Development of the English Vocabulary th to 19

Development of the English Vocabulary th to 19 th c. from the 12

The role of the foreign element at different stages of the English language development

Outline 1. The role of the foreign element in Old English 1. 1. Old English borrowings. 1. 1. 1. Latin borrowings. 1. 1. 2. Celtic borrowings. 2. External means of enriching vocabulary in Middle English. 2. 1. Scandinavian borrowings. 2. 2. French borrowings. 3. External means of enriching vocabulary in New English. 3. 1. Early New English borrowings. 3. 2. Late New English borrowings.

Internal and external sources of new words • Internal ways: word-formation semantic changes • Internal ways of developing the vocabulary were productive in all historical periods and were equally prolific in the creation of new words and new meanings • they were exceptionally productive in the periods of rapid vocabulary growth, such as the Renaissance period.

Internal and external sources of new words • the OE vocabulary was almost entirely Germanic and was highly resistant to borrowing • the language of later periods absorbed foreign words by the hundred and even made use of foreign word components in word formation. • the proportion of Germanic words in the English language has fallen: according to modern estimates the native Germanic element constitutes from 30 to 50% of the vocabulary; the other two thirds (or half) come from foreign sources, mainly Romance.

Foreign Element in the Old English Vocabulary • 600 words • they reflect the contacts of English with other tongues resulting from diverse political, economic, social and cultural events in the early periods of British history. • OE borrowings come from two sources: Celtic and Latin.

Borrowings from Celtic • place-names: - The OE kingdoms Kent, Deira and Bernicia - from the names of Celtic tribes. - The name of York, the Downs and perhaps London have been traced to Celtic sources (Celtic dūn meant 'hill'). - Celtic designations of 'river' and 'water' were understood by the Germanic invaders as proper names: Ouse, Exe, Esk, Usk, Avon, Evan go back to Celtic amhuin 'river', uisge 'water'; Thames, Stow, Dover also come from Celtic. some elements frequently occurring in Celtic place-names can help to identify them: -comb 'deep valley' (Batcombe, Duncombe, Winchcombe); -torr 'high rock' (Torr, Torcross); -llan 'church' (Llandaff, Llanelly); -pill 'creek' (Pylle, Huntspill).

Borrowings from Celtic • Many place-names with Celtic elements are hybrids (Celtic + Latin / Germanic = a compound place-name): Celtic plus Latin Celtic plus Germanic Man-chester York-shire Win-chester Corn-wall Glou-cester Salis-bury Wor-cester Lich-field Devon-port Devon-shire Lan-caster Canter-bury • Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few (10 -12): OE binn (NE bin 'crib'), cradol (NE cradle), dūn 'hill', cross (NE cross), probably through Celtic from the L crux; • In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects e. g. loch dial, 'lake', coomb

Latin Influence on the Old English Vocabulary • the Latin influence: the OE alphabet, the growth of writing and literature. • chronologically several layers

Latin Influence on the Old English Vocabulary • Semantic groups: - war, trade, agriculture, building and home life (Early OE borrowings from Latin) - religion (OE apostol - NE apostle, biscop – bishop, clerec – clerk, dēofol – devil, munuc - monk) - education (OE scōl - NE school - L schola mā ister - master, 'teacher’ - L magister fers – verse – L versus dihtan - ‘compose’ – L dictare) - names of trees and plants — elm, lily, plant, pine; - names of illnesses and words pertaining to medical treatment — cancer, fever, paralysis, plaster; - names of animals — camel, elephant, tiger; - names of clothes and household articles — cap, mat, sack, sock; - names of foods — beet, caul, oyster, radish; - miscellaneous words — crisp, fan, place, spend, turn.

• The Latin impact on the OE vocabulary was not restricted to borrowing of words. • "translation-loans" — words and phrases created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations. • The earliest instances of translation-loans are names of the days of the week : OE Mōnan-dæ (Monday) 'day of the moon', L Lunae dies; Tiwes-dæ (Tuesday) 'day of Tiw‘, L Mortis dies (Tiw - a Teutonic God

Assimilation of borrowings • most Latin loanwords were completely assimilated in OE. • phonetic assimilation - sound changes: e. g. in disc and ciese the consonants [sk] and [k’] were palatalised and eventually changed into [ ] and [t ] (NE dish, cheese); • grammatical assimilation – grammatical forms were inflected like respective parts of speech: e. g. cirice, cuppe (NE church, cup). Fem. nouns were declined as n-stems: тиnc, dēofol (NE monk, devil), Masc. — like a-stems, the verbs pinian, temprian were conjugated like weak verbs of the second class ('torture’, NE temper). • word-formation: stems of some Latin borrowings were used in derivation and word compounding, e. g. : - the verbs fersian 'versify’, plantian (NE plant) were derived from borrowed nouns fers, plant; - abstract nouns - martyrdōm, martyrhād were built by attaching native suffixes to the loan-word martyr (NE martyrdom)

External means of enriching vocabulary in Middle English • the Scandinavian language • the French language • the nature of the borrowings and their amount reflect the conditions of the contacts between the English and these languages

Scandinavian borrowings • Nouns: law, fellow, sky, skirt, skill, skin, egg, anger, awe, bloom, knife, root, bull, cake, husband, leg, wing, guest, loan, race • Adjectives: big, week, wrong, ugly, twin • Verbs: call, cast, take, happen, scare, hail, want, bask, gape, kindle • Pronouns: they, them, their; and many others.

The conditions and the consequences of various borrowings were different 1. Sometimes the English language borrowed a word for which it had no synonym. These words were simply added to the vocabulary: law, fellow. 2. The English synonym was ousted by the borrowing. Scandinavian taken (to take) and callen (to call) ousted the English synonyms niman and clypian, respectively. 3. Both the words, the English and the corresponding Scandinavian, are preserved, but they became different in meaning: Native Scandinavian borrowing heaven sky starve die

The conditions and the consequences of various borrowings were different 4. Sometimes a borrowed word an English word are etymological doublets, as words originating from the same source in Common Germanic. Native Scandinavian borrowing shirt skirt shatter scatter raise rear 5. Sometimes an English word and its Scandinavian doublet were the same in meaning but slightly different phonetically, and the phonetic form of the Scandinavian borrowing is preserved in the English language, having ousted the English counterpart: NE to give, to get come from the Scandinavian gefa, geta, which ousted the English gyven and getan, respectively. Similar Modern English words are gift, forget, guild, gate, again. 6. There may be a shift of meaning. Thus, the word dream originally meant "joy, pleasure"; under the influence of the related Scandinavian word it developed its modern meaning.

French borrowings • government and legislature: government, noble, baron, prince, duke, court, justice, judge, crime, prison, condemn, sentence, parliament, etc. • military life: army, battle, peace, banner, victory, general, colonel, lieutenant, major, etc. • religion: religion, sermon, prey, saint, charity • city crafts: painter, tailor, carpenter (but country occupations remained English: shepherd, smith) • pleasure and entertainment: music, art, feast, pleasure, leisure, supper, dinner, pork, beef, mutton (but the corresponding names of domestic animals remained English: pig, cow, sheep) • words of everyday life: air, place, river, large, age, boil, branch, brush, catch, chain, chair, table, choice, cry, cost • relationship: aunt, uncle, nephew, cousin.

The place of the French borrowings within the English language 1. A word may be borrowed from the French language to denote notions unknown to the English up to the time: government, parliament, general, colonel, etc. 2. The English synonym is ousted by the French borrowing: English French micel large here army 3. Both the words are preserved, but they are stylistically different: English French to begin to commence to work to labour to leave to abandon life existence look regard ship vessel The French borrowing is generally more literary or even bookish, the English word - a common one; but sometimes the English word is more literary: foe (native, English) — enemy (French borrowing).

The place of the French borrowings within the English language 4. Sometimes the English language borrowed many words with the same word-building affix. • The meaning of the affix in this case became clear to the English-speaking people. It entered the system of wordbuilding means of the English language, and they began to add it to English words, thus forming word-hybrids. • suffix -ment entered the language within such words as government, parliament, agreement but later there appeared such English-French hybrids as: fulfilment, amazement. • the suffix -ance/-ence, which was an element of such borrowed words as innocence, ignorance, repentance, now also forms word-hybrids, such as hindrance. • the -able French borrowings admirable, tolerable, reasonable, but also: readable, eatable, unbearable.

The place of the French borrowings within the English language 5. One of the consequences of the borrowings from French was the appearance of etymological doublets. — from the Common Indo-European: native borrowed fatherly paternal — from the Common Germanic: native borrowed yard garden ward guard choose choice — from Latin: earlier later (Old English) (Middle English) borrowing mint money inch ounce

The place of the French borrowings within the English language 6. Due to the great number of French borrowings there appeared in the English language such families of words, which though similar in their root meaning, are different in origin: native borrowed mouth oral sun solar see vision 7. There are calques on the French phrase: It's no doubt - Ce n'est pas doute Without doubt - Sans doute Out of doubt - Hors de doute.

External means of enriching vocabulary in New English • the process of borrowing • the sources of loan words is different from ME • the nature of the new words • the process can be understood if sociolinguistic factors are taken into consideration.

External means of enriching vocabulary in New English NE borrowings may be subdivided into: • borrowings of the Early NE period (XV-XVII c. ) - the period preceeding the establishment of the literary norm, • loan words which entered the language after the establishment of the literary norm - in the XVIII—XX centuries, the period which is generally alluded to as late NE.

Borrowings into the English language in the XV—XVII centuries • political events • cultural relations • trade relations SOURCES: • In the XV c. : Italian: cameo, archipelago, dilettante, fresco, violin, balcony, gondola, grotto, volcano; • in the XVI century: Spanish and Portuguese: armada, negro, tornado, mosquito, renegade, matador, Latin (the language of culture of the time): - verbs, with the characteristic endings -ate, -ute: aggravate, abbreviate, exaggerate, frustrate, separate, irritate, contribute, constitute, persecute, prosecute, execute, etc. , - adjectives ending in -ant, -ent, -ior, -al: arrogant, reluctant, evident, obedient, superior, inferior, senior, junior, dental, cordial, filial.

Borrowings into the English language in the XV—XVII centuries • As a result of numerous Latin borrowings at the time there appeared many etymological doublets: Latin strictum (direct) factum strict strait (through French) fact feat In the XVII c. : America: canoe, maize, potato, tomato, tobacco, mahogany, cannibal, hammock, squaw, moccasin, wigwam, etc. French borrowings — after the Restoration: ball, ballet, billet, caprice, coquette, intrigue, fatigue,

Borrowings into the English language in the XV—XVII centuries • • Late New English borrowings (XVIII - XX centuries) German: kindergarten, waltz, wagon, boy, girl French: magazine, machine, garage, police, engine Indian: bungalow, jungle, indigo Chinese: coolie, tea Arabic: caravan, divan, alcohol, algebra, coffee, bazaar, orange, cotton, candy, chess Australian: kangaroo, boomerang, lubra Russian: borzoi, samovar, tsar, verst, taiga, Soviet, bolshevik, kolkhoz, sputnik, lunokhod, synchrophasotron, glasnost, perestroika. In New English there also appeared scientific or technical terms formed on the basis of Greek and Latin vocabulary: telephone, telegraph, teletype, telefax, microphone, sociology, politology, electricity, etc.