GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

English is a West Germanic language first spoken in early medieval England which eventually became the leading language of international discourse in today's world. The earliest forms of English, brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are collectively called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England while Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift and spread around the world in the 17th century. It has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The English language has a great number of words. In course of its history, the majority of words borrowed into English have French and Latin roots. English language has been influenced by a numerous tongues or dialects. Words were borrowed into English from different periods and for different purposes. Most of these borrowed words form the main bulk of the words for science, medicine, art, technology, etc. The periods of borrowing words have undergone several changes that were common for English language itself during the centuries. Although many words from French, Greek and Latin have been incorporated into English language, its wide usage, openness, flexibility, tolerance, as well as creativity make it possible to be the main body of international language in the merging of vocabularies and still expand its means of borrowing from other languages. It is on this ground that this research was carried out to assess the English Words Borrowed from Other Languages including their sources and individual meanings.

KEYWORDS: English Words, Other Languages, Sources, Meaning, Borrowing