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Etymology

Etymology. Documenting a word’s history. Why include etymology?. Many users are curious about history and where words came from. Linguists and historians can learn much from historical linguistics. Etymology can explain otherwise puzzling aspects of the phonology and morphology.

raymond-osborne
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Etymology

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  1. Etymology Documenting a word’s history.

  2. Why include etymology? • Many users are curious about history and where words came from. • Linguists and historians can learn much from historical linguistics. • Etymology can explain otherwise puzzling aspects of the phonology and morphology.

  3. Sources of words. • There are three possible sources of a word. • The word was inherited directly from the proto language. • The word was borrowed from another language. • The word was invented.

  4. Resources you will need. • Look for any reconstructions of the proto language. • Collect dictionaries from related languages. • Collect dictionaries from languages of wider communication. • Collect dictionaries from languages that your language has had contact with. • If the language has a written history, collect old documents. • If the language has an oral literature, sometimes it will use archaic words.

  5. Procedure for determining what words are inherited. • Sort your dictionary alphabetically. • Compare the words in your language to a list of reconstructed forms of the proto language. Look for a correspondence of both form and meaning. • Establish patterns of correspondence (*p > w; stop > fricative; [-voice] > [+voice] / V_V). • Generate an assumed proto form of all the words in your dictionary. Then compare these to the reconstructed forms. • Sort your dictionary and the reconstructed forms by semantic domains. Then look for correspondences. • Compare your dictionary with dictionaries of related languages. Look for similar words. Reconstruct hypothetical proto forms.

  6. Procedure for determining what words are borrowed. • Ask the people what words are borrowed. If they are bilingual, they may know of words that have been borrowed. • Look for words that are similar to words in neighboring languages. (kupya ‘hat’ from Arabic kofia, dunya ‘world’ from Arabic dunia). • If there are similar words in two unrelated languages, it is almost certain that one language borrowed from the other. • If the two languages are related, then you must do a great deal of careful reconstruction to determine if the word is inherited from the proto language or was borrowed. • ‘Brother’ is inherited. ‘Fraternal’ was borrowed from Latin. ‘Two’ is inherited. ‘Duo’ was borrowed.

  7. Indicating etymology in a dictionary. • The etymology of a word is usually placed at the end of the article. skoshadj. Little (of a quantity). These pants have just a skosh more room. [from Japanese: sukoshi]. futonn. A mattress that can be folded up and put away. [from Japanese: futon]. gracen. Seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin gra:tia, from gra:tus, pleasing. See gwere- in Appendix]. yearnv. To have a strong, often melancholy desire. [Middle English yernen, from Old English geornan, giernan. See gher- in Appendix.]

  8. Insights from etymology. • Historical changes can result in holes in your phoneme chart. • Changes can also result in some phonemes being far more common than others. • Odd and irregular morphophonemic changes can sometimes be explained by a historical rule. • We know where the proto Indo-Europeans lived because we can reconstruct such words as ‘snow’, bear’, and ‘beech tree’, but not ‘dune’, ‘camel’ or ‘palm tree’.

  9. Appendix of reconstructed forms. • Some dictionaries include an appendix of reconstructed forms with a list of all the words inherited from each proto form. The following is taken from the American Heritage Dictionary. gher-v. To like, want. 1. Suffixed form *gher-n-. yearn, from old English giernan, gyrnan, to strive, desire, yearn, from Germanic *gernjan. 2. Possibly extended form *ghre:-a. greedy, from old English graedig, hungry, covetous, greedy, from Germanic gre:digaz, hungry, formed from *gre:duz, hunger; b. catachresis, chresard, chrestomathy, from Greek khre:sthai, to lack, want, use, from khre:, it is necessary. 3. Suffixed zero-grade form *ghr-to-. hortative; exhort, from Latin horta:ri:, to urge on, encourage (< “to cause to strive or desire”). 4. Suffixed zero-grade form *ghr-i-. charisma; Eucharist, from Greek kharis, grace, favor. 5. Suffixed zero-grade form *ghr-yo-. chervil, from Greek khairein, to rejoice, delight in [Pokorny 1. gher- 440.]

  10. Bibliography American heritage dictionary. 1992. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

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