Etymology

Etymology is the study of origin and development of words. Recently, I started developing this as a hobby. Before I blurt further, wouldn't it be unfair if we didn't know the history behind etymology??. The word etymology comes from the greek work etymon (origin of a word) logos (science).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology#English_etymology

is an excellent resource to read the origin of English. In short, English is derived from Anglo-Saxon a dialect of west Germanic. Therefore German and English has strong similarity in the pronounciation of number. For e.g. eight~acht, nine~neun and ten~zehn. Similary most of the pronouns are also the same I~ich thou~Du we~wir she~sie. When Vikings and Normans invaded Britan they brought their Norman language with them. This was responsible for inducing french words in English. For example beef is cognate with the modern french word bœuf, meaning "cow"; veal with veau, meaning "calf"; pork with porc, meaning "pig"; and poultry with poulet, meaning "chicken".