The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary

¹By the native element we mean words which were not borrowed from other

languages but represent the original stock of this particular language.

Modern scholars estimate the percentage of borrowed words in the English vocabulary at 65–70 per cent. This anomaly is explained by the country`s eventful history and by its many international contacts.

The native element in English comprises a large number of high-frequency words like the articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries and words denoting everyday objects and ideas (e.g. house, child, water, go, come, eat, good, bad, etc.).

Furthermore, the grammatical structure is essentially Germanic having remained unaffected by foreign influence.

Let us sum up what has been said in a table.

It was mentioned that the tribal languages of the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, by the time of their migration, contained only words of Indo-European and Germanic roots plus a certain number of the earliest Latin borrowings.

By the Indo-European element are meant words of roots common to all or most languages of the Indo-European group. English words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. The following groups can be identified.

I. Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter.

II. Parts of the human body: foot, nose, lip, heart.

III. Animals: cow, swine, goose.

IV. Plants: tree, birch (ср. р. берёза), corn.

V. Time of day: day, night.

VI. Heavenly bodies (небесные тела): sun, moon, star.

VII. Numerous adjectives: red, new, glad, sad.

VIII. The numerals from one to a hundred.

IX. Pronouns – personal (except they which is a Scandinavian borrowing); demonstrative.

X. Numerous verbs: be (ср. русск. быть), stand (стоять), sit (сидеть), eat (есть), know.

The Germanic element represents words of roots common to all or most Germanic languages. Some of the main groups of Germanic words are the same as in the Indo-European element.

I. Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm, finger, bone.

II. Animals: bear, fox, calf.

III. Plants: oak, fir, grass.

IV. Natural phenomena: rain, frost.

V. Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer (autumn is a French borrowing).

VI. Landscape features: sea, land.

VII. Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench.

VIII. Sea-going vessels: boat, ship.

IX. Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white, small, high, old, good.

X. Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, answer, make, drink.

* * *

It has been mentioned that the English proper element is opposed to the first two groups. These words are specifically English having no cognates in other languages whereas for Indo-European and Germanic words such cognates can always be found, e.g.:

Stand: German stehen, Latin stare, Russian стоять.

Here are some examples of English proper words. These words stand quite alone in the vocabulary system of Indo-European languages: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always.

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