Shampoo from India, Ketchup from China. A short story of English

'the common source'

The Celts – natives of the British Isles

Celtic words Proper names: Avon Thames Kent York Other words: binn, crag

Britain as a part of the Roman world

The Roman invasion writing Latin borrowings (e.g. wall, street, camp, wine, cheese) Proper names (e.g. Chester, Manchester, Londonium)

Anglo – Saxons people from north Germany, Denmark and northern Holland

Old English language of the Anglo-Saxons Noun declinations Verb conjugations Everyday words (sheep, earth, work, field) the, is, you Place names (Cantley, Downham, Elmswell) Weekdays (Tiw, Woden, Thor, Frig)

'The words of God'

Christianity and language Words from the Bible (camel, lion, cedar, myrrh) Words of Latin origin (discipline, preost, biscop, nonne, munuc) Words of Greek origin (apostle, pope, psalter)

The Viking invasions

The Norse The simplification of English (regularisation of endings, loss of inflections) Place names (Clapham, Worthing, Hawkstowe, Derby, Swainswick) 900 words of Scandinavian origin (get, hit, leg, skin, same, want, wrong)

The Norman conquest

'Common men know no French' French – a learned, not natural language Alternative vocabulary: freedom – liberty ask – enquire answer – respond call off – cancel put off - postpone

Renaissance a huge influx of Latin and Greek words Latin (anatomy, area, compensate, expensive, gradual, habitual, physician) Greek (anonymous, atmosphere, data, skeleton, tragedy) Arabic via Spanish (alcove, algebra, zenith, algorithm, almanac, azimuth, alchemy, admiral )

The beginning of major colonial expansion, industrial revolution, and American immigration Words from European languages French (champagne, faux pas, sachet, salon) Spanish (alligator, barricade, coyote, desperado, tornado, tortilla) Italian (studio, umbrella, cappuccino, espresso, spaghetti) Dutch, Flemish (cruise, landscape, cookie)

German (pumpernickel, sauerkraut, schnitzel, U-boat, delicatessen, hamburger, hausfrau, kindergarten) Scandinavian (fjord, ski, slalom) Russian (czar/tsar, icon, perestroika, vodka)

Words from other parts of the world Persian (check, checkmate, chess ) Arabic (gazelle, giraffe, harem, sultan, bazaar, caravan ) African languages (banana (via Portuguese), banjo, boogie-woogie, gorilla, gumbo, jazz, voodoo, zebra, zombie ) American Indian languages (avocado, cacao, cannibal, canoe, chocolate, hurricane, potato, tobacco, tomahawk, tomato) Chinese (ketchup, tea) Japanese (geisha, hara kiri, judo, jujitsu, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai,soy, sumo, sushi, tsunami)

sources: Bryson, Bill. 1990. The Mother Tongue. New York: Avon Books. McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. 1987. The Story of English. New York: Penguin Books. http://celticmythpodshow.com/Resources/Galleries/Stonehenge/Stoneheng e.php http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/anglo_saxons/who_were_the_ anglo-saxons/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/language_romans.s html http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/who_were_the_vikings/ http://www.englishplacenames.co.uk/ http://www.essentialnormanconquest.com/story/introduction.htm http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/loanwords.html