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Evolving English: Where do new words come from?

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Evolving English: Where do new words come from?

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


What do you think the term Spanglish might mean? Or Chinglish? Or Franglais?

Our language is constantly changing and one way in which it does so is by 'borrowing' words from other languages.

In this ABC News clip, learn about our evolving language.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Where do you think the word 'cherish' comes from? Or 'very'? Or 'Australia'? Use a dictionary to help you find out. List six other words you know that come from languages other than English. Do you know any neologisms? If you don't know what they are, find out what a neologism is and think of an example or two.
  2. 2.How many new words appeared in the English language in 2006, the year in which this clip was produced? List three different ways in which new words enter our language. What are 'hybrid' words? What is one way of deciding that a word has 'officially' entered our language? What is meant by a word becoming 'naturalised'?
  3. 3.Why does English keep evolving? In your own words, explain why our language has to keep changing. Ask four adults if they can suggest words that weren't around when they were children but that are in general use today. Do the words have anything in common?
  4. 4.Professor Aikhenvald suggests that 'blog' originated as a nonsense word, but others suggest it is an abbreviation (or, strictly, a contraction of two words), like 'email'. Find out what 'blog' is an abbreviation of. Why does almost a third of English words stem from French? To find out why, you need to go back to 1066. Conduct some research to identify the momentous event that had such an impact on our language.



Date of broadcast: 8 Feb 2006


Copyright

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