% of English words from Latin and Greek

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:39 PM +0100 11/4/09, Stephen Gmail wrote:
>This is digging up very old and unreliable 
>memories, but I believe I read at some point 
>that about 50 percent of English vocabulary was 
>Latinate in origin (including all those French 
>words the Normans introduced) and 45 percent 
>Anglo-Saxon in origin, while only about 5 
>percent came from third languages. Although the 
>Anglo-Saxon words were older and were very hard 
>to replace with later Latinate/French words, the 
>latter normally taking more nuanced meanings 
>rather than directly replacing the Anglo-Saxon 
>word, the greater Latinate percentage was 
>explained by the greater ease of forming new 
>words by recombining other words and particles. 
>Many - most? - Greek words would have been 
>included in the Latinate bunch, I think, having 
>been filtered through Latin before reaching 
>English, but I'm guessing here. I don't know if 
>the old Norse, Dutch, and modern German words 
>English absorbed would have been included in the 
>Anglo-Saxon group, but I imagine they would. 
>That would leave languages like Yiddish (only a 
>Germanic half-brother), Hindi, Tahitian, the 
>Native American languages, etc.,

Arabic is a non-negligible part of that "etc.", 
as I discovered in teaching an intro Words class.

Also, I imagine the fractions will shift 
depending on what counts as "English 
vocabulary"--for example, if we're doing a type 
count from a dictionary, how large a dictionary? 
Obviously, the fatter the dictionary, the bigger 
the Latinate (or Latinate + Greekate) proportion 
of roots...

>  to make up the remaining 5 percent.
>
>Best,
>
>Stephen Hughes
>
>
>El 04/11/2009, a las 0:04, Wilson Gray escribió:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the 
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>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: % of English words from Latin and Greek
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:53 AM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>---------------------- Information from the 
>>>mail header -----------------------
>>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
>>>Subject:      Re: % of English words from Latin and Greek
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>If I recall correctly, I once read=A0that about 60 percent of English words=
>>>come from Latin, and about 20 percent from Greek.=A0Many years ago, I used=
>>>to teach a course called Vocabulary Development, and I think this was in o=
>>>ne of the course textbooks at the time.=20
>>>=A0
>>>Margaret Lee
>>>
>>>________________________________________
>>>Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
>>>Adjunct Professor of English & Linguistics
>>>Department of English
>>>Hampton University=20
>>>Hampton, VA 23668
>>>757-727-5769(voice);757-727-5084(fax)
>>>margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu
>>>mlee303 at yahoo.com
>>>
>>>--- On Sun, 11/1/09, David A. Daniel <dad at POKERWIZ.COM> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>From: David A. Daniel <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
>>>Subject: Re: % of English words from Latin and Greek
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>Date: Sunday, November 1, 2009, 5:33 PM
>>>
>>>
>>>It's all Greek to me.
>>>:)
>>>
>>Well, as a Greek friend of mine liked to say, 
>>"It's all mathematics to me." ;-)
>>
>>-Wilson
>>>__________________________________________
>>>We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there
>>>
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>>Michael Sheehan
>>>Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 1:24 PM
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>Subject: % of English words from Latin and Greek
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>This may be an impossible question, but does anyone have any idea
>>>(even rough) as to what percentage of English words came directly from
>>>Greek and what percentage directly from Latin? Complicating things, of
>>>course, is that many Latin words derived from Greek forms.
>>>
>>>Mike Sheehan
>>>wordmall at aol.com
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>-Wilson
>>ñññ
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"ñña strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>ñMark Twain
>>
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>
>-------------------------------------
>Stephen Hughes
>Mobile +34 607 710 159
>Tel & Fax +34 916 406 137
>sehughes80 at gmail.com
>
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