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English Vocabulary in Use Advance (Unit 89: English: a global language)


A. The origins of English vocabulary

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Some languages do not easily accept words from other languages into their lexicon1, but English has always welcomed them. It is estimated that English vocabulary has its sources2 in at least 120 languages. Some languages have, of course, provided English with more words than others. English started out with a basic Anglo-Saxon3 word stock4. Viking5 and Norman6 invaders from the 9th century onwards enriched7 the language enormously with large numbers of words brought from their own languages. The Vikings brought new words of Germanic origin while the Normans spoke a form of French. Both sets of invaders had an enormous impact on English vocabulary, explaining why English may sometimes seem to have several words for the same basic concept8. During the Renaissance of the 15th to the 17th centuries, scholars introduced many words of classical origin9. And throughout history, English speakers’ contact with the world as explorers, scientists, traders, pirates and holiday-makers has had linguistic consequences10 in a wealth of new words from every part of the world that they reached11. These words taken from other languages are sometimes referred to as loanwords or borrowings.

  • 1 vocabulary (specialist term)
  • 2 where something comes from
  • 3 Old English
  • 4 set of words
  • 5 Norse, from the north of Europe, e.g. Denmark or Norway
  • 6 from Normandy, a region in the north of France
  • 7 made richer
  • 8 idea
  • 9 from Latin or Ancient Greek
  • 10 results affecting language
  • 11 results affecting language

B. English words from other languages

language word meaning phrase
Arabic amber yellowy-orange substance originating from tree resin and used in jewellery an amber necklace
Dutch roster list of people’s turns for jobs the cooking roster
Farsi tabby grey and brown stripy cat our old tabby
German gimmick an amusing or unusual way of attracting attention advertising gimmicks
Greek tonic medicine to make you feel stronger and better take a tonic
Hindi cot child’s bed with high vertical sides sleep in a cot
Icelandic mumps a childhood illness have mumps
Japanese karaoke type of entertainment where ordinary people sing to popular music a karaoke machine
Portuguese palaver unnecessary trouble What a palaver!
Russian intelligentsia social class of intellectuals 19th-century intelligentsia
Spanish hammock net hung and used as a bed sleep in a hammock
Turkish turban type of men’s headwear, made from a long piece of cloth wear a turban

C. False friends

Some English words may look like words in your language but have a different meaning. Such words are known as false friends, e.g. the German word Gift looks like the English word gift [present] but actually means poison in German. The English word sympathetic resembles a word meaning simply, nice in many other European languages, but in English sympathetic has a much narrower meaning [understanding and caring about someone else’s suffering]. Note also that the pronunciation of a word borrowed into English may be quite different from its pronunciation in its language of origin.
Exercise-89.1


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