Origins of the English Language

by Judy Young

English is one of the more difficult languages in the world to learn. When one looks at the history of English, it is no wonder! There are words in English that come from nearly every part of the planet, and as early as the beginning of the written word. Some examples are French, Old French, Middle French, Old English, Latin, Russian, South African Dutch, Irish and Italian, to name just a few. Derivations are a good thing to study in a dictionary when learning English.

Derivations show what the word originally meant and what country or region it came from. Derivations are commonly found either before or after the definitions of a word and are in brackets [ ]. The country or countries a word originally came will be shown in abbreviations. The symbol > shows where something is from, going earlier in written history. A guide to the abbreviations is a Languages list at the beginning of the dictionary. Reading the derivations helps one to gain a better understanding of the word and its present-day meaning.

Because of this big mix of languages, we get great variety in the way words and sounds are pronounced. Because different languages have their own rules in how letters sound, the result is that there are many rules that work most of the time, but that there are some exceptions to watch for.

Some letters in words and combinations of letters are silent. One of these is the "gh," as in "night," "height" and "weight." The "gh" also can have an "f" sound, as in the word "laugh." The "b" can be silent, as in the word "doubt." There are other silent letters in words and it's good to be aware that they exist.

Some consonants have two distinct sounds, depending on the word or place in the word they are in. These are "C," "G" and "S." The "C" sound can be a hissing "S" sound, as in "cent" and "cereal" or a "K" sound, as in "cool" and "cut." The "G" sound is often the sound as in "girl" but can also be the "J" sound, as in "judge" or "courage."

So, it's good to keep a sharp eye on exceptions to rules when learning to speak and understand English. Looking at derivations gives one a good start on this.