1. English Language Development

• Native words vs. Loanwords in English

  Loanwords assimilate to the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards and semantic system of English
• Assimilation of loanwords function in English

  1. Borrowed words partially or totally adapt to the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards and also the semantic system of receiving language

  2. Degree of assimilation depends on way of borrowing (oral or written), importance for communication, length of period of usage

  3. Completely assimilated words

  4. Partially assimilated words

  5. Unassimilated words
• Main sources of new English vocabulary in individual periods

  • Latin
  • French
  • Scandinavian
• Old English


  • Also called Anglo-Saxon
  • Language spoken and written in England before 1100
  • Ancestor of Middle English and Modern English
  • Four dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, West Saxon
  • Most extant writings in West Saxon dialect
  • Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives inflected for case
  • Greater proportion of strong (irregular) verbs
  • Few Celtic words, mostly in place names
  • Influenced by Latin through Christianity
• Middle English


  • Spoken and written from 1100 to 1500
  • Normans brought Norman French as language of the land, but English remained language of common people
  • Gradual formation of literary dialects
  • Borrowing of many Anglo-Norman words
  • Rise of London dialect
  • Loss of grammatical gender, simplification of grammar
  • Thousands of French and Latin loanwords
• Early Modern English


  • From late 15th to mid-17th century
  • Reflected variety of styles and dialects due to printing
  • Chancery Standard form used by government
  • Further borrowing from Latin and French
  • Semantic changes like loanshift and calque
• Native words constitute about 80% of the 500 most frequent words in English
• Native words


  Words belonging to the original English stock, including Indo-European and Common Germanic origin
• Loanwords


  Words borrowed from other languages like Latin, French, Scandinavian
• Native words are often monosyllabic, have great word building power and enter a number of set expressions
• Words constitute about 80% of the 500 most frequent words in English
• Frequent words in English


  • High lexical and grammatical valency (ability to combine with other words)
  • High frequency
  • Developed polysemy
• Frequent words in English


  • Often monosyllabic
  • Have great word building power
  • Enter a number of set expressions
• Assimilation of loanwords in English


  Borrowed words partially or totally adapt to the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards and also the semantic system of receiving language
• Assimilation of borrowings


  The process of a borrowed word becoming adapted to a target language
• Degree of assimilation of a borrowed word


  • Depends on the way of borrowing (oral or written)
  • The word's importance for communication
  • Length of period of its usage
• Degrees of assimilation of borrowed words


  • Completely assimilated words
  • Partially assimilated words
  • Unassimilated words / barbarisms
• Completely assimilated words


  • Wall, cup, wine, mile, pen, bishop (Latin)
  • Give, take, get, fellow, gate, window (Scandinavian)
  • Chair, face (French after 1066)
• Completely assimilated words


  Not felt as foreign words in the language, appeared in the period of Old English
• Types of partially assimilated words


  • Words not assimilated semantically
  • Words not assimilated grammatically
  • Words not assimilated phonetically
  • Words not assimilated graphically
• Partially assimilated words - not assimilated semantically


  • Words denoting specific features of geography and culture
• Late Modern English (1800-present) has not many differences in grammar and pronunciation with today's English
• The main difficulty in Late Modern English is a huge number of new words due to discoveries and inventions
• About 100,000 new words have entered the language in the last 100 years
• About 2/3 of new words have been made by combining 2 old words
• New words from combining old words


  • Fingerprint (1859), airport (1919)
• New words from computers


  • User-friendly (1977), download (1980), online (1950)
• New words made from Latin and Greek


  • Photograph (1839), helicopter (1872), aeroplane (1874), video (1958)
• New meanings to old words


  • Pilot (1907) - a person who directs ships, Cassette (1960) - small box
• About 5% of new words came from foreign languages
• New words from foreign languages


  • Disco (1964) - French, pizza (1935) - Italian
• New words from names of things we buy


  • Coke from Coca-Cola (1909), Walkman from Sony Walkman (1981)
• New words formed with affixes


  • Disinformation, unputdownable
• Words shortened


  • Photo from photograph, plane from aeroplane, TV or telly from television
• Loanwords in English


  • Anglo-Saxon: wine, cup, street
  • Scandinavian: leg, skin, knife, happy, weak, wrong
  • Greek: academy, atom, theatre, drama
  • French: table, aunt, dinner
  • German: kindergarten
  • Japanese: kimono, geisha, judo
  • Russian: vodka
  • Portuguese: marmalade
• Native words


  Words brought to English by the Anglo-Saxons
• Loanwords


  Words adopted by the speakers of one language from a different language
• Borrowing


  The process of speakers adopting words from a source language into their native language
• "Loan" and "borrowing" are metaphors, as there is no literal lending process
• Direct borrowing


  A word is adopted directly from the source language