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English: a global language A
The origins of English vocabulary LANGUAGE ONLINE Some languages do not easily accept words from other languages into their lexicon1, but English has always welcomed them. It is estimated that English vocabulary has its sources2 in at least 120 languages. Some languages have, of course, provided English with more words than others. English started out with a basic Anglo-Saxon3 word stock4. Viking5 and Norman6 invaders from the 9th century onwards enriched7 the language enormously with large numbers of words brought from their own languages. The Vikings brought new words of Germanic origin while the Normans spoke a form of French. Both sets of invaders had an enormous impact on8 English vocabulary, explaining why English may sometimes seem to have several words for the same basic concept9. During the Renaissance of the 15th to the 17th centuries, scholars introduced many words of classical origin10. And throughout history, English speakers’ contact with the world as explorers, scientists, traders, pirates and holiday-makers has had linguistic consequences11 in a wealth of new words from every part of the world that they reached. These words taken from other languages are sometimes referred to as loanwords or borrowings.
vocabulary (specialist term) where something comes from 3 Old English 4 set of words 5 Norse, from the north of Europe, e.g. Denmark or Norway 1 2
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from Normandy, a region in the north of France made richer 8 influenced, had an effect on 9 idea 10 from Latin or Ancient Greek 11 results affecting language 6 7
English words from other languages language
word
meaning
phrase
Arabic
amber
yellowy-orange substance originating from tree resin and used in jewellery
an amber necklace
Dutch
roster
list of people’s turns for jobs
the cooking roster
Farsi
tabby
grey and brown stripy cat
our old tabby
German
gimmick
an amusing or unusual way of attracting attention
advertising gimmicks
Greek
tonic
medicine to make you feel stronger and better
take a tonic
Hindi
cot
child’s bed with high vertical sides
sleep in a cot
Icelandic
mumps
a childhood illness
have mumps
Japanese
karaoke
type of entertainment where ordinary people sing to popular music
a karaoke machine
Portuguese
palaver
unnecessary trouble
What a palaver!
Russian
intelligentsia
social class of intellectuals
19th-century intelligentsia
Spanish
hammock
net hung and used as a bed
sleep in a hammock
Turkish
turban
type of men’s headwear, made from a long piece of cloth
wear a turban
False friends Some English words may look like words in your language but have a different meaning. Such words are known as false friends, e.g. the German word Gift looks like the English word gift [present] but actually means poison in German. The English word sympathetic resembles a word meaning, simply, nice in many other European languages, but in English sympathetic has a much narrower meaning [understanding and caring about someone else’s suffering]. Note also that the pronunciation of a word borrowed into English may be quite different from its pronunciation in its language of origin.
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English Vocabulary in Use Advanced
