How English language attain its present form

Here's a very interesting details of how English language came into existence. This will help how words in English came into their present forms.

The following list is a small sample of the loanwords that came into English in different periods and from different languages.

I. Germanic period
ancor 'anchor'
butere 'butter' (L < Gr. butyros) cealc 'chalk' ceas 'cheese' (caseum) cetel 'kettle' cycene 'kitchen' cirice 'church' (ecclesia < Gr. ecclesia) disc 'dish' (discus) mil 'mile' (milia [passuum] 'a thousand paces') piper 'pepper' pund 'pound' (pondo 'a weight') sacc 'sack' (saccus) sicol 'sickle' straet 'street' ([via] strata 'straight way' or stone-paved road) weall 'wall' (vallum) win 'wine' (vinum < Gr. oinos) II. Old English Period (600-1100)

Latin
apostol 'apostle' (apostolus < Gr. apostolos) casere 'caesar, emperor' ceaster 'city' (castra 'camp') cest 'chest' (cista 'box') circul 'circle' cometa 'comet' (cometa < Greek) maegester 'master' (magister) martir 'martyr' paper 'paper' (papyrus, from Gr.) tigle 'tile' (tegula) Celtic
brocc 'badger'
cumb 'combe, valley'

(few ordinary words, but thousands of place and river names: London, Carlisle,
Devon, Dover, Cornwall, Thames, Avon...)

III. Middle English Period (1100-1500)


Scandinavian
Most of these first appeared in the written language in Middle English; but many were no doubt borrowed earlier, during the period of the Danelaw (9th-10th centuries).

* anger, blight, by-law, cake, call, clumsy, doze, egg, fellow, gear, get, give, hale, hit, husband, kick, kill, kilt, kindle, law, low, lump, rag, raise, root, scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, seat, skill, skin, skirt, sky, sly, take, they, them, their, thrall, thrust, ugly, want, window, wing
* Place name suffixes: -by, -thorpe, -gate

French

* Law and government—attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime, defendent, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, larceny, noble, parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict
* Church—abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar, prayer, preach, priest, religion, sacrament, saint, sermon
* Nobility—baron, baroness; count, countess; duke, duchess; marquis, marquess; prince, princess; viscount, viscountess; noble, royal (contrast native words: king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight, kingly, queenly)
* Military—army, artillery, battle, captain, company, corporal, defense,enemy,marine, navy, sergeant, soldier, volunteer
* Cooking—beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, poultry, roast, salmon, stew, veal
* Culture and luxury goods—art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel, oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, sculpture
* Other—adventure, change, charge, chart, courage, devout, dignity, enamor, feign, fruit, letter, literature, magic, male, female, mirror, pilgrimage, proud, question, regard, special

Also Middle English French loans: a huge number of words in age, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment, -tion, con-, de-, and pre- .

IV. Early Modern English Period (1500-1650)


Latin

* agile, abdomen, anatomy, area, capsule, compensate, dexterity, discus, disc/disk, excavate, expensive, fictitious, gradual, habitual, insane, janitor, meditate, notorious, orbit, peninsula, physician, superintendent, ultimate, vindicate

Greek (many of these via Latin)

* anonymous, atmosphere, autograph, catastrophe, climax, comedy, critic, data, ectasy, history, ostracize, parasite, pneumonia, skeleton, tonic, tragedy
* Greek bound morphemes: -ism, -ize

Arabic

* via Spanish—alcove, algebra, zenith, algorithm, almanac, azimuth, alchemy, admiral
* via other Romance languages—amber, cipher, orange, saffron, sugar, zero, coffee

V. Modern English (1650-present)

Period of major colonial expansion, industrial/technological revolution, and American immigration.

Words from European languages

French
French continues to be the largest single source of new words outside of very specialized vocabulary domains (scientific/technical vocabulary, still dominated by classical borrowings).

* High culture—ballet, bouillabaise, cabernet, cachet, chaise longue, champagne, chic, cognac, corsage, faux pas, nom de plume, quiche, rouge, roulet, sachet, salon, saloon, sang froid, savoir faire
* War and Military—bastion, brigade, battalion, cavalry, grenade, infantry, pallisade, rebuff, bayonet
* Other—bigot, chassis, clique, denim, garage, grotesque, jean(s), niche, shock
* French Canadian—chowder
* Louisiana French (Cajun)—jambalaya

Spanish

* armada, adobe, alligator, alpaca, armadillo, barricade, bravado, cannibal, canyon, coyote, desperado, embargo, enchilada, guitar, marijuana, mesa, mosquito, mustang, ranch, taco, tornado, tortilla, vigilante

Italian

* alto, arsenal, balcony, broccoli, cameo, casino, cupola, duo, fresco, fugue, gazette (via French), ghetto, gondola, grotto, macaroni, madrigal, motto, piano, opera, pantaloons, prima donna, regatta, sequin, soprano, opera, stanza, stucco, studio, tempo, torso, umbrella, viola, violin
* from Italian American immigrants—cappuccino, espresso, linguini, mafioso, pasta, pizza, ravioli, spaghetti, spumante, zabaglione, zucchini

Dutch, Flemish

* Shipping, naval terms—avast, boom, bow, bowsprit, buoy, commodore, cruise, dock, freight, keel, keelhaul, leak, pump, reef, scoop, scour, skipper, sloop, smuggle, splice, tackle, yawl, yacht
* Cloth industry—bale, cambric, duck (fabric), fuller's earth, mart, nap (of cloth), selvage, spool, stripe
* Art—easel, etching, landscape, sketch
* War—beleaguer, holster, freebooter, furlough, onslaught
* Food and drink—booze, brandy(wine), coleslaw, cookie, cranberry, crullers, gin, hops, stockfish, waffle
* Other—bugger (orig. French), crap, curl, dollar, scum, split (orig. nautical term), uproar

German

* bum, dunk, feldspar, quartz, hex, lager, knackwurst, liverwurst, loafer, noodle, poodle, dachshund, pretzel, pinochle, pumpernickel, sauerkraut, schnitzel, zwieback, (beer)stein, lederhosen, dirndl
* 20th century German loanwords—blitzkrieg, zeppelin, strafe, U-boat, delicatessen, hamburger, frankfurter, wiener, hausfrau, kindergarten, Oktoberfest, schuss, wunderkind, bundt (cake), spritz (cookies), (apple) strudel

Yiddish (most are 20th century borrowings)

* bagel, Chanukkah (Hanukkah), chutzpah, dreidel, kibbitzer, kosher, lox, pastrami (orig. from Romanian), schlep, spiel, schlepp, schlemiel, schlimazel, gefilte fish, goy, klutz, knish, matzoh, oy vey, schmuck, schnook,

Scandinavian

* fjord, maelstrom, ombudsman, ski, slalom, smorgasbord

Russian

* apparatchik, borscht, czar/tsar, glasnost, icon, perestroika, vodka

Words from other parts of the world

Sanskrit

* avatar, karma, mahatma, swastika, yoga

Hindi

* bandanna, bangle, bungalow, chintz, cot, cummerbund, dungaree, juggernaut, jungle, loot, maharaja, nabob, pajamas, punch (the drink), shampoo, thug, kedgeree, jamboree

Dravidian

* curry, mango, teak, pariah

Persian (Farsi)

* check, checkmate, chess

Arabic

* bedouin, emir, jakir, gazelle, giraffe, harem, hashish, lute, minaret, mosque, myrrh, salaam, sirocco, sultan, vizier, bazaar, caravan

African languages

* banana (via Portuguese), banjo, boogie-woogie, chigger, goober, gorilla, gumbo, jazz, jitterbug, jitters, juke(box), voodoo, yam, zebra, zombie

American Indian languages

* avocado, cacao, cannibal, canoe, chipmunk, chocolate, chili, hammock, hominy, hurricane, maize, moccasin, moose, papoose, pecan, possum, potato, skunk, squaw, succotash, squash, tamale (via Spanish), teepee, terrapin, tobacco, toboggan, tomahawk, tomato, wigwam, woodchuck
* (plus thousands of place names, including Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatchewan and the names of more than half the
states of the U.S., including Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, Illinois)

Chinese

* chop suey, chow mein, dim sum, ketchup, tea, ginseng, kowtow, litchee

Japanese

* geisha, hara kiri, judo, jujitsu, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai, soy, sumo, sushi, tsunami

Pacific Islands

* bamboo, gingham, rattan, taboo, tattoo, ukulele, boondocks

Australia

* boomerang, budgerigar, didgeridoo, kangaroo (and many more in Australian English)
(Taken from old book of grammar)