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The following are lists of words in the English language that are known as "loanwords" or "borrowings," which are derived from other languages. For Old English -derived words, see List of English words of Old English origin .
The English language has borrowed many words from other cultures or languages. For examples, see Lists of English words by country or language of origin and Anglicisation. Some English loanwords remain relatively faithful to the original phonology even though a particular phoneme might not exist or have contrastive status in English.
[not verified in body] [4] [page range too broad] English borrowed many words from Old Norse, the North Germanic language of the Vikings, [5] 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%, [6] with the rest made up of outside ...
Some other words are borrowed or constructed from classical ancient languages, such as Latin or Greek. Still others are themselves borrowed from indigenous peoples that Russians have come into contact with in Russian or Soviet territory. Compared to other source languages, English contains few words adopted from Russian. [1]
Late Old English borrowed some grammar and core vocabulary from Old Norse, a North Germanic language. [11] [12] [13] Then, Middle English borrowed vocabulary extensively from French dialects, which are the source of approximately 28% of Modern English words, and from Latin, which is the source of an additional 28%. [14]
Middle English was spoken to the late 15th century. The system of orthography that was established during the Middle English period is largely still in use today. Later changes in pronunciation, combined with the adoption of various foreign spellings, mean that the spelling of modern English words appears highly irregular.
The percentage of modern English words derived from each language group: Anglo-Norman French, then French: ~29% Latin, including words used only in scientific, medical or legal contexts: ~29% Germanic: ~26% Others: ~16%. The pervasiveness of words of French origin that have been borrowed into English is comparable to that of borrowings from ...
A semantic loan is a process of borrowing semantic meaning (rather than lexical items) from another language, very similar to the formation of calques.In this case, however, the complete word in the borrowing language already exists; the change is that its meaning is extended to include another meaning its existing translation has in the lending language.