Etymological Survey of the English Word-Stock Plan 1

Etymological Survey of the English Word-Stock Plan: 1. English word-stock from the point of view of its origin. Words of native origin. 2. Loan words, their role in the development of the word-stock. Types of Borrowings. Assimilation of loan words.

the English word-stock • the layer of native words • the layer of loan words (borrowings) 30% 70%

A native word is a word, which belongs to the original English word-stock, as known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period. A borrowed word or a borrowing is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language.

Diachronically the native words are subdivided into 3 layers: 1) Indo-European stock; 2) Common Germanic; 3) English proper.

The Indo-European layer: q the terms of kinship (father, mother, sister), q words naming the most important objects and phenomena of nature (sun, moon, star, wind, water, wood, tree), q names of animals, birds and plants (bull, cat, wolf, corn), q parts of the human body (arm, ear, tooth, foot), q some of the most frequent verbs (bear, come, set, stand), q the adjectives denoting concrete physical properties (hard, slow, white) q numerals from one to hundred (one, two) q pronouns (personal, demonstrative, interrogative) I, you, he, my, that, who (except they (Sc)).

Words of the Common Germanic stock q Nouns denoting parts of the human body: head, arm, finger; q Periods of time: summer, winter, time, week; q Natural phenomena: storm, rain, flood, ice, ground, sea, earth; q Artefacts and materials: bridge, house, shop, room, coal, iron, lead, cloth; q Animals, plants and birds: sheep, horse, fox, crow, oak, grass; q Adjectives denoting colours, size and other properties: broad, deaf, deep, grey, blue; q Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, make, give.

English proper words: • boy, girl, lady, path, lord, beard.

Characteristics of Words Belonging to the Native Word-Stock: • a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency, • high frequency value , • a developed polysemy, • often monosyllabic, • show great word-building power , • enter a number of set expressions.

To the native layer belong: • • • auxiliaries, modal words, prepositions, conjunctions, most nouns , pronouns, numerals.

2. Borrowings Direct • “the source of borrowing” Indirect • “the origin of borrowing”.

qthe source of borrowing is the language from which the word was directly taken into English. qthe origin of borrowing is the language the word may be traced to. Ex. : Table – source –French, origin – Latin.

Borrowings enter the language in 2 ways: • through oral speech (by immediate contacts) • through written speech (by indirect contacts, through b o o k s etc).

Historical causes of borrowing: • • • The Roman invasion (1 st c. B. C. ), The introduction of Christianity (7 th c. A. D. ), The Danish conquests (11 th – 13 th c. A. D. ), The Norman conquest (1066 A. D. ), The Renaissance period (14 th – 16 th c. A. D. ), Direct linguistic contacts and political, economical and cultural relationship with other nations.

The Etymology of Borrowed Words: • Celtic: 5 th – 6 th A. D. • Latin: 1 st layer: 1 st c. B. C. 2 nd layer: 7 th c. A. D. (the introduction of Christianity) 3 rd layer: 14 th – 16 th c. (the Renaissance period) • Scandinavian: 8 th – 11 th c. A. D. • French: Norman borrowings: 11 th – 13 th A. D. Parisian borrowings: the Renaissance period • Greek: the Renaissance period • Italian: the Renaissance period and later • Spanish: the Renaissance period and later • Russian: the Renaissance period and later • German, Indian and other languages

Celtic borrowings • Place names: Avon, Exe, Esk, Ux (Celtic “river”, “water”); London (Llyn “river”+ dun “a fortified hill”) - “a fortress on the hill over the river” • cradle, cross, iron, flannel, tweed, lake (C. loch)

The earliest Latin borrowings (1 st c. A. D. ) • words denoting things connected with war, trade, building and domestic life: pound, inch, cup, kitchen, pepper, butter, cheese, milk, wine, cherry

Latin words borrowed into English through the Christianization of England (7 th c. A. D. ) • persons, objects and ideas associated with church and religious rituals: priest, bishop, monk, nun, candle, temple, angel • words connected with learning: grammar, school, scholar, decline, master, magister

Latin borrowings of the Renaissance period (14 th – 16 th c. A. D. ) • abstract words: major, minor, filial, moderate, intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create.

Scandinavian borrowings (8 th - 11 th c. A. D. ) • Verbs: call, take, cast, die, want • Nouns: law, egg, husband (Sc. hūs + bōndi “inhabitant of the house”), window (Sc. vindauga “the eye of the wind”) • Adjectives: ill, loose, low, weak • Pronouns and pronominal forms: they, their, them, same, both, though.

Scandinavian borrowings (place names) • Derby, Tremsby (-by: Sc. “village, town”); • Zinthorp, Altharp (-thorp: Sc. “village”); • Eastoft, Nortoft (-toft: Sc. “a plot of land covered with grass”); • Troutbeck (-beck: Sc. “brook”); • Inverness (-ness: Sc. “cape”); • Applethwait, Crossthwait (-thwait: Sc. “forest glade”)

Norman borrowings (11 th – 13 th c. A. D. ) • Government and administration: state, country, government, parliament, prince, baron • Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison, jury • Religious terms: saint, sermon (проповедь), prayer, parish (приход), chapel • Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy • Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pencil • Artistic and literary terms: image, character, figure, volume, design • Terms of everyday life: chair, table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, breakfast

Parisian borrowings: the Renaissance period and later • regime, routine, police, machine, ballet, matinée, scene, technique, bourgeois, etc.

The Renaissance period borrowings (14 th – 16 th c. A. D. ) • Italian: piano, violin, opera, alarm, colonel • Spanish: potato, tomato, cargo, banana, cocoa. • Greek: direct (e. g. atom, cycle, ethics, esthete), or through Latin (datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music).

Other borrowings Japanese: karate, judo, hara-kiri, kimono, tycoon; Arabic: algebra, algorithm, fakir, giraffe, sultan Turkish: yogurt, kiosk, tulip Persian: caravan, shawl, bazaar, sherbet Eskimo: kayak, igloo, anorak Amerindian languages: toboggan, wigwam, opossum • Russian: bistro, tsar, balalaika, tundra, sputnik • • •

As to the character of borrowings they may be subdivided into several groups: • True loan words; • Translation loans (calques); • Semantic loans.

True loan words • words which are taken into the language in more or less the same phonetic form in which they existed in their own language. Such words may undergo the process of assimilation and become associated with the native words, but sometimes they become undistinguishable from the native elements. Ex. : to take, sky

Translation loan • is a special kind of borrowing consisting in the adoption of a word not in the same phonemic shape it has been functioning in its own language but after undergoing the process of translation. Ex. : Self-criticism, peace pipe, the path of war, wall newspaper.

Semantic loans • is the term used to denote the development of a new meaning due to the influence of a related word in another language. Ex. : pioneer

Mechanisms of borrowing: • Transcription • Transliteration • Transplantation

• Transcription is the rendering of the soundform of a foreign word by the letters of the alphabet of another language. Ex. : tsigane sheikh

• Transliteration is the rendering of the letters of one alphabet by theirs equivalents in another. Ex. : kolhoz London

• Transplantation is the transferring of a word from one language into another without changing its graphic form Ex. : déjà vu, dell’arte, nota bene.

Assimilation of loan words.

The degree of assimilation depends upon the following factors: • - length of period during which the word has been used in the language. • - the importance of the borrowings for the purposes of communication, its frequency. • - the way of borrowing (oral borrowings undergo a more rapid process of assimilation, more complete).

According to the degree of assimilation loan words are classified into: • completely assimilated loan words, • partially assimilated loan words, • unassimilated loan words or barbarisms.

Completely assimilated loan words • - Latin borrowings (cheese, street, wall, wine) • - Scandinavian borrowings ( husband, fellow, gate) • - French (table, chair, face)

Partially assimilated loan words • loan words not assimilated semantically (` toreador) • loan words not assimilated grammatically (formula- formulae) • loan words not completely assimilated phonetically (machine, police), (bourgeois, regime, memoir) • loan words not completely assimilated graphically (ballet, buffet), (cafe), (bou`quet)

• Barbarisms are words taken from other languages, which are used in speech, and there are their equivanents in English Ex. : addio.

Etymological Doublets • Etymological doublets are two or more words originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonemic shape and meaning:

Example: whole – hale, skirt –shirt, shriek – screech, channel – canal, card -chart

International Words • Words of identical origin that occur in several languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source. Ex. : allegro, andante, aria, arioso, barcarole, baritone (and other names for voices), concert, duet, opera (and other names for pieces of music), piano.

• algorithm, antenna, antibiotic, automation, bionics, cybernetics, entropy, genetic code, graph, microelectronics, microminiaturisation, quant, quasars, pulsars, ribosome

Culturally Oriented Words • • anaconda, bungalow, kraal, orang-outang, sari, shah, hara-kiri etc.

‘translator’s false friends’. • • • control : : контроль; general : : генерал; industry : : индустрия magazine : : магазин, accurate sympathetic

international words of English origin: • Sport (football, out, match, tennis, time). • Clothes (jersey, pullover, sweater, nylon, tweed). • Cinema, entertainment (film, club, cocktail, jazz).

Russian Borrowings • balalaika, babushka, shapka, bolshevik, cosmonaut, czar, intelligentsia, Kremlin, mammoth, rouble, soviet, sputnik, steppe, vodka.

Latin Affixes Nouns • The suffix –ion communion, legion, opinion, session, union, etc. • The suffix –tion relation, revolution, starvation, temptation, unification, etc. Verbs • The suffix -ate [eit] appreciate, create, congratulate, etc. • The suffix -ute [ju: t] attribute, constitute, distribute, etc. • The remnant suffix –ct act, conduct, collect, connect, etc. • The remnant suffix -d(e) applaud, divide, exclude, include, etc. • The prefix dis- disable, distract, disown, disagree, etc.

Adjectives • • The suffix –able detestable, curable, etc. The suffix -ate [it] accurate, desperate, graduate, etc. The suffix –ant arrogant, constant, important, etc. The suffix –ent absent, convenient, decent, evident, etc. The suffix –or major, minor, junior, senior, etc. The suffix –al cordial, final, fraternal, maternal, etc. The suffix –ar lunar, solar, familiar, etc.

French Affixes Nouns • The suffix –ance arrogance, endurance, hindrance, etc. • The suffix –ence consequence, intelligence, patience, etc. • The suffix –ment appointment, development, experiment, • The suffix –age courage, marriage, passage, village, etc. • The suffix –ess tigress, lioness, actress, adventuress, etc. Adjectives • The suffix –ous curious, dangerous, joyous, serious, etc. Verbs • The prefix en- enable, endear, enact, enfold, enslave, etc.