a world of words

pamela fox
Ive always had a thing for words In high school, I made the people carpooling with me bring in words to
discuss during each morning ride, and in uni, I plastered word of the day posters all over campus. Now, I want
to share my favorite part about words their deep origins and vast connections.

evolution
!irst, some starter "nowledge. #ust li"e animals, languages evolve over time and branch into new languages.
$inguists classify these languages into families, and then identify a root or proto language for each family. %here
are &' language families in the world, and over (&)) currently spo"en languages.

families
*ur +nglish language comes from the ,ermanic branch of the Indo-+uropean family, the most spo"en family in
the world.
. language is li"e a distinct species, but instead of the ability to interbreed, you have the ability to understand
everyone else spea"ing that same language. Now - you guys might find it harder to understand me than native
.ussies. %hats cu/ languages are divided into things called dialects.

dialects
. dialect is still intelligible by any spea"er of the language, but can differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, or
grammer. %he .ussie dialect is actually closer to the 0outhern 10 dialect than my own from New 2or", which is
why I say fisher and yall say 3fisha. 4esides regional dialects, there are also social dialects li"e ebonics, or the
one many of you use leet spea"5

6roto-
7orld8
#ust li"e all humans evolved from one amoeba, some linguists thin" that every language in the world evolved from
9ust one. %hey loo" for words in diverse languages that have similar meanings and spellings, li"e mali: for
breast;suc";nec";swallow. 4ut its nearly impossible to prove theyre related, because meanings and morphology
can both change so much over time.

0o, we may never figure out if we all share the same parent language, and we may argue endlessly over what
constitutes a dialect of +nglish, but either way, the fact remains that the languages in the world have all
influenced each other in big ways, and Im going to show you how.

word
wurdan
*were (speak, say)
!irst, they influence eachother in the obvious way a child language inherits words from its parents, usually
modifying them slightly over time. +xample %he +nglish word word comes from the proto-,ermanic wurdan
which comes from the proto-indo-european root were, meaning to spea" or say.
inheritance

borrowing
4ut a more interesting type of influence is one called borrowing. $anguages often borrow words from another
language during an invasion or coloni/ation, and typically they borrow words for a particular type of thing li"e
the names of the invading countrys animals. %hese borrowed words are called loan words.

loan words
word
semantics
<meaning=
morphology
<>spelling=
caf?
music
budget
caf?
bougette
musi:ue
. word is composed of its meaning and spelling, and when it is borrowed into a language as a loan word, those
aspects may stay the same or diverge. +xamples %he french word caf? has remained the same, musi:ue
changed in spelling to music, and bougette changed in meaning from small leather purse to our modern
meaning of budget.

origins of
+nglish
+nglish doesnt 9ust borrow words from other languages, it
chases them down bac" alleys and then goes through their
poc"ets for spare metaphors. ,eorge 4ernard 0haw
+nglish is particularly well "nown for borrowing words, with about @AB of our words coming from other languages
though mostly in the same indo european family. 2ou could almost thin" of +nglish as a language that is
,ermanic in syntax but Comantic in vocabulary. $ets loo" at some of the ways that +nglish borrows.

verb
verbe
*were (speak, say)
verbum
!irst, a familiar example. %he +nglish Derb came from *ld !rench verbe, from $atin verbum, and ultimately from
the same proto-indo-european root as word. 0o, word and verb are in fact, cognates words that share a
common root. *ne was borrowed, the other was inherited.
verb

doublets
chief;chef
frenetic;frantic
host;guest
secure;sure
7hen two words in the same language have the same root but entered from different routes, linguists call them
doublets or etymological twins. It usually happens when a language borrows from another at E different points in
its history, and happened often in +nglish with words with $atin roots. 0ome examples are chief and chef, and
host and guest.

tea
tF
chG

0ometimes we borrow from way outside our language family.
+nglish gets the word tea from Hutch traders in the south of Ihina, who heard one pronunciation of the symbol
for tea. .nother ') languages of the world use cha from 6ortuguese traders who heard the other pronunciation.
cha later entered +nglish from Indian chai, and now all 0tarbuc"s-lovers "now it.

orange
naranga-s
narang
naran9
naran9o
naran/a
orenge
0ince +ngland wasnt the best place for growing fruits, a lot of our fruit names come from other languages, li"e
the notoriously unrhymable word orange. *range trees first grew in Ihina, then the word started in India,
traveled over ( languages, and eventually landed in our laps. .nd a few centuries later, we decided it was a
pretty good word for the color, too.

*rangutan
orang-utan
orang-outang
0ometimes people get confused when they borrow a word. 7hen Hutch people heard
Jalays referring to the orangutans of the woods, they assumed they meant the funny
loo"ing orange haired apes when actually they meant the native tribesman. 4ut now
we will always refer to the apes as orangutans meaning man of the wild woods
which actually fits pretty well.

re-borrowing
le bKuf
beef
le bifte"
beefstea"
el bistec
1sually a word is ta"en from a language and never given bac" so really loanword is a misnomer. 4ut,
sometimes a language ta"es it bac" after its changed a bit. %he english too" beef from !rench, combined it with
stea" to mean a cut of beef, and then !rench and 0panish thought that was nifty and too" it bac" as bistec.

mirror
mireor
mirari <to wonder at=
mirus <wonderful=
mirror
*nce we understand the origin of a word, we can suddenly understand the origins of many other words, and gain
a new perspective on their meaning. .nd, well, that discovery is what ma"es all of this so exciting <for me=.
!or example, the word mirror comes from the !rench word for reflecting glass, which comes from the $atin verb
mirari to wonder at, and the $atin root mirus meaning wonderful.

marvel
mirandus
<worthy to be admired=
mirari
<to wonder at=
miracle miraculum
<ob9. of wonder=
mirage
Jiranda
merveille
mirabilia
<wonderful things=
admire
mirus relatives
Latin French English
admirer
Jirabelle
%hat latin root mirus inspired many a derivative in its own language and others. +nglish gained the words
miracle, marvel, admire, and mirage through $atin or through a sidestep in !rench, as well as the girls names
Jiranda and Jirabelle. 0o, now you can use etymology as an excuse for baby-ma"ing tonight. Lwin"

*(s)mei <to smile, be astonished=
smila
smile
smile
Now, if we go bac" even farther to the 6roto-Indo-european root for mirus smei, we find that it produced the
,ermanic word smila and then, our smile. 0o the next time you smile at a miracle while admiring yourself in a
mirror.. well, you can than" all your indo-european parents and invaders.

learn more
http;;delicious.com;f"edupmon"ey;worldwords
If youre now inspired to learn more about word meanings, there are a lot of places to loo". 2ou can subscribe to
podcasts or C00 feeds for words of the day, or whenever youre curious loo" up a word in the dictionary, and
trace its roots bac" as far as possible. 2ou never "now what wondrous marvels youll find.