp , p pound, , sack... Some early borrowings were acquired from British Celts: e e.g. g candle, andle chest chest, master master, port port, psalm psalm, tile tile. Approx. 500 Latin words borrowed in the entire OE period.

Latin borrowings

In ME, borrowing g from Latin continues, some via French, some directly. In this period mostly: professional or technical terms; terms from religion, law and literature. E.g. Client, conviction, library, scribe, simile, dissolve, equal, medicine. Simultaneous borrowing from Latin and French led to a highly distinctive feature of modern English vocabulary: set of three items (triplets), all expressing the same notion, but differing in style or meaning: E.g. kingly, royal, regal; rise, mount, ascend; ask, question, interrogate; fast, fi secure; holy, firm, h l sacred, d consecrated. t d 1 is colloquial, 2 is more literary, 3 is more learned.

Latin borrowings
Borrowing continued into the Modern English period, both from Latin and from Greek via Latin. Many y borrowings g in EModE: abdomen, bdo e , area, editor, graduate, imitate, medium, notorious peninsula notorious, peninsula, superintendent superintendent...

Scandinavian borrowings

Viking g raids from AD 787 and next 200 years. y In Danelaw, Danish settlers used their own placenames: e.g. Ending in by, scand. word for farm, town: (Derby), -thorpe, village (Althorpe), -thwaite, clearing (Braithwaite), -toft, homestead (E (Eastoft). f) Also, great Scandinavian influence in personal names. Other words from Scandinavian: get, give from Scandinavian forms, pronouns they, them, their; the replacement of sidon by are; the spread of the third person singular s ending in the present tense in other verbs. S Some of f th the commonest t words d i in modern d E English li h came i into t th the language at this time. Many words with initial sk are of Scandinavian origin: scorch, score, scrape scrub, scrape, scrub skill, skill skin, skin skirt, skirt sky. sky Window came from scand. scand vindauga. indauga Borrowing continued in Modern English period: muggy, rug, scud, ski, geyser,rune, saga, ombudsman.

Greek loanwords

As a classical language, g g Greek provided p English g with a considerable number of technical terms in all branches of human knowledge. Some Greek words were borrowed via Latin, and French, some were derived from Greek and Latin elements, while others were taken k di directly l f from G Greek. k Via Latin: allegory, anaesthesia, chaos, dilemma, enthusiasm, history, metaphor, paradox... Via French: centre, character, democracy, harmony, machine... Directly: acronym, autocracy, telegram...

French borrowings

Borrowing o ow g from o French e c has as occurred occu e eve ever since s ce the t e Middle Ages. After the Norman Conquest it increased noticeably. By the end of the 13th century some 10 10,000 000 French words had come into English. Mostly from fields such as: law, administration, medicine, arts, fashion, f hi everyday d life. lif Government, administration, attorney, chancellor,court, crime... c e... Abbot, bbot, clergy, c e gy, p preach... e c ... Prince, ce, d duke, e, viscount, sco t, b baron... o ... Army, captain, corporal, lieutenant, sergeant, soldier...

French borrowings

During the ME period, some words were borrowed from Norman French, others from Central French. Nearly a half of French borrowings was adopted in this period. M Many of f th the borrowings b i d duplicated li t d words d that th t already existed, so OE words disappeared, e.g. leod-people, leod people, wlitig wlitig-beautiful, beautiful, stow stow-place place. Hundreds of OE words disappeared in this way, but in some cases both words survive: e.g. Doomj d judgment, t hearty-cordial, h t di l h house-mansion i .

French borrowings

In ModE period borrowing continued, but not on the same scale. There are cases like: gentle, genteel, jaunty Fr. Gentil; chief, chef. The pronunciation of ch tells us that chamber, champion, chance are from ME times times, while chauffeur, chauffeur chevron chevron, chiffon from ModE period. French borrowings g since the 17th century y are less completely adapted than older loans: e.g. amateur, boulevard, ensemble, liaison, massage

German and Dutch loans

From the Middle Ages g on, commercial relationships p have existed between Flemish/Dutch and English speaking peoples. In these contacts, English borrowed from Dutch and other forms of Low German. Because B of fD Dutch h eminence i i in seafaring, f i Dutch D h contributed ib d many nautical terms to English: bowline, buoy, commodore, cruise, deck, skipper, smuggle, yacht. Some loanwords came to English via American Dutch settlers: coleslaw, cookie, cranberry, waffle.

Borrowings from other Romance languages

Spanish, p Portuguese g and Italian. Spanish and Portuguese from 16th cent. onwards, mostly from the New World: e.g. alligator, avocado, barracuda, canoe, chocolate, cockroach, domino, mosquito, potato, tobacco, tomato, vanilla Italian has had a particular significance for musical vocabulary, and other arts. Borrowing from Italian started in the 16th century: e.g. allegro, opera, piano, solo, sonata, soprano Later on, balcony, balloon, carnival, ghetto, lagoon, malaria, regatta, studio, torso, umbrella, volcano

Loanwords from other sources

East: Arabic words in ME period, science and commerce: e.g. admiral, amber, camphor, cipher, cotton, orange, syrup, zenith. The Arabic definite article al is retained in one form or another in: alchemy, l h alcohol, l h l algebra, l b algorithm, l i h alkali, lk li almanac, l azimuth, i h elixir, li i hazard. Borrowing g from Arabic has continued up p to modern times, , sometimes via Italian or French, including the following terms: assassin, calibre, carat, garble, giraffe, hashish, lemon, magazine, sherbet. Other Semitic Oth S iti languages: l H Hebrew: b kibb t amen, h kibbutz, hallelujah, ll l j h rabbi, bbi sabbath Persian: caravan, bazaar, shah, shawlvia Latin or French: azure, musk, paradise, scarlet, tiger.

Loanwords from other sources

From the Indian subcontinent, subcontinent English has borrowed a few words from Sanskrit (avatar, karma, mahatma, yoga), (curry), y) a number from Hindi/Urdu some from Tamil ( (bangle, dungaree, jungle, pajamas, shampoo). From Native American languages have come: moccassin, toboggan, tomahawk, skunk.

Today

English g s still st borrows bo ows from o other ot e languages a guages of o the t e world. wo . But: 1. the frequency of borrowing is considerably reduced; 2. English starts to borrow from less and less known languages. languages French is still the largest supplier of words to English, probably because of the geographical proximity. Spanish in American English.