Table of Contents
Are English words derived from French?
According to different sources, 45\% of all English words have a French origin. Although French is derived mainly from Latin (which accounts for about 60\% of English vocabulary either directly or via a Romance language), it also includes words from Gaulish and Germanic languages (especially Old Frankish).
Where does most of the English vocabulary come from?
About 80 percent of the entries in any English dictionary are borrowed, mainly from Latin. Over 60 percent of all English words have Greek or Latin roots. In the vocabulary of the sciences and technology, the figure rises to over 90 percent.
Where do you think the English language came from how do you think the English words develop?
Having emerged from the dialects and vocabulary of Germanic peoples—Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—who settled in Britain in the 5th century CE, English today is a constantly changing language that has been influenced by a plethora of different cultures and languages, such as Latin, French, Dutch, and Afrikaans.
How does French differ from English?
The French and English languages are related in a sense, because French is a Romance language descended from Latin with German and English influences, while English is a Germanic language with Latin and French influences.
Why does Etymonline always mention French before Latin?
This is because Etymonline always mentions French before Latin if the word entered English through French and the word changed sufficiently from the root. A word such as “origin” (from “origo”) will therefore return French, whereas a word such as “provide” (from “providere — provideo”) will return Latin.
Do French and Latin dominate English vocabulary?
As you can interpret, French and Latin enter English vocabulary much earlier and in much greater quantities than previously thought, it only takes the top 1,627 words in English for Germanic languages to lose the majority share of vocabulary and at exactly the 1,875 most commonly used words do French and Latin dominate English vocabulary.
What is the difference between origin and provide in Latin?
A word such as “origin” (from “origo”) will therefore return French, whereas a word such as “provide” (from “providere — provideo”) will return Latin. The second source is Memidex, an index of online dictionaries.
What percentage of Latin vocabulary has found its way into English?
About 10 percent of the Latin vocabulary has found its way directly into English without an intermediary (usually French). For a time the whole Latin lexicon became potentially English and many words were coined on the basis of Latin precedent.