“Words are the tools for the job of saying what you want to say” (Bergen Evans) Where do English words come from?
Etymology • What is etymology?
Etymology From the history of words Folk etymology The origin of English Borrowings Classification of borrowings International words
From the history of words l The source of many words and terms is a matter of history: l the Earl of Sandwich, a town in Kent, used to have sandwiches brought to him at the gaming table; Levi Strauss caused the invention of hardwearing trousers; cardigan was named for the 7 th Earl of Cardigan, J. N. Brudenell. l What do you know about the origins of the words: doctor, alcohol, capital, dean?
Literally a doctor is a teacher, l for his name, which is pure Latin, comes from doceo, doctus, “teach”. It was originally applied to any learned man, Doctor of Letters, Philosophy, or Laws. It was not until the late Middle Ages that a doctor became more particularly a medical man.
Alcohol: bluing for the eyes l the Arabic word for this was al-koh’l, al “the”, and koh’l, “powdered antimony”. l Capital: really meant “head”. From Latin “caput”, a “head” of cattle. Cattle are one of the oldest forms of wealth… Lat. caput (human head); capital (city), capital letter, captain.
The term etymology was coined by the Stoics They looked for the etymon or true first form of a word. l This was the beginning of the study known today as etymology, Gr. etumologia, from etumon true meaning of a word, and –logia study (both the study of the history of words and a statement of the origin and history of a word, including changes in its form and meaning).
Etymological background of some words l Technical terms “alcohol”, “caliber”, “zenith” remind of the period when Muslim world knew a lot more about science than Christians in Europe did. l Zenith (arab. ): over your head; samt arras “way over the head” l Money, moneta, Sp. moneda, Fr. monaie, English money, O. E. mynet (coins) from Italian Juno Moneta, the admonisher- of a temple (3 d c. B. C. ). l (guide)
Folk Etymology l The changing of a strange or foreign words so that they become like words that are quite common in one’s own language. Thus the Spanish word cucaracha entered English as cockroach by influence of the already familiar words cock and roach. l Mouscheron (Fr. ) – mushroom; asparagus – sparrow grass; bridegome – bridegroom; M. E. shamfast ( O. E. modest) – shamefaced; l There are linguistic and extra-linguistic factors which create and influence meanings of words: a) linguistic - sound and grammar changes; b) extra-linguistic – different social conditions, situations which explain the origin of words in connection with various extra-linguistic factors. (kangaroo – I don’t know; “aca nada” nothing there ; forget-me-not) l Alma-Ata, pluralism, krossovki
The origin of English l The 5000 or so languages of the world can be grouped into about 300 language families, on the basis of similarities in their basic word stock and grammars. One of these families is Indo-European, includes most of the languages of Europe, the Near East, and North India.
14 l One branch of the Indo-European family is called Italic, another is called Germanic which had three branches: North, West and East Germanic. West Germanic branch developed into modern German, Dutch, Frisian, and English.
Indo-European Family Italic Germanic (north, west, east)
West-Germanic branch Modern German Dutch Frisian English
The Germanic invaders referred to the native Celts as Wealas (foreigners), from which the name ‘Welsh’ is derived. The Celts called the invaders Sassenachs ‘Saxons’. • By the end of the 6 th century, however, the term Angli ‘Angles’ was in use. During the 7 th century , the usual Latin name for the country was Angli or Anglia.
This became Engle in Old English, l while the name of the language was referred to as Englisc (the sc =the sound ‘sh’, ANGLE, -ISH). The word originally denoted the early Germanic settlers of Britain (Angles Saxons and Jutes). The word Englaland (the land of the Angles), which later gave England, appeared at the beginning of the 10 th century.
Native English vocabulary l Native English vocabulary is made up of Anglo-Saxon words. This category consists of words that arrived with the Germanic invaders. l Anglo-Saxon words are generally short and concrete; e. g. parts of the body ( arm, bone, chest, ear, eye,
foot, hand, heart), the natural landscape (field, hedge, hill land, meadow, wood), domestic life l (door, floor, home, house), the calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year), animals (cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, swine), common adjectives (black, dark, good, long, white, wide), and common verbs (become, do, eat, fly, go, help, kiss, live, love, say, see, sell, send, think) (see Crystal, D. 1995) l The Old English corpus (period: 450 -1066) is believed to contain about 24, 000 different lexical items. About 85% of OE words are no longer in use Furthermore, only 3% of words in OE are loanwords, compared with over 70% in Modern English.
l Native words in English are subdivided into two groups: Indo-European and Common Germanic stock. They are words denoting: kinship (Germ. mutter, Old Irish mathir, Old Slavic mati, Lat. mater, Gr. meter, Sanscrit matar; important objects and phenomena of nature (the sun, water); animals and birds (wolf, cat, goose); verbs (sit, stand); numerals (two, three) and so on.
English is closely related to Dutch and German, they are, in turn, related to the Sc. Languages and to the languages of Medieval Goths, and all these, are known as the Germanic languages. l Sc. words in English: husband, sky, skin, skirt, club and so on. l A much larger group of native vocabulary are Common Germanic words (German, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic). l Nouns: summer, winter, storm, rain, ice, ground, bridge, house, life, shoe. l Verbs: bake, burn, buy, drive, hear, keep, learn, make, meet. Adjectives: broad, deaf, deep. l From etymological point of view words can be divided into words: a) o. o. o. - of obscure origin; b) definite origin.
Borrowings l The Middle English (1066 -1500) is characterized by intensive and extensive borrowings from other languages. The Norman conquest of 1066, which introduced French-English bilingualism, paved the way of a massive borrowing of French words into English vocabulary l Early Modern English (1500 and on) l Words from Italian, Spanish and other languages were borrowed. (A number of modern languages French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian have come into being as a result of gradual changes of Latin which is a common parent tongue to them. )
1609 and on … l The settlement of North America brought the l English language into contact with Indian languages. l The Modern English period (1800 -present): growth of scientific vocabulary, the assertion of American English as a dominant variety of the language, and the emergence of other varieties known as ‘New Englishes’: Indian English, Philipine English, Singapore English, and African Englishes of such nations as Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Classification of borrowings l Phonetic Assimilation. Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation. l What is assimilation? l Borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated, partly assimilated, and nonassimilated (barbarisms). l Completely assimilated words are not felt as foreign words in the language, c. f. sport (Fr. ), start (native).
Assimilation of borrowed words l Semantic assimilation. A borrowed word does not bring all its meanings into the borrowing language l if it is polysemantic, e. g. sputnic l Partly assimilated borrowings: a) non- assimilated semantically (sari, sombrero sarafan, shah, rajah, ruppie). l Borrowings non-assimilated grammatically: bacillusbacilli, phenomenon- phenomena, datum-data etc. (Gr. , Lat. )
Borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, l e. g. in Gr. borrowings ‘y’ can be spelled in the midd of the word (symbol, synonym), ch = k (chemistry, chaos), ps = s (psychology). l The letters j, x, z indicate the foreign origin of the word, e. g. jewel, zest , xylophone. l Fr. Borrowings: p, t, s are not pronounced l at the end (buffet, ballet, coup, debris). l Barbarisms (not assimilated in any way): Lat. ad libitum, et cetera, Fr. affiche, tête-à-tête
Romance loans l Latin: street, wall, port; classical borrowings: alter, cross, dean; (Gr. words) church, angel, devil, anthem. Latin and Greek borrowings appeared during the Middle English period. These are mostly scientific words: formulae, philosophy, memorandum, minimum, maximum, veto etc. l Words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes: appendicitis, aspirin; acid, valency, alkali; antenna, biplane, airdrome, engine; socialism, militarism; zoology, physics; homonym, archaism, lexicography.
Italian, Spanish, French borrowings l Due to cultural and trade relations between Italy and England many Italian borrowings came into English: bank from the Ital. banko – bench, banco rotta – bankrupt; volcano, granite, bronze, lava; alto, tenor, solo, opera, operetta, piano, violin; gazette, incognito, fascist, grotesque, dilettante, graffiti; macaroni, pizza; umbrella; vendetta etc. l Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant. They are: cargo, embargo; tango, rumba, guitar; tomato, potato, tobacco, cocoa, banana, ananas, apricot. l French: army, war, soldier, chivalry, courage; machine, garage; luxury, collar, lace, embroidery; topaz, emerald, pearl; lunch, dinner, table, plate, appetite, cafe; brochure, conservatoire, vaudeville, matinee; bourgeois etc.
Germanic borrowings l Scandinavian (dew to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles): bull, cake, egg, skirt, window; flat, ill, happy, ugly, wrong; call, die, guess, get, give, scream , and many others. l German: cobalt, zinc, wolfram; iceberg, rucksack, kindergarten, Gestapo, gas chamber, Volkswagen, Gaistarbaiter etc. l Dutch: freight, skipper, pump, reef, deck, leak.
Loanwords from other sources l A number of words of Arabic origin were borrowed during the Middle English period. Some came via French or Latin. l Examples: admiral, amber, cotton, orange, syrup, algebra, algorithm, almanac, hazard; giraffe, lemon, magazine, sherbet. l Persian words: caravan, bazaar, shah, shawl; tiger, paradise.
Chinese words: judo, tycoon, kamikaze. l Hindi/Urdu words: jungle, pajamas, shampoo l Japanese: kimono, samurai, soy l Australian: kangaroo, boomerang l From Native American languages: moccassin, tobogan, tomahawk, skunk, Chicago, Michigan
International words. Neologisms l Words of identical origin that occur in several languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source are called international words: baritone, concert, opera, piano, antenna, antibiotics, cybernetics, sari, pullover, match etc. l Neologisms: audio book, GM foods, cybercafé, waitperson, keypal, mouse potato, bad hair day
