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Do not fill this in! === Word origins === {{Main|Foreign-language influences in English|Lists of English words by country or language of origin}} {{See also|Linguistic purism in English}} {{Pie chart |caption=Source languages of the English vocabulary<ref name="Wolff" /><ref name="AskOxford">{{cite web |url=http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/proportion |title=What is the proportion of English words of French, Latin, or Germanic origin? |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2008 |website=Ask the experts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080817153021/http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/proportion |archive-date=17 August 2008}}</ref> |value1=28.30 |label1=French, including Anglo-Norman |color1=blue |value2=28.24 |label2=Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin |color2=red |value3=25 |label3=Germanic languages (Old English, Old Norse, Dutch) |color3=green |value4=5.32 |label4=Greek |color4=orange |value5=4.03 |label5=No etymology given |color5=purple |value6=3.28 |label6=Derived from proper names |color6=yellow |other=Other languages (less than 1 % each) }} English, besides forming new words from existing words and their roots, also borrows words from other languages. This borrowing is commonplace in many world languages, but English has been especially open to borrowing of foreign words throughout the last 1,000 years.{{sfn|Denning|Kessler|Leben|2007|p=7}} Nevertheless, most of the core vocabulary and the most common words in English are still West Germanic.{{sfn|Nation|2001|p=265}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Denning |first=Keith |title=English Vocabulary Elements |date=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jz76l9RAccQC |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=34 |isbn=978-0-1951-6802-0}}</ref> The English words first learned by children as they learn to speak are mainly Germanic words from [[Old English]].{{sfn|Algeo|1999}} It is not possible to speak or write English without Germanic words, but it is possible to write or speak many sentences in English without foreign loanwords.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Solodow |first1=Joseph |title=Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OfV9NZxH68C |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=196 |isbn=978-0-5215-1575-7}}</ref> But one of the consequences of long language contact between French and English in all stages of their development is that the vocabulary of English has a very high percentage of "Latinate" words (derived from French, especially, and also from other Romance languages and Latin). French words from various periods of the development of French now make up one-third of the vocabulary of English.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=196}} Linguist Anthony Lacoudre estimated that over 40,000 English words are of French origin and may be understood without [[orthographical]] change by French speakers.<ref name="youtube">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OpfPyFwqus|title=L'incroyable histoire des mots français en anglais !|publisher=[[Paris Dauphine University|Université Paris Dauphine - PSL]]|date=23 March 2016|orig-date=Lecture given 17 March 2016|website=YouTube|access-date=14 January 2024|language=fr|archive-date=25 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125064059/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OpfPyFwqus|url-status=live}}</ref> Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and [[northern England]]. Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as ''egg'' and ''knife''.{{sfn|Denning|Kessler|Leben|2007}} English has also borrowed many words directly from Latin, the ancestor of the Romance languages, during all stages of its development.{{sfn|Kastovsky|2006}}{{sfn|Algeo|1999}} Many of these words had earlier been borrowed into Latin from Greek. Latin or Greek are still highly productive sources of stems used to form vocabulary of subjects learned in higher education such as the sciences, philosophy, and mathematics.{{sfn|Romaine|1999|p=4}} English continues to gain new loanwords and [[calque]]s ("loan translations") from languages all over the world, and words from languages other than the ancestral Anglo-Saxon language make up about 60% of the vocabulary of English.{{sfn|Fasold|Connor-Linton|2014|p=302}} English has formal and informal [[register (sociolinguistics)|speech registers]]; informal registers, including child-directed speech, tend to be made up predominantly of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, while the percentage of vocabulary that is of Latinate origin is higher in legal, scientific, and academic texts.{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|pp=124–127}}{{sfn|Algeo|1999|pp=80–81}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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