Sunday 29 November 2020

there are more 'borrowed words' in modern english than words of old english origin

It's difficult to say 'how many words there are in a language' - because this includes a lot of scientific vocabulary, for example, which is hardly everyday speech.

But here's one diagram from Wikipedia:




According to one study, the percentage of modern English words derived from each language group are as follows:
Latin (including words used only in scientific / medical / legal contexts): ~29%
French (Latin): ~29%
Germanic: ~26%
Others: ~16%


Foreign language influences in English - Wikipedia

In fact, the number of non-English words in English is incredibly high:

Loanwords make up 80% of English


What this means is that there is no such thing as pure English. English is a delectable, slow-cooked language of languages. As lexicographer Kory Stamper explains, “English has been borrowing words from other languages since its infancy.” As many as 350 other languages are represented and their linguistic contributions actually make up about 80% of English!

Ranking from most influential to least, English is composed of words from: Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Scandinavian, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Russian, Maori, Hindi, Hebrew, Persian, Malay, Urdu, Irish, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Chinese, Turkish, Norwegian, Zulu, and Swahili. And, that’s not even 10% of the 350 languages in the English melting pot.

Which Words Did English Take From Other Languages? | Dictionary.com

Not all loanwords in English are from French, Latin, Greek or Old Norse. See what Peter Trudgill has to say about Dutch. (And many more examples could be added to his list, such as beleaguer and cookie.)

No comments: