The basics of the English word stock
Etymology= The origin of words
The English language is generally divided into two categories:
Anglo-Saxon: Latinate:
Short, everyday words. Formal
More emotive and punchy Less emotive
Often grammatical words: the, and, after Authoritative and prestigious
Monosyllabic words: cat, dog, farm Polysyllabic words: confinement, inadequate, segregation
Anglo- Saxon resulted from the merging and evolution of various Germanic dialects brought to England when we were invaded during the fifth century.
Latinate lexis originated further south. When brought to England we absorbed some of this language. It is mainly a mix of Latin and Greek. It also evolved into languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese; hence why they all sound similar.
Renaissance= Re-birth. Scholars in Italy began to discover the ancient Roman and Greek cultures. During the next hundred years, Latin became the language that was spoken and written to each other by scholars. As a result of this, Latinate words are often authoritative and prestigious because of the high social status of scholars etc.
Another aspect of Latinate language is the use of Latin and Greek affixes* to create new words:
-aqua; aquatic, aquarium
- bene; benefit, benefactor
- fin; final, infinite
*Affix= A morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word.
The English language is generally divided into two categories:
Anglo-Saxon: Latinate:
Short, everyday words. Formal
More emotive and punchy Less emotive
Often grammatical words: the, and, after Authoritative and prestigious
Monosyllabic words: cat, dog, farm Polysyllabic words: confinement, inadequate, segregation
Anglo- Saxon resulted from the merging and evolution of various Germanic dialects brought to England when we were invaded during the fifth century.
Latinate lexis originated further south. When brought to England we absorbed some of this language. It is mainly a mix of Latin and Greek. It also evolved into languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese; hence why they all sound similar.
Renaissance= Re-birth. Scholars in Italy began to discover the ancient Roman and Greek cultures. During the next hundred years, Latin became the language that was spoken and written to each other by scholars. As a result of this, Latinate words are often authoritative and prestigious because of the high social status of scholars etc.
Another aspect of Latinate language is the use of Latin and Greek affixes* to create new words:
-aqua; aquatic, aquarium
- bene; benefit, benefactor
- fin; final, infinite
*Affix= A morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word.