ORIGIN OF WORDS

NATIVE WORD-is a word which belongs to the original English stock as known from the earliest available
manuscripts of the Old English period. The native words are subdivided into those of the Indo-European stock
(e.g. brother,mother,son,sun,moon,wind,water) and those of Common Germanic origin
(summer,winter,storm,rain,ice,ground,house,room). Find the examples of native words in the following text:
(1) Did (do) you ever hear of such a pitiable case in all your lives? Here was (be) the richest breakfast that
could be set before a king, and its very richness (rich) made it good for nothing. The poorest laborer, sitting
down to his crust of bread and cup of water, was (be) far better off than King Midas, whose fine food was
(be)really worth its weight in gold. How many days could he live on this rich food? But this was (be) only a
passing thought. So pleased was (be) Midas with the shining of the yellow metal,that he would still have
refused to give up the Golden Touch for so small a matter as a breakfast. Just imagine what a price for one
meal! It would have been the same as paying millions of money for some fried fish,an egg, a potato, a hot cake,
and a cup of coffee! It would be quite too dear, thought (think)Midas. Still,so great was (be) his hunger, and
the difficulty of his situation, that he again cried aloud and very sadly too. Our pretty Marigold could bear it no
longer. She sat a moment looking at her father, and trying,with all the might of her little wits, to find out what
was (be) the matter with him. Then, with a sweet and sorrowful sorrow) wish to comfort him,she started (start)
from her chair,and running (run) to Midas,threw (throw) her arms lovingly (love) about his knees. He bent
(bend) down and kissed (kiss) her. He felt feel) that his little daughters love was worth a thousand times (time)
more than he had gained by the Golden Touch, My precious,precious Marigold! cried he. But she made no
answer.
*pitiable(pity), case, very, poorest (poor),fine, really, passing (pass), pleased (please), metal, refuse, touch,
matter, price, paying(pay), money, fried (fry),cried(cry), trying (try), comfort, precious- came through Old
French, derived from Latin
*just, imagine, moment- came through French, derived from Latin
*million-came through French from Old Italian, derived from Latin
*quite- From Old French
*gain-From French
*chair-came through Old French from Latin, derived from Greek
*crust, cup (from Old English),difficulty-came from Latin
*breakfast= break +fast (1400-1500)
*down, same, egg, cake _Old Norse
*situation-Medieval Latin
*potato-Spanish
*coffee-From Italian caf, which came from Turkish and Arabic
*Kind Midas- in ancient Greek stories, a king who was given a power to change everything he touched into
gold. He soon realized this would not bring him happiness, when he found that even his food and drink changed
into gold as soon as he touched them.
(2)The machine translation project SUSY was derived from a Russian-German prototype system that had been
developed in the 1970s. It attempts to generalize that system by adding multilingual capabilities (German,
Russian, French, English and Esperanto), but the main goal of SUSY is MT research rather than development of
an operational system. The basic MT methodology of SUSY is transfer. The analysis stage of the system has
eight subprocesses: 1)word identification, 2)morphological analysis, 3)homograph disambiguation, 4)clause-
level parsing, 5)noun group analysis, 6)verb group analysis, 7)combining noun and verb groups, and 8)semantic
disambiguation. The homograph disambiguation subprocess uses a weighted heuristic to estimate the likelihood
of word class,based on the word classes of surrounding words in the sentence. The semantic disambiguation
subprocess uses semantic dictionaries,which allow assigning features to nouns and transformations on syntactic
structures.
*the, was (be), from, that, had(have), been(be), in, the, it, to, by, French, English, but, main, of, is, rather, than,
an, eight, word, weighted (weight), which come from Old English
*machine, capability, basic, stage, subprocess, clause, level, noun, verb, use, surrounding, sentence, allow,
assigning (assign), feature- came through Old French, derived from Latin
*generalize, derivation, combining (combine), class, syntactic, came through French, derived from Latin
*translation, project, German, attempt, adding, multilingual, operational, transfer, disambiguation, parsing,
estimate, transformation, structure came from Latin
*derive, development, developed- came from French
*research- came from Old French
*prototype- came through French, derived from Greek
*group- French word from Italian gruppo
*system, identification- from Late Latin from Greek
*dictionary- Medieval Latin
*methodology- Latin from Greek
*analysis- came through Modern Latin from Greek
*morphological, semantic- from Greek
*heuristic- from German
*likelihood-from Old Norse
*homograph- 1800-1900 origin: homo + Greek graphos written homo-Latin from Greek
*Russian-from Russian
*Esperanto- Dr. Esperanto (from Latin sperare to hope), name taken by L.Zamenhof, who invented it
*goal-1500-1600 origin: gol limit, boundary (1300-1400)
=The approximate proportion of native to foreign words in text (1) is 4:1, and in the text (2) is 1:2. The second
text has a lot of Latin words because its scientific.
ORIGIN OF WORDS(a brief history of the English language with reference to its morphology)-The English
language is related to about a hundred languages which constitute the Indo-European family. There are two
main groups of languages in the Indo-European family:
1.The Western group:embracing Germanic, Celtic,Greek,Italic
2. The Eastern group: containing Balto-Slavonic, Indo-Iranian, Albanian and Armenian.
The Germanic speech family is separated into three main families: East Germanic, North Germanic and West
Germanic,from which Dutch, Flemish, Friesian and English have developed. When the Romans came to Britain
in the 1st century B.C. they found the Britons there. The Britons were Celtic people who were pushed to
Scotland and Wales upon Roman invasion. In A.D. 410 the Romans left Britain and the Angles, Saxons and
Jutes came and invaded Britain. The Celtic element in the English language is fairly marginal and its influence
upon it was surprisingly small and English took almost nothing from the old Celtic language (which is the
language spoken by the Britons, developed into Welsh, spoken by the Welsh; Gaelic,spoken in Scotland; Erse
(Irish Gaelic) spoken in Ireland; and Breton spoken in Brittany in France; there are also the languages:Manx
spoken in the Isle of Man and Cornish, spoken in Cornwall (but these two died out). Something of Celtic has
been fossilized in numerous place names and geographical names (the names such as :Thames, Avon, Cam,
Dee, Aire, Severn, Trent from the Celtic word for river, Stour, Tees, Trent, Wye are all Celtic names; the Celtic
dun meaning protected place is present in the names: Dundee, Dunbar, Edinburgh,Dunedin; the Celtic caer,
meaning a castle is kept in the words Caerleon, Carlisle, Cardiff. In the 5th century A.D. Britain was invaded
by the Germanic tribes: Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who established Germanic as the principal language of
Britain. The Angles were the most numerous and they gave their name to the land (Britain became Englaland
=the land of Angles)and to the language (Englisc-Old English:englese). The Anglo-Saxon element in English is
by far the most dominant. The three stages in the development of the English language are: Old English
(sometimes called Anglo-Saxon),spoken in Britain from the Germanic invasions up to the end of the 11th
century; Middle English (c 1150- c 1475) and Modern English from the 15th century up to the present.
OLD ENGLISH-was an inflected language: there was inflection in nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns.
There were two major declension types (weak and strong declensions), five types of Old English noun
declensions and a four-case system (nominative, genitive,dative,accusative and occasionally instrumental).
Adjectives in Old English were inflected to show agreement with the nouns in gender, number and case. This
system of inflection was very much reduced in Middle English and given up in Modern English. There was a
system of grammatical gender (by contrast,the gender in Modern English is natural so that only animate beings
are masculine or feminine and all inanimate things are neuter). Personal pronouns in Old English marked
gender in the third person singular,and case and number in all persons. There was a full conjugation of
verbs.The Old English verb had no dual number and the persons were distinguished in the indicative singular
only. Verbal inflection in Old English falls into a system for the present and for the past and the two types of
verbs are traditionally called strong (the past is marked by changing the root vowel and weak (the past is formed
by adding a dental suffix); strong verbs are referred to as irregular in Modern English.
As for Old English Word Formation-it was much like it is today:words were built from other words by
prefixation,suffixation and compounding. Many of the Old English affixes and compounds are no longer in use,
but Modern English makes abundant use (uses them a lot) of compounding and the process is on the increase.
OE prefixes: a, after, arch, be, by, for, fore, in, mid, mis, off, out, over,twiun, under, up, with.
OE suffixes: noun- dom, en, er, hood, ing, ling, ness, red, ship, ster, teen, th, ty; adjectives- ed, en, ern, eth, fold,
ful, ish, ly, th, some, ward, y; verb- en, er ,le.
Foreign influences on OE were considerable. Celtic influence was almost negligible, but Latin influence on the
other hand was major. Latin Borrowings: wall, street, mile, cheap, monger, pound, mint, wine, kitchen,
cup,dish,cheese, spelt, pepper, cherry,butter,plum,pea,chalk,pitch,pipe, church,bishop; abbot, alms, altar,
anthem, ark, candle, canon, disciple, hymn, martyr, mass, nun,pope,priest, psalm, shrine, temple, cap, sock,
chest, mat,sack, beet, pear, radish,balsam, mallow, school,master, grammatic, verse,meter,notary.
The next important foreign influence on the English language came in the 9th century with the invasion by the
Scandinavians (Vikings or the Danes). The Danish element can be seen in large number of place names, e.g.
the element by (town,village) is present in the words: Derby, Rugby, Whitby, and a lot of other words which
came from Scandinavian: law, fellow, husband, band, booth,bull,egg,gap,leg,root,skill,skin,skirt,sky,window,
flat, happy,low,ugly,weak,wrong, bask,cast,crawl,cut,die,get,give,raise,take,thrust.
The Norman element in English is major. The invasion of the Normans played a part in shaping of the English
language. The Normans descended from the warrior race of Norsemen, but they adopted Christianity and
French as their language, because well known for their learning, their military skill and their organizing ability;
they began to organize England in the Norman patterns and they put it into the stream of European culture and
thoughts. For about three hundred years two languages were spoken in England: the official language was
French, and English was spoken only by the common people. It took more than three centuries for Norman and
Saxon to unite and finally English emerged as the language of England.
MIDDLE ENGLISH (c 1150- c 1475) saw further simplification of the inflectional system:inflectional endings
gradually dropped, the language got rid of grammatical gender, case endings of nouns were reduced to one- the
genitive or possessive, prepositions took place of inflectional endings, verb forms became simplified. The
greatest impact, however, was on the vocabulary so that the language that emerged was essentially Germanic in
its grammar but its vocabulary was predominantly (up to 60%) of French or Latin origin.
The Norman element:government, prince, sovereign, throne, crown, royal, state, country,people,nation,
parliament, duke, count, chancellor, minister, council, honor, glory,courteous, duty,polite,
conscience,noble,pity,fine, cruel, arch,pillar,place, castle, tower, war, peace, battle, armor, officer, soldier, navy,
captain, enemy, danger, march, company, justice, judge, jury, court, cause, crime, traitor, prison, tax, money,
rent, property, injury,religion, service, prophet, saint, sacrifice, miracle, preach, pray.
Common-class words were English and the upper-class ones were Norman:
English: town, hamlet,home,house and Norman: castle, city
father,mother,son,daughter,sister,brother relations,ancestors, descendants
happiness, gladness, work, swine,pig pleasure, comfort, ease, delight
shoemaker, shepherd, miller, fisherman, tailor,barber,painter,carpenter
smith, baker, cow, bull,sheep, lamb, deer French: beef, mutton,pork,bacon,veal,venison
Early borrowings from French became fully Anglicized both in accent and pronunciation, but the later
borrowings failed to be completely assimilated.These became completely English:table, chair, castle, grocer,
beauty; but these did not: amateur, facade, mnage, soufflet,chef, garage, chauffeur, chandelier.
Along with the expansion of the vocabulary came new French influences which introduced new resources for
the formation of words. Some of the most common affixes were introduced from French: ance, ant,ity, ment,
tion(prefixes), con, de,dis,ex,pre (suffixes). An interesting effect of the French language upon English was a
kind of bilingual quality, with two words, one of Saxon origin and one of French origin to mean the same:
foe-enemy, friendship-amity, freedom-liberty, unlikely-improbable, happiness-felicity, bold-courageous, kingly-
royal, love-affection, hearty welcome- cordial reception.
MODERN ENGLISH (c 1475 to the present) has seen further simplification of the inflectional system: all
inflections of nouns have dropped except for two inflectional suffixes with the meaning of plural and
possessive. Inflections of adjectives have been entirely lost. Personal pronouns have developed the form they
have today and: thou, thee,thy have fallen out of use. Many verbs have changed from strong to weak and they
have almost completely lost the subjunctive as a distinctive form. Major loss of the inflectional endings has had
great impact upon syntax in that it caused greater dependence on the strict word order and prepositional phrases.
One of the most outstanding characteristics of ME is its rich vocabulary. In the 16th century a great many words
were taken from language such as Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French.
Classical borrowings: specimen, focus, arena,album, minimum,complex, nucleus,alibi,
ultimatum,extra,insomnia, deficit, ego, opus, referendum, bacillus, formula.
Greek Words expressed new ideas and concepts that were introduced during Renaissance: philosophy, ethics,
esthetics, epistemology, axiology, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, zodiac, grammar, affix, syntax, logic,
category, rhetoric, poetry, comedy, tragedy, prologue,dialogue, alphabet,drama,chorus,theory,orchestra,museum.
Contemporary borrowings and coinages based on the Greek and Latin elements and models: chroma,
chromatic, cinematograph,kaleidoscope,microscope, horoscope, photography, telephone,bicycle, aeroplane,
dynamo, euthanasia, post mortem, prima facie, prima vista, in vitro, in vivo, psychology, psyche, psychiatry,
neuron,neurology, atom, nitrogen,hydrogen,aerosphere,hemisphere,economy,cosmetic,antiseptic,pedestrianism.
Greek prefixes: anti-against, hyper-beyond,over, hypo-under, arch-chief, dia-through, hemi-half, homo-same,
mano-single, pan-all, poly-many, pro-before, pseudo-false, syn,sym-with, tele-at a distance, tri-three.
Greek suffixes: ism, ology.
Borrowings from other languages have been frequent in Modern English and they have swelled English
vocabulary to such an extent that it goes far beyond the scope of any dictionary book.
Italian: piano, sorano, finale, solo, sonata, duet, operetta, palette, fresco, miniature, studio, model, balcony,
umbrella, influenza, duel, monkey, ghetto, tenor, confetti, ballerina, spaghetti, lasagna, bandit, casino.
Spanish: cargo, cigar, cigarette,cork,desperado,alligator,sherry,potato,tabacco,canoe,toboggan,embargo,siesta,
guerilla,macho,mosquito,bonanza,lasso.
Mexican Spanish: chocolate, cocoa, tomato.
Caribbean:hammock, hurricane, maize.Norwegian:ski,slalom,fiord
Portuguese: port, marmalade,tank,buffalo,verandah,parasol,firm,banana,negro,cobra.
Dutch: boss, yacht,buoy,freight, dock,skipper, cruise,smuggle,landscape,sketch.
German: Furher, Kindergarten,hamburger,kitsch,frankfurter,delicatessen,blitz,waltz,poodle
India: pyjamas,shampoo, khaki (pants made of khaki), bungalow, curry,ginger,bandana(a square of silk material
with red or yellow spots, usually worn round the neck)cashmere( soft wool of Cashmere goats),chintz (kind of
cotton cloth with printed designs used for curtains, covers, furniture),dungarees (overalls of coarse cotton
material),jodhpurs (riding breeches).
Persian:bazaar, caravan,divan,jasmine, lilac, checkmate,baksheesh,bronze.
Arabic: orange,lemon,admiral, alcohol,algebra,coffee, cotton,crimson, assassin,sultan,harem,sipher,mufti
Chinese: tea.Malaya: bamboo, gong.
Polynesian: taboo, boomerang, kangaroo.Finnish:sauna
Japanese: kanban(a sheet displaying a set of manufacturing specifications which is circulated to suppliers),
karaoke, karoshi (death caused from overwork or job-related exhaustion),tycoon, honcho(boss),judo,kamikaze,
kimono,ninja, samurai,bunraku,ikebana, manga,sushi,tofu,wasabi, aikido,karate, hara-kiri,bonsai, honcho-boss,
kimono, shogun (military leader)
Swedish: smorgasbord( a collection of similar things from which you can choose; a meal
of cold food that is put on a table so that people can take what they want)
Turkish:yoghurt,kiosk,caftan,fezEskimo:kayak.igloo,anorak
Russian:bistro,sputnik,cosmonaut,perestroika, tundra,tsar, kulak, nyet,balalaika,mammoth,kasha,kvass
French:automobile,chauffeur,boutique,elite, avant-garde,etui,etude,vis--vis
Yiddish: bagel, klutz, kibitz (to make unhelpful remarks while somebody is doing something or to talk about
things that everyone already knows in a boring way.
Serbian: vampire, paprika
BORROWING, BORROWED WORD OR LOAN WORD- is a word taken over from another language and
modified in its sound-shape,written form, morphological shape and meaning to the standards of the English
language. Up to 70% of the English vocabulary consists of loan words and only 30% of the words are native.
A distinction can be made between origin and source of borrowing.
SOURCE OF BORROWING- the language from which the loan word was taken into English.
ORIGIN OF BORROWING- the language to which the word may be ultimately traced.
Its not only the words that can get imported-whole expressions can be taken over: get lost,pardon the
expression,give a look, I need it like a hole in the head=literal translations of Yiddish expressions, also words
bagel, klutz and kibitz.Literal translation from French: it goes without saying-cela va sans dire(calque).
*Illustration of the difference between of source and origin of borrowing:
1 .trampoline- Spanish ~ Italian ~ Germanic
2. liberty- Middle English ~Middle French ~ Latin
3. Orange- Middle English ~ Old French ~ Spanish ~ Arabian ~ Persian ~ Sanskrit
4. zodiac- Latin~Greek
***Taboo is a word borrowed from Tongan. As an adjective it means forbidden or banned, as a verb it means
to avoid or prohibit something as a taboo. Example: This is, after all, the age of air bags, bicycle helmet, and
drunk-driving taboos, of warning labels, coroner inquiries and consumer product testing. Here drunk-driving
taboos means to restrain from driving in a state of being drunk.
***Smorgasbord is a word taken over from Swedish- smorgas-bread and butter, and bord-table. It has 2
meanings: 1. A buffet featuring various dishes, such as hors doeuvres, salads fish etc. 2. A medley or
miscellany (zbirka pesama).
***Erg meaning the unit of work or energy in the centimeter-gram-second system comes from Greek ergon
meaning work and it derives from the Indo-European root werg which the following words share: ergonomic,
energy, metallurgy,surgery, orgy.
ASSIMILATION: of loan words denotes partial or total conformation to the phonetic,graphic, morphological
and semantic standards of the receiving language. Completely assimilated loan words conform in all respects to
the norms of the English language. They follow fully phonetic, orthographic and morphological standards of
English and they are semantically integrated into the system of the English language. Fully assimilated words
are no longer felt to be foreign either in their sound or graphic shape so that they are phonetically and
graphically indistinguishable from native ones, e.g. start is native and sprot is foreign (derived from Old French
word meaning to amuse oneself and ultimately derived from Latin word portare meaning to carry).
Completely assimilated loan words are like native ones in that they are morphologically analyzable, e.g. sport-
ing consists of two morphemes and it means relating to or used for sport. They can be actively used in word-
formation (consider the following examples: the word sport has three inflected forms: sports, sporting, sported
and it is used as the input word in many word-formation processes to produce combinations such as: sports car,
sports day, sports jacket, sportsman, sportsmanship, sportswear, sportswoman, sporty, and idioms like make
sport of someone(to ridicule or mock someone), sporting chance (something that is quite likely to happen). Such
words are frequent and their valency is high so that they can be easily combined with other words. Completely
assimilated words easily combine with native affixes, e.g. the word pain which is ultimately of Greek origin and
which came into English via Latin and French is now felt to be native, and it appears as a root word in:
pained,painful,painfully, painless,painlessly,painlessly,painlessness and it is also a part of a compound word
painkiller. On the other hand,native roots can combine with affixes of foreign origin: age,ance,ment,esse, and
they produce hybrids like: breakage,leakage,linkage,shortage,shrinage,slippage,spillage,spoilage,stoppage,
wastage,wreckage,footage,yardage,reluctance,hidrance,acknowledgment,requirement, resentment, goddess,
stewardess, waitress.
Fully assimilated words: cheese, street,wall, wine (from Latin); husband, fellow, gate, root, wing, call, die,
take, want,happy,ill,low,odd,wrong (from Scandinavian);table,face,finish,matter,figure (from French).
Partly assimilated words:are those which do not conform fully to the phonetic,graphic,morphological and
semantic standards of the receiving language. There are five types of partially assimilated loan words (that is,
these are the degrees of assimilation=in what respects they have or have not been assimilated):
1.loan words not assimilated semantically (baksheesh,balalaika,sari,sombrero,purdah,fez,caftan,
kaiser,shah,rajah,
sheik,toreador,rickshaw,pilau,sherbet,chevapcici,kebab,vodka,karate,judo,yoga,karma,kamikaze,kakemono,
kaki, kaka, kakapo,kibbuts);
2. loan words not assimilated morphologically(axis-axes, medium-media, bacterium-bacteria, basis-bases,
crisis-crises, hypothesis-hypotheses,phenomenon-phenomena,criterion-criteria, oasis-oases; but there are some
loan words which show the tendency to conform to the native way of forming plural by means of the s
inflection and they have two plurals: formula-formulae,formulas;terminus-termini,terminuses; cactus-
cacti,cactuses; focus-foci,focuses; nautilus-nautili,nautiluses; corpus-corpi,corpuses; aquarium-
aquaria,aquariums; terrarium-terrarria, terrariums; maximum-maxima,maximums; minimum-
minima,minimums; sanatorium-sanatoria,sanatoriums; kibbutz-kibbutzim,kibbutzes; bureau-bureaux,bureus,
tableau-tableaux,tableaus; portmanteau-portmanteaux, portmanteaus;adieu-adieux,adieus; bandit-
banditi,bandits; libretto-libretti, librettos; soprano-soprani,sopranos; virtuoso-virtuosi,virtuosos; but some have
completely naturalized so they always take s for plural: bonus,
chorus,omnibus,prospecus,area,arena,era,idea,sonata,solo,umbrealla,villa,album,asylum,museum,demon);
The word trousseau (trousseaux/ trousseaus) came into English from French. The meaning of it the clothes,
linen, and other possessions that a bride collects for her marriage. This word is considered to be rather old-
fashioned. This word has two plurals so it is partially assimilated grammatically because it has a plural with s
but it keeps its original plural as well.
3. loan words not assimilated phonetically(are those which have traces of their foreign-ness in their phonetic
shape, e.g. the sound // in the end position in camouflage,sabotage,espionage,dressage,massage,prestige,
mnage; or in words: gendarme, gendarmerie,bourgeous,regime; or accent on the final syllable in: machine,
cartoon, maisonnette, police, menage,duet,couchette) ;
4. loan words not assimilated graphically(ballet, buffet, cafe,cliche,bouquet,expose,precis,creche,
atelier,cloche,habitu melee, melange,menage,maisonette, matredhtel, msalliance, negligee,puree,coup d-
etat, coupe, vis-a-vis, elan vital, Furher,kitsch, baksheesh, balalaika,
confetti,incognito,macaroni,spaghetti,marinara,kebab,tomato,potato,tabacco,terazzo,generalissimo,geisha,jojoba
,opera,solo,viola,virtuoso,soprano,toccata,sonata,cadenza,operetta,gala,virago,kitsch,kaput,kibosh,llama,loggia,
kibitz,kibitzer,kiblah,kwashiorkor,karaoke,karoshi,kaizen(continuing self-improvement);
5.loan words that show incomplete assimilation in several respects simultaneously(expose-is not complete
assimilated phonetically,graphically and semantically but it is completely morphologically assimilated because
it takes s for plural). Loan words not assimilated in any respect and which exist alongside their English
counterparts are called barbarisms, e.g. addio,ciao (Italian)-good bye(English), ergo(Latin)-therefore, ad
libitum-at pleasure, autochthon(Greek)-aboriginal,native; au fait(French)-expert; au fond thoroughly; au jus-
with the gravy, au contraire-on the contrary, au courant-up-to-date; auf Wiedersehen(German)good-bye, kaput-
broken, kibosch-ruin, au revoir-good bye, terracotta-clay, en route-on the way, nota bene-observe carefully,
kitsch- art of little or no value; terra incognita-an unknown land, fiasco-complete failure; nouveau riche-newly
rich.
***Three words from the major source languages of English:
1.betise (from French betise- stupidity, nonsense, ultimately from Latin bestia-beast, In English has two
meanings: stupidity and foolish remark or action.
2. agita (Americanism, from Italian agitare- to agitate) means heartburn or anxiety.
3. katzenjammer (from german katzen-plural of katze-cat + jammer (distress) means hangover or distress or
confusion.
These three words are partially assimilated= betise is not semantically and graphically assimilated, agita is not
semantically assimilated and katzenjammer is not semantically, phonetically and graphically assimilated.
***Words from German kumel(a liquor) and krieg spiel (a game) are not graphically, phonetically, semantically
assimilated.
BARBARISMS- are loan words not assimilated in any respect and which exist alongside their English
counterparts. Examples: addio (Italian)- goodbye, pot-au-feu (French)- clear soup, ergo (Latin)-therefore, ad
libitum(Latin)- at pleasure, autochthon (Greek)- aboriginal, native, au fait (French)-expert, au fond (French)-
thoroughly, au jus(French)- with the gravy, au contraire (French)- on the contrary, au courant(French)- up-to-
date, faux pas (French)- mistake, culpa (Latin)- fault, mea culpa (Latin)- my fault, mea maxima culpa (Latin)- I
am really sorry, auf Wiedersehen (German)- goodbye, Aufklarung (German)- enlightenment
CALQUE-is a name for a translation loan. It is a word or expression which is a result of literal translation from
another language. The input parts are English but the word-formation pattern of another language is followed,
e.g. chain-smoker is a literal translation of the German word Kettenraucher (but chain-drinker is formed by
analogy and it is not a loan).
INTERNATIONAL WORDS-are words of identical origin that occur in several languages as a result of
simultaneous or successive borrowings from one source, e.g. taxi, problem, atom, disc,antibiotic, university,
football,match,nylon,film,club,cocktail,jazz,blues,rock,pop,hit,sport,start,finish,weekend,communist,fascist,
Fascista, nazi, super, interview, a la carte.
ETYMOLOGY-is an account of the history of a word. Etymology is a study of historical linguistic change,
especially as applied to individual words, e.g. Modern English nice-pleasing, fine... meant foolish in Middle
English. The word came into English from Old French but it source of origin was Latin (nescius-ignorant)
ETIMOLOGY DICTIONARIES:
1) Hoad, T.F., The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford, Oxford University Press (1986),
2) Eric Partridge, Origins: A short etymological dictionary of Modern English. New York: Greenwich House
(1958, 1959, 1961, 1966, 2008)
3) Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966), ed. C.T.Onions, London: Oxford University Press
4) Picket, Joseph P. et all, The American Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition (2000), Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company
DOUBLETS-two English words both derived from the same word belonging to another language but borrowed
at different times, and, as a result,having different pronunciations and usually slightly different meanings, e.g.
warden-guardian, warranty-guarantee, cattle-chattel, catch-chase (the first is English word, the other is French).
COGNATES-are words which are related by birth or of the same parentage (capital and cattle from Latin
caput).FALSE COGNATES OR FALSE FRIENDS-are words that appear to be related but they are not, they
have completely different origins. Impregnable-to withstand attack comes from Middle English, and
impregnate- to make pregnant from Latin. These can work across languages as well: the English words
eventually and actual, are not in any way related to the Serbian words eventualno and aktuelan, which are in no
way related to eventuelt and aktuell in Norwegian; or sensible and senzibilan,emission- emisija, publik-
publika,ekspres kafa,femirati se,sentimentacija,kvarijes,poluklinika,svirena,buldozder,moralno, drugstore-
dragstor ( it sometimes happen due to WRONG INTERPRETATION). The following words embarazada
(Spanish), tasten (German), and stanza (Italian) respectively. Embarazada means pregnant and it could be
linked with embarrassed which means ashamed. Tasten means to fumble and it could be related to taste.
Stanza means living room and it could be related to stanza- a group of lines in a poem.
FOLK ETIMOLOGY-refers to the situation when an opaque and unanalyzable word is treated as transparent
and analyzable= is change in the form of a word or phrase based on a mistaken assumption about its
composition or meaning: e.g. asparagus is interpreted as sparrow grass. In Serbian :expresso-
espresso;kompaktibilan- kompatibilan; bezbednosan-bezbedonosan and zaduzbina-nesto cime se neko zaduzi. It
is a change in the form of a word phrase based on a mistaken assumption about its composition or meaning, as
in shamefaced for shamfast, cutlet-cotelette, woodchuck-wuchak.FALSE CUTTING-a humble pie-an umble
pie-humble pie(humiliation in a form of apology).
ANGLICISM-is a word,idiom,or characteristic feature of the English language occurring in or borrowed by
another language,e.g.weekend(weekend in French or vikend in Serbian),sandwich (sandwich in French and
sendvic in Serbian), club (club in French and klub in Serbian). The definition also covers the examples of words
which are not originally English (like:radio,television,kangaroo) and which have been made of foreign non-
English elements (radiare is Latin, tele- is Greek, visio is Latin, kangaroo is native Australian) but which have
nevertheless been integrated into the English language and as such they have been taken over by another
language. There are also words which are called PSEUDOANGLICISMS or secondary Anglicisms. Such
words have not been borrowed from English because they do not exist there but they have been formed in the
receiving language on the basis of English elements and pseudo-English pattern, e.g. golman(Serbian word for
goalkeeper). dzezer(Serbian word for jazzman),boks (Serbian word for Boxing), Serbian examples have been
made by the processes of composition, derivation and ellipsis.
EXAMPLES OF ANGLICISMS IN THE SERBIAN LANGUAGE: disketa, kaseta, sajt, haket, atacment,
vokmen, diskmen, brifing, lizing, marketing, menadzment,diler,establishment,monitor,printer,skrinsejver,
laser,stajling,stilista,foto-sesn,dajdzest,plejbek,rimejk,remiks,kambek,frontmen,fri lens, bestseller, bajpas,
pejsmejker, hamburger, dzingl, desk,spot,rok,pop,erkondisn,marker.
ANGLICISMS CAN BE ANALYSED ON THREE LEVELS: PHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL,
AND SEMANTIC:
1)PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS: takes into consideration spelling and pronunciation. Anglicisms in Serbian
are written in four ways:
a)writing based on the sound-form of the word: lizing-leasing, dzet-set jet set, dzip-jeep, rok, rock, dzingl-
jingle, cek-cheque, fri lens- free lence, triler-thriller.
b) Serbian orthography follows English spelling- marketing-marketing, bard-bard, bestseller- bestseller, deficit-
deficit, trust-trust, supermarket-supermarket
c) Serbian word is formed on the combination of spelling and pronunciation: intervju-interview, klub-club,
spageti vestern- spaghetti western, kontejner-container, kargo-cargo, kontraktro-contractor.
d)the form of the Anglicism is under the influence of the mediator language: Serbian blef is a German
modification of the English bluff.
2) Three degrees of MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION can be distinguished in Serbian:
a)zero degree of adaptation which concerns English Free forms with no affix (dolar- dollar, deficit-deficit= are
integrated into Serbian language without morphological changes: bilbord-billboard, barmen-barmen),
b) second degree of adaptation involves phonological adaptation of the affix, but in spite of that it does not
belong to the morphological system of the Serbian language (lider-leader, kamping-camping, parking-parking,
kompjuter-computer, foto-sesn- photo-session, menadzer- manager, sejker-shaker);
c) third degree adaptation means full intergation into the morphological system of the Serbian language so it
conforms fully to the morphological rules which govern native word formation (komercijalna banka-
commercail bank, televizija-television, banknote-banknote, konvertibilan-convertible, konvertibilnost-
convertibility, testirati- to test, nokautirati- to knockout, minic- mini skirt, rasista-racist, surfovanje internetom-
surfing the Internet).
3) There are three levels of SEMANTIC ADAPTATION can be distinguished in Serbian:
a)zero level of adaptation means that the imported word keeps its original meaning (minibus);
b)it can be that the meaning of the original has been narrowed: sheriff is 1. A person who is elected in America
to make sure that the law is obeyed, 2. The senior judge of a county or district in Scotland, 3. A person in
England or Wales appointed by the queen or king to carry out ceremonial duties=serif has only the first meaning
in Serbian, the word tanker in Serbian refers only to ships and its original meaning is referred to all
transportation which carries oil or gas, the word tandem in Serbian refers only to doing something together
while the original refers to a double bicycle as well.
c) the meaning of the English word can be widened: bar has four meanings in English: 1)a place where you can
buy and drink alcoholic drinks, 2)a room in a hotel where alcoholic drinks are served, 3)one of the rooms in a
pub where prices are slightly lower and that contains a dart board and other pub games, 4)a counter on which
alcoholic drinks are served, and in Serbian it has one more meaning-night club.