English+Loan+Words

Did you realise that English was once close to extinction? It's true! A succession of invasions from overseas threatened to destroy our language for good.

Just less than a thousand years ago King Edward of England fell ill and since he had no son of his own to inherit the throne, he named his cousin [|William Duke of Normandy] as heir. Harold Godwinson, King Edward's brother-in-law, travelled to France to swear allegiance to the future King but, after the death of Edward in January 1066, Harold declared himself King of England and thus brought about [|an invasion from the Normans...]

So, in September of 1066, William and his army left France and sailed to [|Pevensey] on the south coast of England to claim back his rightful throne. The French established a camp at Hastings, where, on the 14th of October 1066, the legendary battle with Harold's army took place. Harold was killed by an arrow through the eye and became the last English speaking king for three centuries. Imagine that!

Embroidered in 58 scenes stretching some 70 metres in length, the [|'Bayeux Tapestry'] depicts the story of [|'The Battle of Hastings'.] This 11th century work of art has been carefully preserved and can still be seen today by visiting the [|tapestry museum in Bayeux, France.]

Alternatively, here is an animated video telling the tale of the battle.

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So it was that a new King and a new language were in evidence in our country. As many as ten thousand French words colonised the English language, three quarters of which are still used today. Yes, French words are all around us every day - café, restaurant, gateau, moustache and television to name but a few. If you want to find out more then Wikipedia has a really long list of [|English words of French origin].

Over the centuries though, English has absorbed words from approximately 120 languages other than French. 'Etymology' is the study of word origins and, as part of our annual 'European Day of Languages' celebration, Fairfield pupils are given the opportunity to become etymological detectives by entering a competition to win an electronic spellchecker and thesaurus.

Here are the words that were used in the 2007 competition now presented as a multiple-choice quiz. Why not try your luck ? media type="custom" key="4837909" Many congratulations to Beth R (Y4) who was awarded with an electronic spellchecker and thesaurus.

As part of our 2009 celebrations, KS2 pupils were once again invited to take part in a similar competition - this time using different words. Why not test your detective skills with the following quiz? media type="custom" key="4837929" This year's lucky winner of an electronic spellchecker and thesaurus was Naomi F (Y5) - congratulations to her!

During their topic work on Japan in the second half of the summer term 2010, Y4 pupils discovered that many English words have in fact been borrowed from the Japanese language. Here are two wordsearch puzzles created by Mr Parkes. Why not print them off at home and see if you can locate all of the given words?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">You can check the meaning of any words you don't understand by using the [|Yahoo children's dictionary.]



<span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">If you consider yourself an expert on etymology, then why not try out this interactive quiz created by the [|children's university of Manchester?]

<span style="color: #9400ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">You're bound to discover some interesting facts about English vocabulary!