English language: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 16:27, 1 March 2024

English originated in Anglo-Saxo

Word parts & types[edit | edit source]

lexemes[edit | edit source]

noun, verb, adjective and adverb "stems" (basic word by itself

morphemes[edit | edit source]

sounds that are added to lexemes to create new words
- including prefixes, suffixes and stem changes
  - pre-, -ly, -en, -s

English word origin[edit | edit source]

Angles / Anglo-Saxon[edit | edit source]

from the Angles, a Germanic peoples who migrated to the British Islands in the 400s-600s AD.
- part of the Anglo-Saxon invasions
English is one of the "Anglo-Frisian" languages

Language origins of Modern English[edit | edit source]

Origins of Modern English
Germanic	Old French	Latin	Greek	Other	Proper Names
26%	29%	29%	6%	6%	4%

The most common words in English[edit | edit source]

Top Ten Most Common Words in English
1) the	(article)	6) in	(preposition)
2) be	(verb)	7) that	(relative pronoun, dependent marker)
3) to	(particle, preposition)	8) have	(verb)
4) and	(conjunction)	9) I	(pronoun)
5) a	(article)	10) it	(pronoun)

English synonymous & part of speech word use[edit | edit source]

the English language has a huge number of words that have multiple definitions
other languages may be more explicit with distinct words that English will cover with a single word.
for example:

English words & parts of speech distribution[edit | edit source]

English contains about 600,000 words
- as counted by the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,476 words in current use and 47,156 obsolete words
  - the Dictionary also counts 250,000 "distinct" words, excluding inflections (word ending changes)
- when word definitions are counted, English has 1,402,895 words
  - i.e., the word "love" generally has five definitions in the dictionary
- when counting "headwords" and "lemmas" (words produced from a headword), English has 578,707 words
  - "headword" = a word from which other words are derived, such as "break > broken > broke
- see

Parts of Speech frequency as percent of all words[edit | edit source]

parts of speech as percentage of all words[edit | edit source]

in general, English consists of
- Adjectives: 25%
- Nouns: 50%
- Verbs: 7%
  - see: How Many Words are in the Oxford English Dictionary? * alphaDictionary

parts of speech as percentage of word usage, conversational v. formal/academic:[edit | edit source]

English Language Percent Frequency of Use of Parts of Speech
	Adjectives	Adverbs	Conjunctions	Determiners	Nouns	Prepositions	Pronouns	Verbs
Conversational	2.5%	5%	4.5%	4.5%	15%	5.5%	16.5%	12.5%
Formal/ Academic	10%	3%	5%	10%	30%	15%	4%	10%
	Adjectives	Adverbs			Nouns			Verbs

source: The 9 Parts of Speech in English | Ginseng English (from Biber, et. al., (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English.)

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+English originated in Anglo-Saxo
+See also [[Language and etymology]]
+== Word parts & types ==
+=== lexemes ===
+* noun, verb, adjective and adverb "stems" (basic word by itself
+=== morphemes ===
+* sounds that are added to lexemes to create new words
+** including prefixes, suffixes and stem changes
+*** ''pre-, -ly, -en, -s''
 == English word origin ==
+[[Image:Old norse, ca 900.svg|right|350px|thumb|
-* from the Angles, a Germanic peoples who migrated to the British Islands in the 400s-600s AD.
-** part of the Anglo-Saxon invasions
-* English is one of the "Anglo-Frisian" languages
-[[Image:Old norse, ca 900.svg|right|250px|thumb|
 The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:<br>
 <span style="color:#fff; background:#ff0000>Old West Norse dialect</span><br>
 <span style="color:#fff; background:#ff9933>Old East Norse dialect</span><br>
 <span style="color:#fff; background:#ff00ff>Old Gutnish dialect</span><br>
-<span style="background:#ffff00>Old English</span><br>
+<span style="color:#000; background:#ffff00>Old English</span><br>
 <span style="color:#fff; background:#0000ff>Crimean Gothic</span><br>
 <span style="color:#fff; #00ff00>Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility</span>]]
+==== Angles / Anglo-Saxon ====
+* from the Angles, a Germanic peoples who migrated to the British Islands in the 400s-600s AD.
+** part of the Anglo-Saxon invasions
+* English is one of the "Anglo-Frisian" languages
+==== Language origins of Modern English ====
+{| class="wikitable"
+|+Origins of Modern English
+!Germanic
+!Old French
+!Latin
+!Greek
+!Other
+!Proper Names
+|-
+|26%
+|29%
+|29%
+|6%
+|6%
+|4%
+|}
+== The most common words in English==
+{| class="wikitable"
+|+ Top Ten Most Common Words in English
+|1) the
+|(article)
+| 6) in
+|(preposition)
+|-
+| 2) be
+|(verb)
+| 7) that
+|(relative pronoun, dependent marker)
+|-
+|3) to
+|(particle, preposition)
+|8) have
+|(verb)
+|-
+|4) and
+|(conjunction)
+|9) I
+|(pronoun)
+|-
+|5) a
+|(article)
+|10) it
+|(pronoun)
+|-
+|}
-== English vocabulary ==
+== English synonymous & part of speech word use==
+*the English language has a huge number of words that have multiple definitions
+*other languages may be more explicit with distinct words that English will cover with a single word.
+*for example:
+==English words & parts of speech distribution==
-* English contains 170,000 to 220,000 words (when obsolete words are counted)
+*English contains about 600,000 words
-** when technical terms, mostly from Latin and Greek, are counted, there are about 1 million words
+**as counted by the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,476 words in current use and 47,156 obsolete words
+***the Dictionary also counts 250,000 "distinct" words, excluding inflections (word ending changes)
+**when word definitions are counted, English has 1,402,895 words
+***i.e., the word "love" generally has five definitions in the dictionary
+**when counting "headwords" and "lemmas" (words produced from a headword), English has 578,707 words
+***"headword" = a word from which other words are derived, such as "break > broken > broke
+**see
+***[https://web.archive.org/web/20170909203258/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language How many words are there in the Engli... | Oxford Dictionaries (archive.org)]
+***[[wikipedia:Corpus_linguistics#English_corpora|Corpus linguistics - Wikipedia]]
+***[https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/language-most-words Which Language Has The Most Words? (babbel.com)]
+***[[wikipedia:List_of_dictionaries_by_number_of_words|List of dictionaries by number of words - Wikipedia]]
+===Parts of Speech frequency as percent of all words===
+===parts of speech as percentage of all words===
+*in general, English consists of
+**Adjectives: 25%
+**Nouns: 50%
+**Verbs: 7%
+***see: [https://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/oed.html#:~:text=Subtracting%20the%20archaic%20words%20leaves%20us%20with%20about,made%20up%20of%20interjections%2C%20conjunctions%2C%20prepositions%2C%20suffixes%2C%20etc. How Many Words are in the Oxford English Dictionary? * alphaDictionary]
+===parts of speech as percentage of word usage, conversational v. formal/academic: ===
 {| class="wikitable"
-|+
+|+ English Language Percent Frequency of Use of Parts of Speech
+!
 !Adjectives
 !Adverbs
+!Conjunctions
+!Determiners
 !Nouns
 !Prepositions
+!Pronouns
 !Verbs
 |-
-|25%
+|Conversational
+|2.5%
+|5%
+|4.5%
+|4.5%
+|15%
+|5.5%
+|16.5%
+|12.5%
+|-
+|Formal/ Academic
+|10%
+| 3%
+| 5%
+|10%
+|30%
+|15%
+|4%
+|10%
+|-
 |
-|50%
+|Adjectives
+|Adverbs
 |
-|7%
+|
+|Nouns
+|
+|
+|Verbs
 |-
 |
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-|-
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+*source: [https://ginsengenglish.com/blog/parts-of-speech-in-english#:~:text=Take%20a%20look%20at%20the%20following%20table%20showing,to%20give%20a%20general%20sense%20of%20the%20proportions. The 9 Parts of Speech in English | Ginseng English] (from Biber, et. al., (1999). ''Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English.)''
 [[Category:Language Arts]]
 [[Category:Linguistics]]
 [[Category:Language]]
+[[Category:History of language]]
+|
+|}