THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH WORDS
PLAN 1. Native words in the English vocabulary 2. Borrowed words in the English vocabulary 3. Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect 4. Classification of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation 5. Classification of borrowings according to the language from which they were borrowed: a) Romanic borrowings; b) Germanic borrowings; c) Slavic borrowings 1. NATIVE WORDS IN THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogenous. It consists of two layers – the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words. Native words are the words of the English word-stock which belong to the following etymological layers of the English vocabulary: a) words of common Indo-European origin; b) words of Common Germanic word-stock; c) purely Anglo-Saxon words. By the Indo-European element are meant words of roots common to all (or most) languages of the Indo-European group. The words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. The following groups can be identified. 1. Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter. 2. Parts of the human body: foot, nose, lip, heart. 3. Animals: cow, swine, goose. 4. Plants: tree, birch, corn. 5. Time of day: day, night. 6. Heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star. 7. Numerous adjectives: red, new, glad, sad. 8. The numerals from one to a hundred. 9. Pronouns – personal (except “they”) and demonstrative. 10. Numerous verbs: be, stand, sit, eat, know.