ETYMOLOGY

Etymology of English words

English is more international in scope than many other languages because of the contributions of Latin, Greek, and other tongues
from: http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/4357

Native English words vs.

Words borrowed from other languages

Which of these words are more similar to Spanish?Why?Which are more frequent?

motherly maternal

fatherly paternal

womanly feminine

fear terror

to begin to commence

to love to adore

to build to construct

Objectives:

• To have a quick look at the etymology of English words

• To see how these etymological characteristics help us study and learn about words

Etymology of the English vocabulary in percentage

Native English words 30 %

Borrowed from other languages 70 %

What does this statement mean?

Most of the words which are classified as "educated words" came to us from Latin and Greek sources and they were coined mostly by scientists and scholars.

From: Read it for next class

http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/4357

Native English words belong to the original English stock

Indo-European stock

Terms of kinship: father, mother, son, daughter

Phenomena of nature: sun, moon,wind, water

Names of animals: bull, cat, wolf

Parts of the human body: arm, ear, eye, foot,

Common verbs: bear, come, sit, stand

Common Germanic Stock

Nouns -summer, winter, storm, rain, ice

-cloth, hat, shirt, shoe

Verbs: bake, burn, buy, drive, hear, learn, make, meet, see

Adjectives: broad, dead, deaf, deep

Charateristics of English native words

• High frequency
• Monosyllabic structure
• Stylistically neutral
• Great word-building power
• High lexical and grammatical combinability
• Developed polysemy: Many meanings

Example of the native word: watch

• Among the most common 500 words (296)
• Monosyllabic structure
• Many meanings –more than 5
• Styllistically neutral
• Derived words: watcher, watchful
• verb and noun
• Idioms: keep watch, watch one`s steps
• A watched pot never boils.

Borrowed words

Words that have been adopted from other languages and adapted to the characteristics of the English language

Borrowed words

Words taken over from another language, modified in phonemic shape, spelling, meaning according to the stardards of the English language

English words of international originestimates of acomputarized survey of 80,000 words Shorter Oxford Dictionary 1973

French and Norman 28.3 %

Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin 28.24 %

Germanic languages 25 %

Greek 5.32 %

No etymology given or unknown 4.03 %

Derived from proper names: 3.28 %

All other languages contributed less than 1 %

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanword

Why so many borrowings?

• Roman invasion 1st century B.C.
• Latin words
• Introduction of Christianity 7th century
• Latin words
• Renaissance 14th - 17th centuries
• Latin and Greek words
• The Norman Conquest 1066
• French words

Latin from the Romans (early borrowings)

English Latin

butter -butyrum

cheese -caseus

plant -planta

cup -cuppa

kitchen -coquina

mill -molina

port -portus

wine -vinum

Latin christianization of England

English Latin

priest -presbyter

bishop -episcopus

monk -monachus

nun -nunna

candle -candela

Renaissance14th and 17th centuriesIdeas of ancient Greece were discovered again.

Latin: calculate, permanent, filial,

moderate, intelligent

Greek: atom, cycle, ethics, mathematics

French

Legal terms: court, judge, justice,

crime, prison

Military terms: army, soldier, officer,

battle, enemy

Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library,

science

Spanish

vanilla, mosquito, tomato, empanada,

macho,

French

valley, ventilate, - initial v

gem, genre, gendarme - letter g

beauty -spelling eau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_French_origin

http://french.about.com/library/bl-frenchinenglish-list.htm

Pronunciation of ch

Native words and early borrowings:

child chair

French: machine, parachute

Greek: epoch, chemist, echo, architect, chronic,

chaos,

Which is native? Which is borrowed?

fatigue - weariness

felicity - hapiness

to like - to admire

to ask - to inquire

smell - aroma

Importance of the etymology of words to our present study of language

Value of “little” words –native words

Ex. hand, foot, leg

Polysyllabic words in formal style

Ex. encyclopedia, phenomenon

False cognates

Ex. library, voluminous

False cognates

complexion-

relatives

parents

sensitive

sensible

large

educated

False cognates or false friends

http://spanish.about.com/cs/vocabulary/a/obviouswrong.htm

http://www.musicalspanish.com/tutorial/false-cognates-worksheet.htm

http://www.musicalspanish.com/tutorial/false-cognates.htm

Conclusions

• Borrowing is one productive source of enrichment of the English vocabulary.

• Borrowed words have enlarged the English vocabulary and the groups of synonyms. They have provided the dichotomy between neutral::formal words

• English is still a Germanic language because of the characteristics of native English words: wide range of lexical and grammatical valency, highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and set expressions

• Native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing.