Sources of English Vocabulary - Presentation Transcript

1. Sources of English Vocabulary 2. From Small Beginnings

o English had tiny beginnings. In 500 AD it was spoken by perhaps twenty thousand people; less than today speak Cherokee Indian, an endangered language

Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy Anglo-Saxon helmet Typical settlement

3. Old English Legacy Old English provides all the most common words in modern English: The, is, man, house, drink, here, there . Prepositions . Fundamental concepts: life, death, day, night, month and year .

Anglo-Saxon Warrior Extract from The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle

4. The first great promoter of English Alfred the Great, king of Wessex translated St. Agustine´s Latin for his

countrymen to read. He also made peace with the invading Vikings

King Alfred

5. The Dane invasion Old English was enriched by Scandinavian words: happy, ugly, wrong, die. This provided English with synonymous pairs Anglo-Saxon Norse wish want craft skill rear raise

6. The Norman conquest influence o Food synonyms o Norman Anglo-Saxon o beef cow o pork pig o venison deer o Places to live o Norman Anglo-Saxon o city town o palace house o residence home

Everything changed when the Norman invasion of 1066 subjugated the English. Bayeux Tapestry

7. Other Norman synomyms o Professions o Norman Anglo-Saxon

o carpenter baker o painter builder o tailor fisherman o shoe-maker o Abstract o Norman Anglo-Saxon o liberty freedom o affection love o truth veracity

Still today, people regard words of Anglo-Saxon origin as less intellectual than words with French and Latin origins – and therefore, more trustuworthy

8.  9. New Horizons As the age of Colonialism brought English to a new shores, native

languages from Canada, Australia, South Africa and India enriched it with new vocabulary New Animals Kangaroo, chimpanzee New plants tea, tobacco Clothes pyjama, anorak British Empire map from Wikipedia Daughters of the British Empire

10. Modern English Modern English is half Germanic and half Romance, but it has acquired the largest vocabulary of any language by freely adopting words from countless languages. Old English (Anglo-Saxon) England, man, child, water, house Old Norse (Viking) seat, window, ill, ugly French : royal, beef, manu, hotel Latin : family, wine, school. Greek : telephone, grammar. Italian : crescendo, vibrato, belvedere, grotto, estragaganza. Spanish : cannibal, guerrilla, mosquito, tornado, vanilla. Portuguese : mermalade, flamingo. Dutch : yatch, boss, cookie, apartheid, commando, trek Gaelic/Irish : hooligan, clan, slogan, whisky. Japanese : kimono, tycoon, hara-kiri, samurai, tsunami. Hindi : guru, jungle, cheetah, shampoo, pyjamas, polo.

11. Other examples Persian : paradise, divan, lilac, bazaar, caravan, chess. Aboriginal Australian : Kangaroo, wallaby, boomerang, budgerigar. Hebrew : cherub, hallelujah, messiah, jubilee. Arabic : alchemy, alcohol, assassin, cipher, syrup, zero. Norwegian : ski. Finnish : sauna. Czech : robot. Turkish : coffee, kiosk, caviar Chinese : tea. Malay : Ketchup, bamboo, junk, orangutan. Polynesian : taboo, tattoo Inuit (Eskimo): kayak, igloo, anorak.