Etymological characteristics of english vocabulary
The most characteristic etymological feature of English vocabulary is its mixed character. Only 25-30% of English words are of native origin. They are words of Indo-European and Common Germanic stock which were brought on to the territory of the British Isles by the Germanic tribes in the 5th century and which were later on, in the 7th century, registered in the oldest known manuscripts. Their derivatives belong there, too.
Borrowings (loan words, loans) are words adopted from other languages in the course of various kinds of linguistic contacts. They make 70-75% of the general word-stock.
1. Native words
Though their proportion is relatively small, they occupy an important position in English vocabulary forming, in fact, its core. It is because:
They denote the most important things (winter, sun; father, mother; wide, long; go, sleep, etc.). Most of the structural elements of English are native, such as auxiliary and modal verbs (be, become, can, may, shall, will, etc.), pronouns (I, he, she, we), conjunctions (and, but, though), prepositions (on, in, after), articles (a, the). Many frequent derivational affixes are of native origin, too (-hood, -dom, -ship, -ful, -less, -ly, etc.)
Most of them are highly polysemantic (e.g., head has 15 meanings, good – 17-30 meanings).
They occur in proverbs, in set expressions (e.g., to fall head over heels in love, to put two heads together, Two heads are better than one, etc.).
Native words are among the most frequent.
Native elements form the basic of extensive word-building families (head – to head, to behead, headmaster, headlong, heading, headline, etc).
Many native root words have turned into affixes, e.g., -less, -ful, -ly, -hood, -dom: freedom, childhood, manly, etc.
Native words make the most stable layer of English vocabulary because of their semantic importance, high frequency of usage. Together with grammar, which is more conservative than vocabulary, they ensure relative stability of language, which, nevertheless, never remains absolutely stable.
2. Borrowings
Borrowings are adopted in the course of contacts between peoples speaking different languages. Usually borrowings express notions unknown to the people speaking the adopting language, e.g., buffalo, bungalow, wigwam, etc. In the same way were borrowed such words as school, mill, army, etc. Sometimes a borrowing denotes a familiar thing or notion, but it mostly happens in those cases when the contacting people speak closely related languages, e.g., sky, take, die, leg. Borrowings may be adopted either in the course of immediate contacts of people speaking different languages (oral way of borrowing) or through written sources (written way of borrowing).
3. Sources of Borrowings
According to some data words have been borrowed into English from about 150 languages. Some of the most important borrowings are the following:
Celtic borrowings (the 5th century): bald, cradle, down, numerous place names (Avon, London).
Scandinavian borrowings (9-11th century): wing, husband, sister, egg, same, till, etc.
Dutch borrowings: hold (n), yacht, skipper.
Italian borrowings: sonnet, sonata, cello, bass.
Spanish borrowings: tomato, sombrero, dispatch, comrade, negro.
Russian borrowings: sable, sterlet, verst, steppe, nihilist, intelligentsia.
German borrowings: nazi, fascist, Blitzkrieg, spitz.
Various exotic languages: Hindi – jungle, khaki; Australian – boomerang, kangaroo; American Indian – canoe, igloo, mocassin, wigwam.
Greek borrowings: atom, ethics, cycle, etc.
But it is Latin and French borrowings which played the greatest part in the formation of English vocabulary.
There are three layers of Latin borrowings.
The first layer occurred in the first century BC during the reign of the Roman Empire. Romans had a much higher cultural level than the Germanic tribes and enriched the vocabulary of the latter with the names of new objects of material culture, such as wall, wine, mile, cheese, etc.
The second layer began in 596 AD when Christianity was introduced. It was mostly church terms that were borrowed at that time: altar, church, bishop, candle, creed, etc. But many words denoting objects of material culture were adopted at that time, too: spade, mill, school, paper, marble, etc.
The third layer took place in the XIV-XVI cent., when Modern English was being formed. It was the period of the Renaissance, which brought the revival of the interest in ancient classical civilizations, in culture, art, and science. It was the time when English began to be used instead of Latin at the Universities. Learned words with abstract meanings were borrowed mostly at that time: admit, educate, university, cultivate, idea, crisis. Many of these words have native synonyms and are marked by a bookish flavour.
French borrowings. At different times borrowings were adopted from two different dialects of French: the Norman dialect (the 11th – 13th cent.) and the Parisian dialect (the 17th cent. and later). The Normans invading the British Isles in the mid 11th century used their dialect as the state official language. Notions of political, cultural, social life were expressed by Norman-French words. Later, when English became the state national language (the 14th cent.), these words remained in it; now they are rather numerous and frequent. Here belong such terms as court, law, royal, crown, power, army, police, navy, money, property, butcher, tailor, painter, etc. These terms reflect the social and political structure of the society of those days.
Latest French borrowings from the Parisian dialect (the 17th cent. and later) are usually technical terms, e.g., parachute, chassis, fuselage, or words characterizing the aristocratic way of life, e.g., banquet, coquette, restaurant. There are some political terms, too, e.g., police, regime, detente, etc.