Articles and Stories

October 22, 2014

I came across a hilarious video recently titled The History of the English Language published by The Open University (open.edu/youtube) and narrated by Clive Anderson. The video is 11 minutes long and shows the many words that were stolen from other languages and countries as the globe changed.

The origin of the quote below is not known, but it is quite an accurate saying.
“Remember, English doesn’t borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.”

The English language is very complex and contains hundreds of thousands of words that make up the language as we know it today. Most of the English words come from either Germanic, Latin or Greek sources.

The origins of the English language can be divided into these easy three categories:

1) Short words, mostly one – and two-syllable words have Germanic origin, words like house, cow, run, bring…

2) Longer words, those that have a root and a prefix or suffix — mostly come from Latin or Greek, words like government, independence, constitution or refrigerator, computer, and television.

3) As with all other languages, English also took what it needs from wherever or whomever it could get it. You will find worlds in the English language that have their roots in (besides what is already listed above) in Scandinavia, the Middle East, East Europe, India and Africa.

Of course, stealing words from other countries happens both ways. Other countries borrow words and expressions from the English language. With technology evolving so quickly mostly with their origin in the English-speaking world, more and more English words are picked up by other countries and integrated into the daily usage.

We hope that you enjoy the video about the English language and learn something you did not know before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s&index=11&list=PLA03075BAD88B909E