2. Etymology of oe vocabulary

By its origin OE vocabulary was of two sources: native words and borrowings.

In their turn native words were represented in three layers:

1. words common to other Indo-European languages;

2. common Germanic and West-Germanic words;

3. specifically Old English words which did not exist in other languages.

a) Common IE words: e.g. fxder, modor, nama, fōt, heorte, neowe, ZeonZ, riht, lonZ, sittan, licZan, beran, twā, þrē.

b) Common Germanic words which existed in other Germanic languages: e.g. eorþe, lxnd, sxnd, earm, hand, Zrēne, dēop, ēarm (poor), finden, sinZen, steorfan. Words which existed in West Germanic languages only: e.g. Zrxt, macjan, cxZ (key), scēap, fox.

c) Specifically OE words (very, few): e.g. brid (bird), Zerēfa (reeve), swaþian (swathe – wrap up – envelope), clipian (call).

OE compounds built of elements found in other related languages enter this group: e.g. wimman, hlāf-mxsse – Lammas, hlāford - lord, scīr-Ze-rēfa – sheriff, hlxfdiZe – lady.

The whole issue of word origin is very difficult as Latin, the Germanic tongues, Old English (derived from Germanic), and the Celtic tongues are all ultimately derived from a common Indo-European root, and are cognates (related). This can easily be demonstrated by looking (for example) at the words I, me, is, brother, ten.

English	I	me	is	mother	brother	ten
Sanskrit	aham	ma	asti	matar	bhratar	daca
Iranian	azem	me	asti	matar	bratar	dasa
Greek	ego	me	esti	mater	phrater	deka
Latin	ego	me	est	mater	frater	decem
Old English	ic	me	is	moder	broþor	tien
Old Irish		me	is	mathir	brathir	deich
Lithuanian	asz	mi	esti	mote	broterelis	deszimtis
Russian	[ja]	[men’a]	[jest']	[mat']	[brat]	[des’at']

This clearly shows that these tongues are related. The picture for English is even more complicated. Old English is cognate with Latin, but also borrowed a few words from Latin; even more words got borrowed in the 7th century. Then with the Norman conquest, there was a large influx of Norman French (and yet more Latin) words.

Consequently, English is in places cognate with Latin, and in places derived from Latin. For instance "brother" is cognate with the Latin frater but "fraternal" is derived from frater. Other examples:

English	Latin cognate	English derivative
mother	mater	maternal
two	duo	dual, duet
tooth	dens, stem dent-	dental
foot	pes, stem ped-	pedal
heart	cor, stem cord-	cordial
bear	fero	fertile

In Old English borrowings come from a number of different sources, at different times.