ETYMOLOGY: How do new words form?. Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words. If you...
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Transcript of ETYMOLOGY: How do new words form?. Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words. If you...
ETYMOLOGY: How do new words form?
Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words.
If you discuss the “etymology” of a word, you are explaining how
it entered our language.
The history of the English language starts with the story of the invasions
of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years.
Originally, Britain was inhabited by groups of tribes that we now refer to
as the Celts.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain and eventually conquered all of the Celtic tribes around 43 B.C, making those he conquered Roman Celts.
Romans spoke Greek and Latin
400 years later, Germanic tribes began invading Roman territory, and Rome was forced to recall its soldiers from Britain in order to defend the city of Rome.
In 410 A.D., Britain was left defenseless, and Germanic tribes gradually invaded and conquered
the Roman Celts.
Each conquering tribe spoke their own unique Germanic
dialect. The longer they lived in Britain, however, the more their
language merged with the conquered Roman Celts, and
the more they all started to sound alike.
Since the Angles and the Saxons were the largest groups
of invaders, the common Germanic dialect that all of the tribes in Britain began to use
became known as Anglo-Saxon.
The English language developed from Anglo-Saxon.
In summary, the invasions of the Romans and the Germanic tribes eventually created
an Anglo-Saxon language, which was a blend
of many influences, but mainly Germanic.
When the Anglo-Saxon language changed enough that the Germanic
tribes on the continent could no longer understand them, Old
English was born.
English developed in three stages:
1. Old English (400-1066)
2. Middle English (1066-1500)
3. Modern English (1500 – today)
Old English was heavily influenced by Germanic dialects.
• Verbs came at the end of sentences.• The thorn alphabet they used looks
nothing like the letters we use today.
Even when Old English is written in a modern alphabet, it looks strange
and unfamiliar:
þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon! oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas, syððanærest wearð
Middle English developed because of the Norman invasion
in 1066
The Normans were a French speaking people from Normandy in the north of France.
Gradually, as the Norman landowners tried to
communicate with their conquered peasants, French and Old English combined to
form Middle English.
For example, this is when the English language developed new words to
distinguish the meat of an animal from the animal itself.
Norman (French)
(landowners)
• Beef
• Poultry
• Mutton
• Venison
• Pork
Anglo-Saxon
(peasants)
• Cow
• Hen
• Lamb
• Deer
• Swine
During the Middle English period, most
of the new words that entered the
language came from French.
Under French influence, Middle English…
• became more melodious — very different from the harsh sound of Old English
• developed into a word-order language—the subject-verb-complement structure we use today (no more verbs at end of sentence)
Canterbury Tales
• A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,That fro the tyme that he first biganTo riden out, he loved chivalrie,Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,And evere honoured for his worthynesse.
Translation…
A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,
That fro the tyme that he first bigan
To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.
A knight there was, and he a worthy man,
Who, from the moment that he first began
To ride about the world, loved chivalry,
Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy.
Modern English dates from approximately 1500 A.D.
• Grimm’s Shift — a change in the way that vowels were pronounced—dramatically changed the sound of English by 1550.
• The arrival of the Renaissance (a rebirth in interest in classical languages and literature) made it popular to study Greek and Latin literature
During the Modern English period, most of
the new words that entered the language came from Latin and
Greek
Remember what we learned about which languages influenced
each stage of English.
Stage Most Influential Language
Old English
Middle English
Modern English
Germanic Dialects
French
Latin & Greek
So how exactly do we get new words in a language?
We are going to learn the seven most common ways that a new
word enters a language.
That means we will be studying the
etymology of different words
1. BORROWING
New words are formed from a word in another language. We borrow a word.
Challenge came from the French word “chalonge.”
Borrowing is the most common way new words are
formed:
spaghetti (Italian) tornado (Spanish tronada)
alien (French) sacrifice (Latin sacrifise)
moment (French) zombie (African zumbi)
lame (French) psycho (Greek psykho)
Tracing the history of a borrowed word…
Tracing the history of a borrowed word…
2. ONOMATOPOEIA
New words are created by imitating a sound or movement
Saying splash imitates the sound that a splash makes!
Examples of onomatopoeia:
blip
crow
crash splatmurmur
garglebuzz
3. PROPER NOUNS
New words are formed by creating a common noun from the name of
a person, city, or company
The word diesel came from the name of its inventor Rudolf Diesel
Examples of proper nouns:
• frankfurter (named for the city of Frankfurt)
• atlas (named for mythical god Atlas, who held up the heavens)
• cannibal (named for the man-eating Caniba tribe discovered by Columbus)
• googling (named for the search engine Google)
4. COMPOUND WORD
New words are formed by putting two words together to
form a new word
Doghouse is a combination of dog + house
Examples of compound nouns:
gunman
football
placemat
5. WORD BLEND
New words are formed by combining pieces of two words
into one new word
brunch (breakfast + lunch)
Examples of word blends:
• motel (motor + hotel)
• smog (smoke + fog)
• grungy (grubby + dingy)
• snazzy (snappy + jazzy)
6. CLIPPED WORD
New words are formed by shortening longer words.
Photograph becomes photo
Examples of clipped words:
• advertising becomes ad
• gymnasium becomes gym
• fanatic becomes fan
• hamburger becomes burger
• examination becomes exam
7. ACRONYM
New words are formed by using the first letter of each word in a
phrase.
swag comes from
stuff we all get
Examples of acronym:
• scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)
• laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)
• zip code (zone improvement plan)
THE ENDCopyright © 2012 Raina BurdittAll rights reserved by author.Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.Not for public display.