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Our Dual Vocabulary: The Make-Up of The English Vocabulary

The document discusses the makeup of the English vocabulary, noting that English acquired many Latin words through French following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This gave English a dual vocabulary, with Anglo-Saxon words tending to be more earthy and homely while Latin-derived words tended to be more sophisticated and formal. The document provides examples of word pairs where the Anglo-Saxon word is more intimate and the Latin-derived word is more dignified or resonant.

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20 views

Our Dual Vocabulary: The Make-Up of The English Vocabulary

The document discusses the makeup of the English vocabulary, noting that English acquired many Latin words through French following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This gave English a dual vocabulary, with Anglo-Saxon words tending to be more earthy and homely while Latin-derived words tended to be more sophisticated and formal. The document provides examples of word pairs where the Anglo-Saxon word is more intimate and the Latin-derived word is more dignified or resonant.

Uploaded by

Ilias
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Make-up of the English Vocabulary

m union), words to do w ith law (assize, plea, plaintiff, defendant). So


too did w ords to do w ith the army and the navy, w ith food and fashions
and social life, w ith art, medicine and learning. It is true that many native
w ords were lost, but the new borrow ings m ore than compensated,
numerically speaking.
French is one o f the European languages directly descending from
Latin. W hen the w ords w hich came directly into English from Latin in
the various periods of our history are added to the w ords w hich came
indirectly into English from Latin through French, the double ancestry
o f m odern English becomes evident. A basically Teutonic language w hich
shares m uch o f its vocabulary w ith German has acquired an immense
vocabulary from Latin w hich it shares w ith French. W hether we ought
to rejoice in Harolds defeat at the Battle o f Hastings becomes a question
hard to answer. Because o f it the English language has become the richest
in Europe, a language w hich can act as a bridge between the Teutonic
races and the Latins.

OUR DUAL VOCABULARY


Homeliness and Sophistication
It is not surprising that so often our words from Latin carry a flavour of
sophistication w hich our Anglo-Saxon vocabulary lacks. It is not surpris
ing that our Anglo-Saxon vocabulary has an earthiness and a homeliness
that our Latin vocabulary lacks. It is not surprising that w hen we w ant to
be very friendly w e use our Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, and w hen we w ant
to be formal and dignified we use our Latin vocabulary. Can you call at
our house next Tuesday w e say to a close friend. But w hen the formal
occasion arises its Mr and Mrs George Smith request the pleasure of
your company at the w edding o f their daughter Mary to . . . The words
request, pleasure, com pany all derive from French and ultimately
have Latin roots.
Certainly there is fascination in the dual vocabulary we enjoy. Philol
ogists have contrasted the w arm w ord darling w ith the less touching
w ord favourite, the hom ely w ord deep w ith the dignified w ord
profound, the intimate w ord lonely w ith the resonant w ord solitary.
Such duplication does not always produce synonyms. Indeed the tendency
was for duplicated terms w hich began as synonyms to drift apart in

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