History
Who is known as the “Father of English Literature”?
Geoffrey Chaucer
What is the Assimilation?
Assimilation is the process by which one sound becomes similar to a neighboring sound.
What is the process of creating a new word by combining two words, such as in “bookstore”?
This process is called compounding.
What are the etymological doublets?
Etymological Doublets are pairs of words in the same language that have different forms and meanings but stem from the same root in a donor language.
E.g. "Royal" and "regal": Both come from Latin "regalis," reflecting different paths of borrowing—one through Old French, the other directly from Latin.
What is a borrowed word (loanword) in the English language?
Answer: A borrowed word, or loanword, is a word taken from another language and used in English with the same or similar meaning.
What was the effect of the Renaissance on the English vocabulary?
The Renaissance brought an influx of Latin and Greek words into English as scholars adopted words from classical texts, enriching the language with terms related to science, philosophy, art, and literature.
What is the Paronym?
Paronyms are the words that are derived from the same root but have different meanings.
Name a common word-formation process used to create abbreviations, such as “NASA.”
This is called an acronym.
What is a Donor Language?
(add some example)
Donor Languages are languages that contribute words or elements to another language, often through contact, trade, or colonization across various fields such as science, law, philosophy.
For instance, Latin, Greek
Name two words English borrowed from Spanish and their meanings.
Answer: e.g. "Patio" (an outdoor space) and "plaza" (public square)
What is the Great Vowel Shift, and when did it occur?
The Great Vowel Shift was a significant change in the pronunciation of English vowels that took place from the late 14th to the early 17th century.
What is the Calque?
Calque is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by translating it literally.
What is the difference between an acronym and an initialism? Provide examples of each.
An acronym forms a new word from initial letters (e.g., "NATO"), while an initialism pronounces each letter separately (e.g., "FBI").
What is the origin of the words "chief" and "captain," which are etymological doublets?
Both "chief" and "captain" derive from the Latin word caput, meaning "head."
What does the term "anglicization" mean in the context of borrowings?
Answer: Anglicization refers to adapting a borrowed word to better fit English pronunciation, spelling, or grammar.
How did the invention of the printing press impact the development of the English language?
The printing press, introduced by William Caxton in England in the 15th century, helped standardize spelling and grammar by spreading printed books and promoting literacy.
What is the Velarization?
Velarization – The modification of a sound by moving the tongue toward the velum (back of the mouth)
How does neologism differ from nonce words?
Neologisms are newly created, widely accepted terms (like "blog"), while nonce words are made up for single use without lasting adoption.
"Skirt" and "shirt" are etymological doublets that developed from the same Proto-Germanic root.
True.
"Skirt" and "shirt" both derive from the Proto-Germanic root skurtijô but were borrowed into English from different languages; "shirt" comes from Old English, while "skirt" comes from Old Norse.
Explain how English’s hybrid origins affect its vocabulary in terms of borrowings.
Answer: English’s Germanic and Romance influences make it inherently adaptable, incorporating words from diverse languages, which gives English a rich vocabulary with synonyms across different registers.
What is the significance of the Oxford English Dictionary in the history of English, and when was it first published?
First published in parts beginning in 1884 and completed in 1928, the OED is significant as it aimed to provide a comprehensive historical record of every word in the English language, with examples of their usage over time, tracing the evolution of meanings and spellings.
What is the Glottochronology?
Glottochronology is the study of how languages change over time by comparing their vocabulary.
What is semantic narrowing, and give 3 examples of a word that has narrowed in meaning.
Semantic narrowing limits a word's meaning, like “meat,” which originally meant any food but now refers only to animal flesh, Girl – Previously referred to a young person of any gender but now means a young female.
Deer – Once meant any animal, now refers specifically to a type of mammal in the family Cervidae.
Wife – Formerly referred to any woman, now specifically denotes a married woman.
What is the difference between etymological doublets and cognates, and how can you identify each?
Etymological doublets are pairs of words in the same language with a common root that diverged in meaning or form, while cognates are words in different languages that share a common ancestral root. Doublets can be identified within a single language (like "chief" and "chef"), whereas cognates span across languages (e.g., English "brother" and German "Bruder").
What is "semantic borrowing," and how does it differ from borrowing a word's form? Provide an example.
Answer: Semantic borrowing is adopting the meaning of a foreign word without taking its form.
For instance, the English concept of a "sauna" (from Finnish) is a type of bath rather than using a Finnish-derived spelling or pronunciation.