LINGUIST List 10.655

Tue May 4 1999

Sum: English Roots/English Words

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

Jack Williams, English Roots within English Words/Completion Summary

Message 1: English Roots within English Words/Completion Summary

Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 18:25:14 -0400
From: Jack Williams <jaclaibm.net>
Subject: English Roots within English Words/Completion Summary

I am doing research on English roots and sememes. I was aware of books on Latin roots of English words; Greek roots; IDE roots, etc. But I had not seen any books listing English roots within its own language.

Three recommendations were provided in the survey. One of which was directly relevant.

Norman Bird, 1990, A first handbook of the roots in English, St. Helier (Jersey): Lapine Education & Language Services, pp.11-107 'The Germanic Roots' Recommended by Max Wheeler, maxwcogs.susx.ac.uk

Calvert Watkins, 1985. The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Houghton Mifflin: Boston. Recommended by Terry Potter, gt1704exmail.usma.army.mil

"English index in Grandsaignes d'Hauterives,_Les racines des languages indo-europeenes_, Larousse, circa 1950. Recommended by Geoffrey Sampson geoffscogs.susx.ac.uk

The first book contained a list of English roots. Norman Bird also wrote: 2) The Distribution of Indo-European Root Morphemes (A checklist for Philologists), 1982, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. In this book he reviewed Pokorny's IDE roots and numbered them.

In his 1992 book, beside each English root, he wrote the corresponding IDE number.

3) The Roots and Non-Roots of Indo-European (A Lexicostatisical Survey), 1993, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden. The IDE roots are listed along with his number and for each word indicates usage in each applicable IDE country.

I appreciate the assistance of the responders in identifying these elusive books.

Thanks to the Linguist for having a system that can locate books worldwide.

Jack Williams