Etymology of English Words

English Vocabulary consists of two layers—the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words.

Native words comprise only approximately 20 % of the total number of words in the English vocabulary.

English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, German group.

Native words consist of the following lexical and morphological units:

Indo-European elements (roots, affixes, words) can be found in many Indo-European languages

- generic names: father, mother, brother… (Cf. brother – Bruder (Ger) – брат – fratello (It.))
- parts of the body: nose, foot… (Cf. nose – nos (Pl) – naso (It.) – Nase (It))
- names of animals: cow, swine…
- names of plants: tree, birch, corn…(Cf. birch – Birke (Ger) – bříza (Cz))
- parts of day: day, night…
- some common adjectives: red, new...
- numerals: one, two, three etc…
- some common verbs: eat, know, be…

Common Germanic Elements can be found in some other Germanic languages: bear, hand, ship, house… (Cf: bear – bære (Danish) – Bär (Ger))

English proper elements exist only in the English language as originated from Anglo-Saxon: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always etc.

Loan words (borrowed words)are taken from another language and modified according to the pattern of the receiving language. Borrowed words make around 80% of the total word stock in English.

Role and quantity of borrowed words in any given language depend on certain historical events:

1000 BC –The Celtic tribes invaded Britain (some Celtic words and proper names still remain in Modern English, mainly placenames)

e.g. Avon, druid, bald,’cair-‘ means ‘fortified town,’ as in Carlisle, Cumbria

43 BC –Roman occupation (names of cities etc.)

e.g. -ceaster (-chester, -caster) - a Roman station or walled town, as in Chester, Manchester etc.

500 AD –The invasion of Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes

The beginning of the English language (Old English period). Also the period of early Latin loans, which came into English language through the languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin words denoting objects belonging to that civilization long before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons and Judes into Britain.

e.g. cherry (Lat. cerasum), cup (Lat. cuppa) etc.

597 AD – Introduction of Christianity. The second tide of Latin loans, which penetrated to English when the English people were converted to Christianity.

e.g. priest, church, school

8 – 11 centuries – Scandinavian invasions

e.g. call, take, ask, husband, sk-words (sky, skirt)

1066 – The Norman conquest brought a lot of borrowed words of French origin, mainly administrative words: state, government, parliament; legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison; military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy; educational terms: library, science, etc. The beginning of the Middle English period.

14-16 centuries – The Renaissance period – Greek, French, Italian, the 3d wave of Latin borrowings. The words of this period are mainly abstract and scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular, vaccine, phenomenon, and vacuum).

Borrowed and native Anglo-Saxon words often coexist as synonyms in Modern English, for example, so called lexical twins and triplets:

Please watch a short video from TED about the origin of English.

Descriiption: "When we talk about 'English', we often think of it as a single language. But what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? Claire Bowern traces the language from the present day back to its ancient roots, showing how English has evolved through generations of speakers. [Directed by Patrick Smith, narrated by Addison Anderson]. "

And another video from the The Open University

Ways of Borrowing. Assimilation

Words are borrowed by oral and written ways. In case of oral borrowing, the word is assimilated quicker.

Types of assimilation (adaptation to the norms of the recipient language):

1. Phonetic assimilation

The loan word changes its sound-form according to phonetic norms of English, e.g. The French long vowel [e] was changed into the diphthong [ei], e.g. cafe
The loan word changes its stress: e.g. French words have stress on the last syllable, e.g. honn'eur, rai’son but English disyllabic words tend to have their stress on the first syllable, 'honor, 'reason.

2. Grammatical assimilation means that loan words start to change their grammatical forms in accordance with the standards of the English language. However, some words are not fully assimilated; for example, the following words have retained the plural of their native language: e.g. phenomenon - phenomena; addendum - addenda; parenthesis – parentheses; vacuum - vacua, vacuums; virtuoso - virtuosi, virtuosos.

3. Changes in morphological structure imply that divisible words become indivisible, because certain morphemes are absent from English, such as Italian suffixes. -etto, -otta, -ello which became the part of the root (ballot, stiletto, umbrella).

4. Lexical assimilation implies the change of meaning.

For example, the meaning of the word may become more general, e.g. The Italian word ‘umbrella’ used to denote only 'sunshade,' while the English word ‘umbrella’ now may mean any kind of protection.

Degrees of assimilation

Some words are easily recognizable as loan words, e.g. Zeitgeist, ballet
Most words are thoroughly assimilated: pupil, master, etc.

Some words are partially assimilated: phenomenon—(pl.) phenomena

Translation loans(calque) are words taken into the vocabulary of another language by way of literal morpheme-for-morpheme or word-for-word translation (e.g. masterpiece (from Germ. Meisterstück), wonder child (from Germ. Wunderkind), first dancer (from Ital. prima-ballerina), collective farm (from R. колхоз), five-year plan (from R. пятилетка).

When analysing borrowed words one should distinguish between two terms - source of borrowing and origin of borrowing. The first term is applied to the language from which the word was immediately borrowed and the second—to the language to which the word may be ultimately traced.

Etymological doublets are words originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonemic shape and in meaning. They may enter the vocabulary by different routes. (e.g. to capture (Lat.) — to catch (Norm. Fr.) — to chase (Par. Fr.); shirt—skirt)

Additional reading: 15 Pairs of Different Words That Surprisingly Come From the Exact Same Source

Lecture slides

Lex_Lecture 2_2020-cont.

Etymology of English Words

Ways of Borrowing. Assimilation

Further reading

Lecture slides