Etymological Survey of English Word-stock PDF

Etymological Survey of English Word-stock Key Terms q Borrowed words are words which are taken into English from another language. q Native/indigenous word are those word created by the speakers of the language. q Origin of the word is the language where the word was born. What is a word?  Wha...

Etymological Survey of English Word-stock Key Terms q Borrowed words are words which are taken into English from another language. q Native/indigenous word are those word created by the speakers of the language. q Origin of the word is the language where the word was born. What is a word?  What is Etymology? q Etymology is the study of words, and how they evolved over time. It involves tracing the development of the word from its earliest known use to the present day, and examining the linguistics, cultural, and historical factors that have influenced its meaning and usage. Tasks of Etymology To comprehend the historical nature of English vocabulary. To examine the origin and sources of the vocabulary units; To reveal the historical causes of their appearance and development To comprehend the role of native and borrowed elements in the enlargement of the English vocabulary; To appreciate the role of English in the intercultural communication. Origin of the words in English Etymologically the vocabulary of any language consist of two group of units ( the native words and borrowed or loan words) In 15th century history recorded in written manuscripts the English language came in contact with mainly Latin, French, and Old Norse ( Scandinavian). The English etymological shows that 70% of its vocabularies are borrowed. It is very difficult to identify borrowed words from indigenous words e.g., street, face, and school are all borrowed. Table is borrowed from French, but its origin is Latin.  q A native word is a word which belongs to the original English stock, as known from the Old English period. The native words are Basic further subdivided into those of the Indo- European stock and those of Germanic Features of origin. Native Words q Native word have been brought to the British Isles in the 5th century by Germanic tribes- Angles, Saxons and Jutes. qThe first written document in Old English was the law code of King Ethelbert of Kent date from shortly after 602.  q The words of Indo- European origin are mainly kinship ( father, mother, son) terms from nature ( sun, water, moon), names of animals and birds ( bull, cat, wolf), parts of the human body ( arm, eye, foot), frequent verbs ( come, sit, stand) etc.; Areas of the q A bigger part is formed by words of the Germanic Native Lexicon stock. These words have parallels in the German, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic: e.g.: Summer, winter, rain, house, bridge, life, to learn, to see and others; q Native words make 80% of the 500 most frequent words in English. They are characterised by a high lexical grammatical valency.  q Man, woman, boy, brother, wife, son. q Sleep, read, die, dream, work, write, eat. Example of q Bird, hare, rabbit, horse, goose, hen. Native Words q Kind, keen, long, hard, heavy, hearty. q This, that, the a, to, or, but, also, with. q What, why, who, where, how. q One, two, three, four, five…. q Bread, soup, apple, pie, milk.  q Latin is found in almost every language. Example: Classical Et cetera – and the rest Heritage E.g. – Exempli gracia ( for the sake of example) A.M – Anti Meridiem P.M – Post Meridiem q Greek and Latin elements: Example: Calculation and measurement: Kilogram, centimeter, quadrillion, concepts, globalization, privatization, social security. Frequent Loan Words qGreek: Analysis, anatomy, angel, prophet; q Latin: butter, area, bonus, audio, city; q French: river, price, money, coin, double; q Arabic: alcohol, algebra, coffee, cotton; q Italian: banquet, bergamot, biscuit, candy; q Indian: guru, sari, avatar, pyjamas; q American Indian: canoe, moccasin, Turkey. Assimilation of Loans q Assimilation of borrowing is a partial or complete adaptation to the phonetical, grammatical, semantic, morphological and graphical system of receiving the language. qThe degree of assimilation depends on the semantic importance, frequency and length of use of borrowings; qThe process of assimilation of the borrowings includes changes in sound- form, morphological, structure, grammatical characteristics, meaning and usage. Assimilation of Borrowed Words Phonetic Grammatical Lexical  q Some French borrowings have retained their stress on the last syllable: Cartoon, garage. q Russian loans changes stresses: bol’shevik, ‘Moscow; Phonetic q Some borrowings retain the unusual Assimilation combination of sounds in words: French / wa:/ in memoir, boulevard. of Borrowings q Old English scyrte, of Germanic origin, developed into ‘ shirt’, and related to Old Norse skyrta, which gave, ‘skirt’ ( probably from a base meaning ‘ short garment’)  q Grammatical assimilation is the change of grammatical categories and paradigms of borrowed words, change of their morphological structure by analogy with other English words: Grammatical Latin suffix –us ( barbarous) was replaced with Assimilation the surfixes –ous or –al: bararus – barbarous; botanicus – botanical. q In such cases we say the words has been grammatically assimilated. Lexical Assimilation q Lexical assimilation includes changes in semantic structure and the formation of derivatives: Fr. Peine- painful, painless, painstaking, painkiller, etc. qPolysemantic words are usually adopted only in one two of their meanings: Spanish cargo – only the meaning ‘ the goods carried in a ship’, not debt or position; q A borrowing sometimes acquires new meaning that were not to be found in its former semantic structure: French ‘ mouvoir’ – ‘ to move’ in English development meanings. The Degrees of Assimilation q Completely Assimilated: borrowed words: L. wall, cheese, street, wine; Sc. Husband, root, fellow; Fr. Courage, -age, -ance, -ess. q Partially Assimilated: borrowed words: sherbet, sari, sombrero, admiral, piano, repertoire, candy. q Unassimilated borrowed: words or barbarism: Italian: Ciao ‘ goodbye’ , French: coup d’ etat, bouquet, L. phenomenon. Gr, formula. Thank You