The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European RootsJHU Press, 2001 - 672 pages There are no direct records of the original Indo-European speech. By comparing the vocabularies of its various descendants, however, it is possible to reconstruct the basic Indo-European roots with considerable confidence. In The Origins of English Words, Shipley catalogues these proposed roots and follows the often devious, always fascinating, process by which some of their offshoots have grown. Anecdotal, eclectic, and always enthusiastic, The Origins of English Words is a diverting expedition beyond linguistics into literature, history, folklore, anthropology, philosophy, and science. |
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Page xi
... French . Westward through Europe came the Celtic and Germanic branches , northward turned the Scandinavian , and eastward spread the Baltic and Slavic , including the Russian . English , which in its earliest form was Germanic ( Anglo ...
... French . Westward through Europe came the Celtic and Germanic branches , northward turned the Scandinavian , and eastward spread the Baltic and Slavic , including the Russian . English , which in its earliest form was Germanic ( Anglo ...
Page xii
... French competed , and gradually merged , until Chau- cer's poems and Caxton's printing press set the crown upon their fusion into English . In the shuffle and friction of these tongues , English lost many of the inflec- tions that had ...
... French competed , and gradually merged , until Chau- cer's poems and Caxton's printing press set the crown upon their fusion into English . In the shuffle and friction of these tongues , English lost many of the inflec- tions that had ...
Page xiii
... French have long objected to the assimilation of foreign terms ; they speak scornfully of Franglais , the acceptance of English expressions . And recently the Soviet Union has protested against the " corruption " of Russian by English ...
... French have long objected to the assimilation of foreign terms ; they speak scornfully of Franglais , the acceptance of English expressions . And recently the Soviet Union has protested against the " corruption " of Russian by English ...
Page xiv
... French garage ( automobile barn ) , Swedish ombudsman , Afrikaans apartheid , Japanese karate ( empty hand ) and judo ( gentle way ) . It embraces con- cise or colorful expressions from any source : Spanish pronto , French détente ...
... French garage ( automobile barn ) , Swedish ombudsman , Afrikaans apartheid , Japanese karate ( empty hand ) and judo ( gentle way ) . It embraces con- cise or colorful expressions from any source : Spanish pronto , French détente ...
Page xvii
... French . During these journeyings , certain patterns of form or transformation have re- curred so frequently that , instead of repeating them time after time in the dis- cussion of individual roots , it seems wise to set them down in ...
... French . During these journeyings , certain patterns of form or transformation have re- curred so frequently that , instead of repeating them time after time in the dis- cussion of individual roots , it seems wise to set them down in ...
Other editions - View all
The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots Joseph Twadell Shipley No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
ambhi bhag bhel bher bhes bheu bhili bhreg called caput coined columns compounds deik dekm dheigh N dheigh N 13 dhel dheu eghs element ending English folk etymology folkchanged French genus gerbh ghdhem gher goddess Greek guei guel hence ieug imitative jing kapr kel VIII King kleu ksei ksun kuei kuetuer labh Latin leguh leuk literally Love's Labor's Lost meaning medhi morui nebh nekut neuos oino onomen pilo plek pleu prefix relevant words beginning Roman root sek II seku Shakespeare skeu slang smer sner song sound spek sphei ster steu suer suffix tag II tereq teue tragh uegh ueid ueik ueks uelu uer II uerg uiro W. S. Gilbert whence
References to this book
Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing Michael Winkelman No preview available - 2000 |
The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story John T. Irwin Limited preview - 1994 |