Introduction to Etymology – A Look Back

I'm sure you're probably wondering why I am already posting my analysis on the book already. After all, I've only posted about two chapters of the seven the book has. The reason being is that those two chapters were the only one that provided any insight on the specific portion of my topic that I am looking at. The other chapters were mostly about how to write etymology and machines to make the job easier.

Though, the book was, all in all, a very useful tool to give me an insight on what exactly I am doing. We've learned some history of languages, and a whole lot of etymology. I only wish the book covered more of what I wanted to learn.

Either way, I'll be looking around for more content to keep this place interesting and to learn a whole lot more about my topic of choice.

Etymology of Curse Words

We can blame the Germans and the Brits for most of our curse words.

Not for the faint of heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=c8l00ca9djg

Intro to Etymology - Chapter 3

• The English language's words are separated into three categories:
     - Native Words: Words that have always been around in the language, or are derived from native English words. This is the smallest category of words, making up fewer than 20% of words.
     - Germanic: Words from Proto-Germanic, a hypothesized ancient ancestor of the Indo-European family of names.
     - Indo-European: The largest and oldest group of English words that come from multiple Indo-European daughter languages, traced back to the Proto-Indo-Eruopean language.

• Any words that are not native (Around 80-85%) are considered Borrowed. Along with Germanic and Indo-European, words from Scandinavian influence, the rise of Christianity, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes all provide some vocabulary for our language.

• The Celts and their language Vulgar Latin also provided some influence on English words

• Words born at the rise of Christianity include bishop, priest, and mass.

• Scandinavian/Nordic words include egg, and skill.
     - Any word with an 'sk' cluster are Nordic, because Germanic 'sk' became 'sh.'

• The Middle English borrowing period took words for meats from the French and the words for their respective animals from German.
     - German Borrows: Cow/Kuh, Swine/Schewein, Sheep/Schaf, Deer/Teir
     - French Borrows: Beef/Boeuf, Pork/Porc, Mutton/Mouton, Venison/Venaison

• Shakespeare invented around 1700 words

• Compounding of words took place during the Renaissance, which is the combining of two or more words

Days of the Week

Just a few etymologies to tide the blog over until I hit chapter 3 in my book.

Sunday - Day of the Sun

Monday - Day of the Moon

Tuesday - Day of Tvìr (Martes in Spanish comes from Day of Mars, and both gods representing this day represent war)

Wednesday - Day of Wodan

Thursday - Day of Thor

Friday - Day of Freyja

Saturday - Day of Saturn

Intro to Etymology - Chapter One

• English is divided into three phases: Old, Middle, and Modern

• Old: ?-1100

• Middle: 1100-1500

• Modern: 1500-Present

• Each part of the language has an approximate 50-100 year transition period between the phases

• Part of the Indo-European family of languages, and more specifically, West Germanic

• Three classical I.E. languages: Greek, Latin, and. Sanskrit