HISTORY OF BORROWING WORDS TO CREATE VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE INFLUENCED BY VARIOUS LANGUAGES

Abstract

English is one of the most peculiar languages in the world. It is thoroughly confusing and quite difficult to learn for non-natives. The prime reason for this complexity lies in the history of English language. Over the ages, English language has been heavily influenced by numerous languages. In fact, English, as a language by itself, is said to have drawn from several languages in its conception. Invasions, cultural clashes, intellectual advancements, societal changes, colonialism, and globalisation – all have lent towards making the vocabulary of English rich and diverse. The way a language influences English was often determined by the class of people who used it. Languages used by common people influenced the common nouns and words of daily usage, while the language of elites influenced words related to a certain sector or class. Also, the history of the English is quite lengthy (over 1400 years) and the language has witness numerous social changes and cultural clashes over the ages. Due to such all these reasons, several languages have had considerable influence on English language. So that, English is often said to be an amalgamation of multiple languages, rather than a language of its own. The paper focusses on History of languages which were used by a certain sect of people or for a certain purpose influenced words related to only that sector, while having virtually no influence on the rest. These major influences, world-wide colonialism has led to English borrowing and absorbing several words from native languages all around the world.