etymologymeaningmorphologyneologisms
I invented a word using medical terminology, Latin and maybe a bit of Greek. (I'm not honestly sure of the etymology of all the morphemes.) Considering that this word is primarily not of English origin, what language is it? Can I call it an English word?
Taking it a step further, what about medical terminology? Can it be called English when it really is no more than a compilation of Latin morphemes?
First, a brief lesson in historical linguistics. Language families arose at some point in the past from what linguists call proto-languages, which is a term that refers to a language that is reconstructed rather than one that is attested. There is debate over whether language families all derive back to a single proto-language or if several proto-languages developed independently. In either case, as the group forming the speakers of a proto-language grows over time, it eventually splits into two or more separate groups whose language started out the same and then over time became mutually unintelligible. Those two “child” languages are related in the family tree of languages. The child languages can then grow and split as well. In the history of English, there have been several splits, but two are significant: first, the proto-Indo-European language split into various languages forming the subfamilies of Indo-European, such as the Germanic languages (proto-Germanic) and the Romance languages (Latin). The Germanic languages also split, eventually resulting in English being a separate language from the other Germanic languages, such as German, Swedish, and Dutch.
A word becomes part of a language in two ways: (1) it inherits them from ancestor languages; (2) they borrow them from contemporary foreign languages. For example, the English word brother derives in a direct lineage back through proto-Germanic to the proto-Indo-European root *bʰréh₂tēr. This is an inherited word. The other way a word enters a language is to be borrowed from a contemporary foreign language. This is like the English word croissant which was borrowed from the French word croissant. That is, when the word croissant became a part of English, it was copied from people who were speaking a foreign language—French. Even though French and English are related—both being Indo-European languages—the word croissant was borrowed from French because the word entered English after French speakers and English speakers split apart long enough for their languages to be mutually unintelligible.
Now, French also has a word for brother that derives from the proto-Indo-European root *bʰréh₂tēr: that French word is frère. This is where the word akin comes in. The English word brother is akin to the French word frère because both languages inherited those words from their ancestor languages, and they both ultimately derive from the same root in their closest common ancestor language, proto-Indo-European.
So, when a dictionary etymology says “word A in language L1 is akin to word B in language L2”, that means that neither word A nor word B were borrowed into their respective language and both word A and word B derive from the same root word in L1 and L2’s common ancestor language. That is, when Merriam-Webster say about salt that it is “akin to Old High German salz salt, Lithuanian saldus sweet, Latin sal salt, Greek hals salt, sea” they mean that the English word salt and those other words from related languages all come from the same root in their common ancestor language, proto-Indo-European.
A couple of other terms you might find:
OED confirms that it is from Tibetan sharpa, inhabitant of an eastern country. The other forms listed are Serpa, Sharpa and the earliest forms recorded are Serpa and Sérpá from 1847.
1847 B. H. Hodgson in Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal XVI. 1237 Cis-Himálayan Bhotias vel Tibetans, called..Serpa, &c.
1847 B. H. Hodgson in Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal XVI. 1238 The sub-Himálayan races..inhabit all the central and temperate parts of these mountains, the juxta nivean or nethermost tracts being left to the Rongbo vel Sérpá.
The following excerpt is from an article titled "Sherpa History" from the official site of Tapting (a village development committee in Nepal) and explains the origin of sherpa with historical references and citations from ethnologists.
Sherpa is an easterner indigenous people, live in the eastern part of Nepal. The word Sherpa is combination of two words – "Shyar" (East) and "Pa" (people) "People of the East" and the words are coined from the Tibetan language.
The word 'Sherpa' means easterner as it is addressed to the present day Sherpa. It is not clear how this term came to be associated with this particular group
Previously they were not addressed by the word 'Sherpa'. But it is not clear in what circumstances this term came to be associated with this particular group from the Tibetan point of view, Sherpas dwelling in the highlands of Nepal are southerners rather than are easterners, though there is the tradition that before their migration to their present habitat they had settled in eastern Tibet (Haimendorf 1964,1984)
In this context, some Sherpas came to the conclusion that they address 'nubripa', western, for the same type of culture group whose habitat is western part of Nepal. Similarly, the term Sherpa is used for the "eastern inhabitants of Nepal".
Another group opined that the term indicates" man from rising sun area". Therefore, they were addressed Sherpa. But it is so why the other ethnic groups of Eastern Nepal is not addressed by the term "Sherpa".
According to reincarnated Lama of Tengboche monastry, the first man came to Khumbu from Kham Salmo-Gang (east of Tibet) whose clan was called Timi (Thimi), incarnated from the god Wosal and his name was pajzin. After he returned back to Tibet the people asked him where he came from he replied "the east part of Kham" That is how the name Sherpa, easterner came into being (Kunuwar,1989)
But some Sherpas of Solu are not in favor of this opinion. According to them, the word Sherpa is of very late origin.
It has come to know on the basis of different literatures cited above that Sherpas were migrated to Nepal from the Kham region of Tibet 5 to6 hundred years back.
It is presumed that the group of people migrated out from Kham region, east of Tibet, was called as " Shyar Khamba" (People who came from eastern Kham) and the place where the migrant people started to settle was called " Syar Khumbu". As the time passed the " Shyar Khamba", inhabitants of shyar Khumbu, were called as Sherpa.
However, I did some research regarding your theory about sher being lion in sherpa and I could find some hints related to Thakali language (Thakali is one of the ethnolinguistic groups in Nepal along with Sherpa and these two groups share the same region in Nepal). (see map).
The first reference I could find is about the Thakali clan Sercan which has a lion on their emblem; and the root of the word is mentioned as ser- which suggests that it might mean lion. (from the book Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetan Interface edited by James F. Fisher):
Note: Snellgrove is a tibetologist and Oppitz is an ethnologist.
I continued my research by focusing on the term Sercan and I could find another form of the term which is Shercan. It is one of the four Thakali clans and the clan protector is mentioned as the white lion of the glaciers. (from the publication Ritual practice and group maintenance in the Thakali of central Nepal by Andrew E. Manzardo)
Then, I could finally find a source that actually says sher means lion in Thakali language. (from the book The Thakali: a Himalayan ethnography by Michael Vinding)
Since the Nepali clan names were introduced in the present century, it is somewhat surprising that the Tamang Thakali do not know their meaning. The account of the Cyogi clan, the Cyogi Rhab, written in the Devanagari script, renders the clan names as gaucan, tulacan, syercan and battacan. The ending -can may be an attempt by the names inventor(s) to connect the Tamang Thakali with the Thakuri clan Chand. Gau means 'cow' and may be related with gaucan clan god. Sher means 'lion' and appears related with the Shercan clan god. Bhatt_ may mean 'exchange' and may be indirectly connected with the Bhattacan clan god. The meaning of tula is a puzzle.
On the other hand, lion is senggi in Sherpa language (from Sherpa-English English-Sherpa Dictionary by Nicolas Tournadre, Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa, Gyurme Chodrak & Guillaume Oisel):
Oh! Let's not forget pa. This Tibetan affix strongly suggests that it is related to people in the word sherpa, although it is a very versatile affix that can be used in a variety of ways. The below excerpt is the definition of pa from A Tibetan-English Dictionary with special reference to the prevailing dialects By H. A. Jäschke:
In conclusion, the accepted etymology of sherpa is Tibetan sher (east) and pa (people or inhabitant) but there is a good evidence that sher might be related to lion based on the above findings.
Best Answer
Language is a consensus between the speaker and listener. Lots of English words (arguably most of them, but let's not get too technical) originate from other languages. Words like "orange" or "beef" or "feng shui". Because the speaker and listener are speaking the same language, and the words are understood, the words can be considered part of that language.