New English vocabulary changes
The Renaissance was marked by a great influence of Latin and Greek on the English vocabulary. At this time thousands of Latin bookish words often scientific or technical terms like “formula, maximum, minimum, item, radius” were borrowed. Many words in –ate, -ute were assimilated (e.g. separate, irritate, execute, constitute).
There appeared Latin-French etymological doublets such as: pauper – poor, history – story, example – sample.
These are Latin-Latin doublets and even triplets. E.g. Latin “discus” (< Greek) is represented in English by “dish” (OE borrowing), “disk” (ME borrowing), disc and discus (NE borrowing)
Greek loans are even more specifically terminological. The names of most sciences are of Greek origin: mathematics, physics, botany, lexicology. Such words as synonym, antonym, metaphor, metonymy, archaism are also of Greek origin.
These are compounds that never existed in Greek but have been coined from Greek morphemes: telephone, microscope, photograph. One of the results of the Latin and Greek influence on the English vocabulary is the formation of numerous hybrids. Latin and Greek affixes were widely used with English roots: talkative, starvation, antiaircraft and English affixes with Latin or Greek roots: underestimate, unjust, membership, falsehood.
The influx of French borrowing continued through the New English period. In most cases these new loan-words are distinguishable from previous French borrowings by their phonetic and spelling peculiarities.
E.g. ME village, NE mirage
a) the stress shifted according to English accentuation
mi'rage – stress on the last syllable remained
b) g /G/ - typical English sound
/Z/ - French sound
E.g. bourgeois, regime, machine, chemise can be easily identified by spelling and pronunciation.
English borrowed much from other languages:
▪ Italian – mostly words relating to the arts: violin, portico, solo, ballerina, sonata, tempo but also ballot, manifesto, casino, algebra, zero, bankrupt.
▪ from Spanish and Portuguese: potato, cocoa, tobacco, cigar, canoe, embargo, contraband.
▪ Russian borrowings: tsar, duma, rouble, copeck, tundra, taiga, samovar, vodka, decembrist, bolshevik, Soviet, sputnik.
▪ from Dutch: dock, landscape, easel, sketch.
About 70% of all the words in an unabridged dictionary of Modern English are said to have been fully or partially borrowed from other languages.