English language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:55, 21 April 2023

English originated in Anglo-Saxo

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]

the
be
to
and
a
in
that
have
I
it

from: Most common words in English - Wikipedia

notes & statistics[edit | edit source]

of the top 20 most common words, 7 are prepositions
the top 200 words constitute 50-60% of words used commonly used
- see: Is there a frequency of the use of different parts of speech in English? - Stack Exchange

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.)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+English originated in Anglo-Saxo
+See also [[Language and etymology]]
 == English word origin ==
@@ Line 23: / Line 27: @@
 |4%
 |}
-[[Image:Old norse, ca 900.svg|right|250px|thumb|
+== The most common words in English==
-The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:<br>
+#the
-<span style="color:#fff; background:#ff0000>Old West Norse dialect</span><br>
+#be
-<span style="color:#fff; background:#ff9933>Old East Norse dialect</span><br>
+#to
-<span style="color:#fff; background:#ff00ff>Old Gutnish dialect</span><br>
+#and
-<span style="background:#ffff00>Old English</span><br>
+#a
-<span style="color:#fff; background:#0000ff>Crimean Gothic</span><br>
+#in
-<span style="color:#fff; #00ff00>Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility</span>]]
+#that
+#have
+#I
+#it
+*from: [[wikipedia:Most_common_words_in_English|Most common words in English - Wikipedia]]
-== English vocabulary ==
+=== notes & statistics ===
+*of the top 20 most common words, 7 are <u>prepositions</u>
+*the top 200 words constitute 50-60% of words used commonly used
+**see: [https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/546759/is-there-a-frequency-of-the-use-of-different-parts-of-speech-in-english Is there a frequency of the use of different parts of speech in English? - Stack Exchange]
+== 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 about 600,000 words
@@ Line 46: / Line 63: @@
 *** [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]]
-{| class="wikitable"
-|+English Language Percent Distribution of Parts of Speech in the Oxford English Dictionary
-!Adjectives
-!Adverbs
-!Conjunctions
-!Determiners
-!Nouns
-!Prepositions
-!Pronouns
-!Verbs
-|-
-|25%
-|
-|
-|
-|50%
-|
-|
-|7%
-|-
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|-
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|
-|}
+=== 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