Foreign-language influences in English



The English language descends from Old English, the West Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons. Most of its grammar, its core vocabulary and the most common words are Germanic. Around 70 percent of words in a randomly chosen piece of text derive from Old English, even if English vocabulary at large has a greater Romance influence.

The influence of other languages on English is mostly through loanwords. English borrowed many words from Old Norse, the North Germanic language of the Vikings, and later from Norman French, the Romance language of the Normans, which descends from Latin. Estimates of native words derived from Old English range up to 33%, with the rest made up of outside borrowings. These are mostly from Norman/French, but many others were later borrowed directly from Latin or Greek. Some of the Romance words borrowed into English were themselves loanwords from other languages, such as the Germanic Frankish language.

While some new words enter English as slang, most do not. Some words are adopted from other languages; some are mixtures of existing words (portmanteau words), and some are new creations made of roots from dead languages.

Word origins
A computerized survey of about 80,000 words in the third edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, published by Finkenstaedt and Wolff in 1973 estimated the origin of English words to be as follows:
 * French: 28.30%;
 * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%;
 * Germanic languages, as inherited from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, or a more recent borrowing from a Germanic language such as Old Norse, excluding Germanic words borrowed from a Romance language: 25%;
 * Greek: 5.32%;
 * no etymology given: 4.04%;
 * derived from proper names: 3.28%; and
 * all other languages: less than 1%.

A 1975 survey of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters by Joseph M. Williams suggested this set of statistics:
 * French (langue d'oïl): 41%;
 * "Native" English (derived from Old English): 33%;
 * Latin: 15%;
 * Old Norse: 5%;
 * Dutch: 1%; and
 * Other: 5%.

Languages influencing the English language
Here is a list of the most common foreign language influences in English, where other languages have influenced or contributed words to English.

Celtic
Celtic words are almost absent but do exist, such as the word galore which came about in the 17th century and stems from the Irish, "go leor" which means plenty, or to sufficiency. There are also dialectal words, such as the Yan Tan Tethera system of counting sheep. However, hypotheses have been made that English syntax was influenced by Celtic languages, such as the system of continuous tenses was a cliché of similar Celtic phrasal structures. This is controversial, as the system has clear native English and other Germanic developments.

French
The French contributed legal, military, technological, and political terminology. Their language also contributed common words, such as the names of meats: veal, mutton, beef, pork, and how food was prepared: boil, broil, fry, roast, and stew; as well as words related to the nobility: prince, duke, marquess, viscount, baron, and their feminine equivalents. Nearly 30 percent of English words (in an 80,000-word dictionary) are of French origin.

Latin
Most words in English that are derived from Latin are scientific and technical words, medical terminology, academic terminology, and legal terminology.

Greek
English words derived from Greek include scientific and medical terminology (for instance -phobias and -ologies), Christian theological terminology.

Norman
Castle, cauldron, kennel, catch, cater are among Norman words introduced into English. The Norman language also introduced (or reinforced) words of Norse origin such as mug.

Dutch
There are many ways through which Dutch words have entered the English language: via trade and navigation, such as skipper (from schipper), freebooter (from vrijbuiter), keelhauling (from kielhalen); via painting, such as landscape (from landschap), easel (from ezel), still life (from stilleven); warfare, such as forlorn hope (from verloren hoop), beleaguer (from beleger), to bicker (from bicken); via civil engineering, such as dam, polder, dune (from duin); via the New Netherland settlements in North America, such as cookie (from koekie), boss from baas, Santa Claus (from Sinterklaas); via Dutch/Afrikaans speakers with English speakers in South Africa, such as wildebeest, apartheid, boer; via French words of Dutch/Flemish origin that have subsequently been adopted into English, such as boulevard (from bolwerk), mannequin (from manneken), buoy (from boei).

Indigenous languages of the Western Hemisphere
Algonquian: moose, raccoon, husky, chipmunk, pecan, squash, hominy, toboggan, tomahawk, monadnock, mohawk

Athabaskan: hogan

Cariban: cannibal, hurricane, manatee

Mescalero: apache

Nahuatl: tomato, coyote, chocolate, avocado, chili

Quechua: jerky, potato

Salishan: coho, sockeye, sasquatch, geoduck

Taíno: tobacco

Tupi-Guarani: acai, cougar, ipecac, jaguar, maraca, piranha, toucan

Spanish
Words from Iberian Romance languages (aficionado, albino, alligator, cargo, cigar, embargo, guitar, jade, mesa, paella, platinum, plaza, renegade, rodeo, salsa, savvy, sierra, siesta, tilde, tornado, vanilla etc.). Words relating to warfare and tactics, for instance flotilla, and guerrilla; or related to science and culture.

Italian
Words relating to some music, piano, fortissimo. Or Italian culture, such as piazza, pizza, gondola, balcony, fascism. The English word umbrella comes from Italian ombrello.

Turkic Languages
There are many Turkish loans, which are still part of the frequently used vocabulary, words like Bosh, Bugger, Sofa, Coffee, Doodle, Hungary, Lackey, Mammoth, Quiver, Yogurt, Yataghan etc.

South Asian languages
Words relating to culture, originating from the colonial era. e.g., atoll, avatar, bandana, bangles, buddy, bungalow, calico, candy, cashmere, chit, cot, curry, cushy, dinghy, guru, juggernaut, jungle, karma, khaki, lacquer, lilac, loot, mandarin, mantra, polo, pyjamas, shampoo, thug, tiffin, verandah.

German
English is a Germanic language. As a result, many words are distantly related to German. Most German words relating to World War I and World War II found their way into the English language, words such as Blitzkrieg, Anschluss, Führer, and Lebensraum; food terms, such as bratwurst, hamburger and frankfurter; words related to psychology and philosophy, such as gestalt, Übermensch, zeitgeist, and realpolitik. From German origin are also: wanderlust, schadenfreude, kaputt, kindergarten, autobahn, rucksack.

Old Norse
Words of Old Norse origin have entered English primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England between the mid 9th to the 11th centuries (see also Danelaw). Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as they, egg, sky or knife.

Hebrew and Yiddish
Words used in religious contexts, like Sabbath, kosher, hallelujah, amen, and jubilee or words that have become slang like schmuck, shmooze, nosh, oy vey, and schmutz.

Arabic
Trade items such as borax, coffee, cotton, hashish, henna, mohair, muslin, saffron; Islamic religious terms such as jihad, Assassin, hadith, and sharia; scientific vocabulary borrowed into Latin in the 12th and 13th centuries (alcohol, alkali, algebra, azimuth, zenith, cipher, nadir); plants or plant products originating in tropical Asia and introduced to medieval Europe through Arabic intermediation (camphor, jasmine, lacquer, lemon, orange, sugar); Middle Eastern and Maghrebi cuisine words (couscous, falafel, hummus, kebab, tahini).

Counting
Cardinal numbering in English follows two models, Germanic and Italic. The basic numbers are zero through ten. The numbers eleven through nineteen follow native Germanic style, as do twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, and ninety.

Standard English, especially in very conservative formal contexts, continued to use native Germanic style as late as World War I for intermediate numbers greater than 20, viz., "one-and-twenty," "five-and-thirty," "seven-and-ninety," and so on. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the Latin tradition of counting as "twenty-one," "thirty-five," "ninety-seven," etc., which is easier to say and was already common in non-standard regional dialects, gradually replaced the traditional Germanic style to become the dominant style by the end of nineteenth century.

Opposition
Linguistic purism in the English language is the belief that words of native origin should be used instead of foreign-derived ones (which are mainly Romance, Latin and Greek). "Native" can mean "Anglo-Saxon" or it can be widened to include all Germanic words. In its mild form, it merely means using existing native words instead of foreign-derived ones (such as using "begin" instead of "commence"). In its more extreme form, it involves reviving native words that are no longer widely used (such as "ettle" for "intend") and/or coining new words from Germanic roots (such as word stock for vocabulary). This dates at least to the inkhorn term debate of the 16th and 17th century, where some authors rejected the foreign influence, and has continued to this day, being most prominent in Plain English advocacy to avoid Latinate terms if a simple native alternative exists.