The English language descends from Old English, the West Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons. Most of its grammar, its core vocabulary and the most common words are Germanic.[1] However, the percentage of loans in everyday conversation varies by dialect and idiolect, even if English vocabulary at large has a greater Romance influence.[2] [3]
Many loanwords have entered into English from other languages. [4] English borrowed many words from Old Norse, the North Germanic language of the Vikings,[5] and later from Norman French, the Romance language of the Normans, which descends from Latin. Estimates of native words derived from Old English range up to 33%, with the rest made up of outside borrowings. These are mostly from Norman/French, but many others were later borrowed directly from Latin or Greek. Some of the Romance words borrowed into English were themselves loanwords from other languages, such as the Germanic Frankish language.[6]
A computerized survey of about 80,000 words in the third edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, published by Finkenstaedt and Wolff in 1973 estimated the origin of English words to be as follows:[7] [8]
A 1975 survey of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters by Joseph M. Williams suggested this set of statistics:[9]
However, he found considerable discrepancy between the most common and least common words. The top thousand words were 83% of English origin, while the least common were only 25% of English origin.
However, due to the variability of vocabulary of individuals, dialects, and time periods, exact percentages cannot be take at face value.
Here is a list of the most common foreign language influences in English, where other languages have influenced or contributed words to English.
See main article: Lists of English words of Celtic origin. Celtic words are almost absent but do exist, such as the word galore which came about in the 17th century and stems from the Irish, "go leor" which means plenty, or to sufficiency. [10] There are also dialectal words, such as the Yan Tan Tethera system of counting sheep. However, hypotheses have been made that English syntax was influenced by Celtic languages, such as the system of continuous tenses was a calque of similar Celtic phrasal structures. This is controversial, as the system has clear native English and other Germanic developments.
See main article: English words of French origin and Influence of French on English. The French contributed legal, military, technological, and political terminology. French was the prestige language during the Norman occupation of the British Isles, causing many French words to enter English vocabulary.[11] Their language also contributed common words, such as how food was prepared: boil, broil, fry, roast, and stew, as well as words related to the nobility: prince, duke, marquess, viscount, baron, and their feminine equivalents.[12] Nearly 30 percent of English words (in an 80,000-word dictionary) are of French origin.
See main article: Latin influence in English. Most words in English that are derived from Latin are scientific and technical words, medical terminology, academic terminology, and legal terminology.
See also: English words of Greek origin and List of Greek morphemes used in English. English words derived from Greek include scientific and medical terminology (for instance -phobias and -ologies), Christian theological terminology.
Castle, cauldron, kennel, catch, cater are among Norman words introduced into English. The Norman language also introduced (or reinforced) words of Norse origin such as mug.
See also: List of English words of Dutch origin, List of place names of Dutch origin and List of English words of Afrikaans origin. There are many ways through which Dutch words have entered the English language: via trade and navigation, such as skipper (from), freebooter (from), keelhauling (from); via painting, such as landscape (from), easel (from), still life (from); warfare, such as forlorn hope (from), beleaguer (from), to bicker (from); via civil engineering, such as dam, polder, dune (from); via the New Netherland settlements in North America, such as cookie (from), boss from, Santa Claus (from Sinterklaas); via Dutch/Afrikaans speakers with English speakers in South Africa, such as wildebeest, apartheid, boer; via French words of Dutch/Flemish origin that have subsequently been adopted into English, such as boulevard (from), mannequin (from), buoy (from).[13]
See main article: List of English words from Indigenous languages of the Americas.
moose, raccoon, husky, chipmunk, pecan, squash, hominy, toboggan, tomahawk, monadnock, mohawk
Cariban
cannibal, hurricane, manatee
tomato, coyote, chocolate, avocado, chili
coho, sockeye, sasquatch, geoduck
tobacco
acai, cougar, ipecac, jaguar, maraca, piranha, toucan
See also: List of English words of Spanish origin. Words from Iberian Romance languages (aficionado, albino, alligator, cargo, cigar, embargo, guitar, jade, mesa, paella, platinum, plaza, renegade, rodeo, salsa, savvy, sierra, siesta, tilde, tornado, vanilla etc.). Words relating to warfare and tactics, for instance flotilla, and guerrilla; or related to science and culture.
See also: List of English words of Italian origin. There are many Italian words used in the English language relating to music such as piano, fortissimo, and legato, and Italian culture and politics, such as piazza, pizza, gondola, balcony, fascism. The English word umbrella comes from Italian .
See also: List of English words of Turkic origin. English contains many Turkish loanwords, which are still part of the modern vernacular, including bosh, balkan, bugger, sofa, coffee, doodle, Hungary, lackey, mammoth, quiver, yogurt, and yataghan.
See also: List of English words of Hindi or Urdu origin. English contains words relating to culture originating from the colonial era in India, e.g., atoll, avatar, bandana, bangles, buddy, bungalow, calico, candy, cashmere, chit, cot, curry, cushy, dinghy, guru, juggernaut, jungle, karma, khaki, lacquer, lilac, loot, mandarin, mantra, polo, pyjamas, shampoo, thug, tiffin, and verandah.
See also: List of German expressions in English. English is a Germanic language. As a result, many words are distantly related to German. Most German words relating to World War I and World War II found their way into the English language, words such as Blitzkrieg, Anschluss, Führer, and Lebensraum; food terms, such as bratwurst, hamburger and frankfurter; words related to psychology and philosophy, such as gestalt, Übermensch, zeitgeist, and realpolitik. From German origin are also: wanderlust, schadenfreude, kaputt, kindergarten, autobahn, rucksack.
Words of Old Norse origin have entered English primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England between the mid 9th to the 11th centuries (see also Danelaw). Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as they, egg, sky or knife.
Words used in religious contexts, like Sabbath, kosher, hallelujah, amen, and jubilee or words that have become slang like schmuck, shmooze, nosh, oy vey, and schmutz.
See also: List of English Latinates of Germanic origin. Words such as warden and guardian are hypothesized to come from a proto-Romance loan from Frankish *wardōn 'to direct one's gaze'.
See also: List of English words of Arabic origin. Trade items such as borax, coffee, cotton, hashish, henna, mohair, muslin, saffron; Islamic religious terms such as jihad, Assassin, hadith, and sharia; scientific vocabulary borrowed into Latin in the 12th and 13th centuries (alcohol, alkali, algebra, azimuth, zenith, cipher, nadir); plants or plant products originating in tropical Asia and introduced to medieval Europe through Arabic intermediation (camphor, jasmine, lacquer, lemon, orange, sugar); Middle Eastern and Maghrebi cuisine words (couscous, falafel, hummus, kebab, tahini).
Cardinal numbering in English follows two models, Germanic and Italic. The basic numbers are zero through ten. The numbers eleven through nineteen follow native Germanic style, as do twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, and ninety.
Standard English, especially in very conservative formal contexts, continued to use native Germanic style as late as World War I for intermediate numbers greater than 20, viz., "one-and-twenty," "five-and-thirty," "seven-and-ninety," and so on. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the Latin tradition of counting as "twenty-one," "thirty-five," "ninety-seven," etc., which is easier to say and was already common in non-standard regional dialects, gradually replaced the traditional Germanic style to become the dominant style by the end of nineteenth century.
See main article: Linguistic purism in English.
Linguistic purism in the English language is the belief that words of native origin should be used instead of foreign-derived ones (which are mainly Romance, Latin and Greek). "Native" can mean "Anglo-Saxon" or it can be widened to include all Germanic words. In its mild form, it merely means using existing native words instead of foreign-derived ones (such as using "begin" instead of "commence"). In its more extreme form, it involves reviving native words that are no longer widely used (such as "ettle" for "intend") and/or coining new words from Germanic roots (such as word stock for vocabulary). This dates at least to the inkhorn term debate of the 16th and 17th century, where some authors rejected the foreign influence, and has continued to this day, being most prominent in Plain English advocacy to avoid Latinate terms if a simple native alternative exists.