Brief Etymological Review of the English Word-Stock

Etymologically the vocabulary of the Englishclassifying the borrowed stock of words.The
language is far from being homogenous. Itborrowed stock of words may be
consists of two layers - the native stock ofclassified according to the nature of the
words and the borrowed stock of words.borrowing itself as borrowing proper, loans
Numerically the borrowed stock of words istranslation and semantic
considerably larger than the native stock ofloans.Loan translation or calque
words.In fact native words comprise only 30%is a phrase borrowed from another language by
ofliteral word-for-word translation.Semantic loan is
the total number of words in the Englishthe borrowing of
vocabulary but the native words form the bulkthe meaning for a word already existing in the
of the most frequent words actually used inEnglish language.Latin loans are classified into the
speech and writing. Besides, the native wordssubgroups.
have a wider range of lexical and grammaticalEarly Latin loans. Those are the
valency, they are highly polysemantic andwords which came into English language through
productive in forming word clusters and setthe languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The
expressions.Borrowed words ortribes had been in contact with Roman
loanwords are words taken from anothercivilization and had adopted many Latin words
language and modified according to the patternsdenoting objects belonging to that civilization
of the receiving language.In many cases along before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons
borrowed word especially oneand Judes into Britain (e.g., cup, kitchen,
borrowed long ago is practicallymill, wine, port).Later Latin borrowings. To this
indistinguishable from a native word without agroup belong the words which penetrated into
thorough etymological analysis. The number ofEnglish language in the sixth and seventh
the borrowings in the vocabulary of thecenturies, when the English people were
language and the role played by them isconverted to Christianity (e.g., priest,
determined by the historical development of thebishop, nun, and candle).The third period of the
nation speaking the language.The most effectiveLatin
way of borrowing isborrowings includes words which came into
direct borrowing from another language as theEnglish due to two historical events: the
result of the contacts with other nations.Norman Conquest and the Renaissance. Some
Though, a word may be also borrowed indirectlycame
not from the source language but throughto English language through French but some
another language.When analyzing borrowedwere borrowed directly from Latin (e.g., major,
words one shouldminor, intelligent, permanent).The latest layer of
distinguish between two terms - source ofLatin words.
borrowing and origin ofThe words of this period are mainly abstract
borrowing. The first term is applied toand scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular,
the language from which the word wasvaccine, phenomenon, and vacuum).
immediately borrowed and the second - to theThe tendency of the English language to
language to which the word may be ultimatelyborrow extensively can be traced during the
traced. The closer the two interactingcenturies. Thus, one can confidently claim that
languages are in structure the easier it is forborrowing is one of the most productive sources
words of one language to penetrate into the
other.There are different approaches toof enrichment of the English vocabulary.