Word Origins Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Plate Introduction In this section, we are going to investigate the meanings of words by looking at the history and origins of words. Here, we will discover that many seemingly unrelated words in English mean pretty much just what they look like they mean, once we learn how to look. The English language evolved into its modern form in the country known as England. The people migrated into England from elsewhere. Descendents of these original speakers are known as Anglo-Saxons. This name comes from 2 groups of migrants, the Angles and the Saxons, who invaded the island of England 1,500 years ago from what is now Germany. The Angles came from Angeln and the Saxons came from Saxony. The very word England is an evolved form of Angle land, as the land became known as the Land of the Angles. In other words, 1,500 years ago, the ancestors of the speakers of English spoke a language that was identical to the language that is now German. Since English and German share a common ancestor, they are both known as Germanic languages. If we travel back further in time, to a time some 5,000 years ago, we discover that the ancestors of the speakers of Germanic languages themselves split off from a much larger group. The language spoken by this larger group at the time of the split is known as Indo-European. Indo-European (I-E) is so-called as it was the ancestor language of many of the languages of modern Europe, India, and Iran. About 5,000 years ago, the speakers of I-E split into many groups, which went their separate ways. This lead to their speaking very different languages, and their modern languages are recognized as belonging to different language families. These languages are grouped into families, because these groups that split off from I-E later themselves split up over time. There are 10 families of languages in existence today that evolved from I-E. These are 1) the Germanic languages, 2) the Romance languages, based on Latin, which include such as French, Spanish, and Italian, 3) Greek, 4) the Slavic languages, such as Russian and Polish, 5) the Celtic languages, such as Irish, 6) the Baltic languages, such as Latvian, 7) the Sanskrit-based languages of India, such as Hindi, 8) the Persian languages, such as Farsi, which is spoken in Iran, 9) Armenian, and 10) Albanian. Since all of these languages are related as recently as 5,000 years ago, much of their modern vocabulary evolved from the same original words. In other words, although words in these various languages superficially look to be very different, it is often possible to learn to look beyond the superficial and to recognize the same original word origins. This can be quite fun, and we will do so here to discover some surprising word relationships. Why do we care about words from all of these other languages? Because English is an incredible borrower of words from other languages. English has borrowed a tremendous numbers of words, most particularly from Greek and Latin. Once in English, these words can appear at first glance to be completely meaningless strings of letters. Now, however, we can learn to recognize words that we know, in only slightly disguised form. For the original I-E words, known now as word roots, we can look to the American Heritage dictionary of Indo-European roots. Fortunately, this information is available online as well, at http://www.bartleby.com/61/IEroots.html. Their dictionary is online as well, at http://www.bartleby.com/61/. Dictionary Plate The word plate has an underlying meaning of flat. There are many types of plates, and all of these types of plates refer to things that are flat. In our case, of course, the word plate refers to dishes that are flat. In Indo-European, there is a word root, in other words a unit of meaning that has come to be part of numerous modern words, known as pelə-2. The superscript indicates that there were a couple of other roots that were similar to this one, and therefore that not every word in English or other languages that looks like this is related. The key point to notice is that this root consists of an initial consonant p, the vowel e, the consonant l, and the schwa vowel (like the a of flat). Consonants are very stable in language, and the p and the l have remained intact to this day. Vowels are notoriously unstable in language, particularly the first vowel. The second vowel is always present, but sometimes in a slightly changed form. The first vowel sometimes appears as a slightly different vowel, and often disappears entirely. In our case, we will discuss words where the first vowel disappeared entirely. All of these words begin with a pl. The basic meaning of words with this root is flat. There are many words that begin with pl, follow this with a vowel, and then end with another consonant or consonant cluster. Several such words in English come from Latin: Plane: A geometric shape that is flat. Plain: An area of land that is flat. Plantar: The sole (flat part) of the foot. Several such words in English come from Greek: Platypus is an animal named for flat (platy) feet (pus). Platyhelminthes is a flatworm. Several such words in English come from French: Platitude: A dull (flat) saying. The word plate has a similar origin. It has the meaning of an object that is flat. Since we are talking only of dishes here, the word plate refers to dishes that are flat. This brings us to English. What words are in English of English origin with this spelling? What about the word flat itself? It begins not with pl, but with fl. Jakob Grimm, of the Brothers Grimm, was a collector fairy tales. He was also a linguist. He recognized the phenomena that the consonant p that appears in other I-E languages, such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, has evolved into an f in Germanic languages. In 1822, Grimm came up with a theory known as the First Sound Shift. There are several parts to this sound shift. The one that we mention here, p into f, is known as Grimm's Law #1. For example, padre in Spanish is related to father in English. Here, the primary difference is the f in the English word in place of the p in Spanish. Pisces in Latin is fish in English. In Latin, ped (as in pedestrian), and in Greek, pod (as in podiatrist) are foot in English. The word plate passed into English from the French. It is the feminine form of the word plat. When we consider the sound shift in English of the original word plat, we recognize the word flat. Plates are flat dishes.

Languages        Search Advanced Search Information Shipping & Returns Privacy Notice Conditions of Use Contact Us Discount Coupons Newsletter Unsubscribe About Chinaware Word Origins Origin of Chinaware Chinaware in History Services Custom Designs