Foreign-language influences in English

The English language descends from Old English, the West Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons. Most of its grammar, its core vocabulary and the most common words are Germanic.^[1] Around 70 percent of words in any text^{[clarification needed]} derive from Old English, even if the words have a greater Romance influence.^[2]^{[verification needed]}^{[need quotation to verify]}

The influence of other languages on English is mostly through loanwords. ^{[not verified in body]}^[3]^{[full citation needed]} English borrowed many words from Old Norse, the North Germanic language of the Vikings, and later from Norman French, the Romance language of the Normans, which descends from Latin.^{[not verified in body]} Estimates of native words derived from Old English range up to 33%,^[4] with the rest made up of outside borrowings.^{[not verified in body]} These are mostly from Norman/French,^{[not verified in body]} but many others were later borrowed directly from Latin or Greek.^{[not verified in body]} Some of the Romance words borrowed into English were themselves loanwords from other languages, such as the Germanic Frankish language.^{[not verified in body]}

While some new words enter English as slang, most do not.^{[not verified in body]} Some words are adopted from other languages; some are mixtures of existing words (portmanteau words), and some are new creations made of roots from dead languages.^{[not verified in body]}

^ Denning, Keith M.; Kessler, Brett; Leben, William Ronald (2007). English Vocabulary Elements. Oxford, England: OUP. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-19-803753-8. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
^ Fennell, Barbara (1998). A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-631-20073-4. Retrieved August 17, 2023.^{[page needed]}
^ McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, 2008, pp. 89–136.^{[page range too broad]}^{[full citation needed]}
^ Cite error: The named reference Williams1975 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Denning, Keith M.; Kessler, Brett; Leben, William Ronald (2007). English Vocabulary Elements. Oxford, England: OUP. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-19-803753-8. Retrieved August 17, 2023.

[2] Fennell, Barbara (1998). A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-631-20073-4. Retrieved August 17, 2023.^{[page needed]}

[3] McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, 2008, pp. 89–136.^{[page range too broad]}^{[full citation needed]}

[Williams1975-4] Cite error: The named reference Williams1975 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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Foreign-language influences in English

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