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More than half of English vocabulary (so I have heard) is from French. However, the most frequently used words are still from Anglo-Saxon or Norse.Quote:
Originally Posted by lucyarliwu
Note the similarities between modern German and English in these words:
English---- German
father ------ vater
mother---- mutter
brother ---- bruder
sister ----- schwester
(Note: the German v is pronounced the same as the English f.)
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Quote:
More than half of English vocabulary (so I have heard) is from French. However, the most frequently used words are still from Anglo-Saxon or Norse.
Note the similarities between modern German and English in these words:
English---- German
father ------ vater
mother---- mutter
brother ---- bruder
sister ----- schwester
(Note: the German v is pronounced the same as the English f.)
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Sorry, Ron!
So where is "Anglo-Saxon or Norse"? Is it relevant to German?
Oh God, it seems like English stems from many European languages!!
But it's said that the first group of migrants in USA was political criminals from British, who might coin new language in new continent of USA as a symbol of new life??? Is this story right?
Anglo-Saxon and Norse merged to form English, with the addition of the French and Latin vocabulary brought by the Normans. ;-)
The Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from Germany. Before the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons, the Britons spoke a very different language. Norse was a Scandinavian tongue, which was spoken by the Vikings. The Angles gave English its name. The Scandinavians (most notably, the Danes) gave us many of our commonest words, even influencing the verb to be.. In England today, many place names are indicative of the Danish influence. In fact, starting in 991, England was under Danish rule for 25 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by lucyarliwu
The roots of English are Anglo-Saxon, but some of the commonest words are from Norse: again, anger, are, awkward, bag, band, bank, birth, both, bull, cake, call, clip, crawl, crook, die, dirt, dregs, egg, flat, fog, freckle, gap, gasp, get, give, guess, happy, husband, ill, keel, kid, knife, law, leg, loan, low, muggy, neck, odd, outlaw, race, raise, ransack, reindeer, rid, root, rugged, same, scant, scare, scowl, acrap, seat, seem, silver, sister, skill, skirt, skin, sky, smile, snub, sprint, steak, take, their, they, thrift, Thursday, tight, trust, want, weak, Wednesday, window.
English has borrowed extensively, mostly from Latin and French, but also from many other languages.
The Americans did contribute many new words to the language, many of them from the Indians, but some also came from the Spanish settlers.
It is Australia that was colonized by criminals. :)
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From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (by David Crystal): "When one language takes lexemes from another, the new items are usually called loan words or borrowings -- though neither term is really appropriate, as the receiving language does not give them back. English, perhaps more than any other language, is an insatiable borrower. Whereas the speakers of other languages take pains to exclude foreign words from their lexicons, English always seems to have welcomed them. Over 120 languages are on record as sources of its present-day vocabulary, and the locations of contact are found all over the world."
BTW, the word tea comes from China.
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As does 'cash'. ;-)
Pidgin also comes from China.
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And 'cha' for 'tea'. ;-)
Wow, it's really a long history about the evolution of English! No wonder it's so rich, complex and flexible...
I couldn't help wondering when you mentioned the word 'tea' is from China, ya, and just as Tdol said it's 'cha' in chinese pronuciation, but how could it turn into 'tea' which is obviously different from 'cha', so as the 'cash', 'pidgin'???
:? :?:
Lucy in curiosity
IN England we also call tea 'char', which is much closer to the Chinese. ;-)