The Word: A Look at the Vocabulary of English

alphabet American English ancestor appear became become Beowulf body of speech borrowed British British English called Celtic Celts century Chapter cognates combinations common compounds consonants corresponding descended developed device dialects Dictionary digraph diphthong England English language English word especially etymology folk etymology French loans fricative front vowel Germanic grammar Greek Grimm's Law IE languages imply inflectional Latin learned letter linguistic locutions mainly meaning meant Meanwhile Modern English modifier native words Norman Norman French notice noun Old Norse palatal patterns phonemes phrasal phrase PIE root prairie prefix preposition presumably probably pronounced pronunciation Proto-Germanic Proto-Indo-European recognized referent represent Sanskrit schwa semantic sense sentence sequence shape slang sort sound speakers of English spelling standard stop suffix suggest survived syllable symbol thing thousands tion tongue United usage users usually various verb vocabulary voiced voiceless Vowel Shift writing York