Etymologically the vocabulary of the English
language is far from being homogenous. It
consists of two layers - the native stock of
words and the borrowed stock of words.
Numerically the borrowed stock of words is
considerably larger than the native stock of
words.

In fact native words comprise only 30% of
the total number of words in the English
vocabulary but the native words form the bulk
of the most frequent words actually used in
speech and writing. Besides, the native words
have a wider range of lexical and grammatical
valency, they are highly polysemantic and
productive in forming word clusters and set
expressions.

Borrowed words or
loanwords are words taken from another
language and modified according to the patterns
of the receiving language.

In many cases a borrowed word especially one
borrowed long ago is practically
indistinguishable from a native word without a
thorough etymological analysis. The number of
the borrowings in the vocabulary of the
language and the role played by them is
determined by the historical development of the
nation speaking the language.

The most effective way of borrowing is
direct borrowing from another language as the
result of the contacts with other nations.
Though, a word may be also borrowed indirectly
not from the source language but through
another language.

When analyzing borrowed words one should
distinguish between two terms - source of
borrowing and origin of
borrowing. The first term is applied to
the language from which the word was
immediately borrowed and the second - to the
language to which the word may be ultimately
traced. The closer the two interacting
languages are in structure the easier it is for
words of one language to penetrate into the
other.

There are different approaches to
classifying the borrowed stock of words.

The borrowed stock of words may be
classified according to the nature of the
borrowing itself as borrowing proper, loans
translation and semantic
loans.

Loan translation or calque
is a phrase borrowed from another language by
literal word-for-word translation.

Semantic loan is the borrowing of
the meaning for a word already existing in the
English language.

Latin loans are classified into the
subgroups.

1. Early Latin loans. Those are the
   words which came into English language through
   the languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The
   tribes had been in contact with Roman
   civilization and had adopted many Latin words
   denoting objects belonging to that civilization
   long before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons
   and Judes into Britain (e.g., cup, kitchen,
   mill, wine, port).
2. Later Latin borrowings. To this
   group belong the words which penetrated into
   English language in the sixth and seventh
   centuries, when the English people were
   converted to Christianity (e.g., priest,
   bishop, nun, and candle).
3. The third period of the Latin
   borrowings includes words which came into
   English due to two historical events: the
   Norman Conquest and the Renaissance. Some came
   to English language through French but some
   were borrowed directly from Latin (e.g., major,
   minor, intelligent, permanent).
4. The latest layer of Latin words.
   The words of this period are mainly abstract
   and scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular,
   vaccine, phenomenon, and vacuum).

The tendency of the English language to
borrow extensively can be traced during the
centuries. Thus, one can confidently claim that
borrowing is one of the most productive sources
of enrichment of the English vocabulary.

Linda Correli is a staff writer of http://www.customresearchpapers.us/ and an author of the popular online tutorial for students “What Teachers Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days”, available at http://www.go2essay.com/.