16.Foreign Elements in o.E. Vocabulary

Borrowed words constitute a small portion of the O.E. vocabulary. All in all about 600 words. The borrowings relect the contacts of English With other Languages. O.E. words came from 2 sources: celtic & latin.

Borrowings from Celtic.

There are very few borrowing words in the O.E. vocabulary. For the must have been little intermixture between the germ. settlers & the Celtic in Britain. Abandoned borrowing from Celtic is to be found in place names. The O.E. Kingdoms: Kent, Deira, Bernicia derived their names from the names of Celtic tribes. The name of Youtk, Downs, & perhaps London have been traced to Celtic sources. Various Celtic names on river & water were understood by the Germanic invaders by proper names. Ouse, Exe, Avon, Even, Usk, they go back to the Celtic words river & water. Themes and Dover also come from Celtic. Some elements frequently occurring in Celtic place names can help to identify them

Example: -comb “deep valley” Batcombe, Duncombe

-torr “high rock” Torr, Torreross

Many place names with Celtic elements are hybrids. The Celtic component combined with a latin Germanic component make a compound place name

Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in O.E. were very few, no more than dozen.

O.E. N.E.

binn bin-мешок

cradol cradle-колыбель

brate “cloak”

A few words must have entered O.E. from Celtic due to the activities of Irish missionaries in speeding Christianity

O.E. N.E.

ancer hermit(отшельник)

dry “magician”

cursian curse

In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died or have survived in dialects.

Latin influence in O.E. vocabulary

Latin words entered the E. language at different stages of O.E. history. Chronologically they can be divided into several layers. The earliest layer of this words are the words which the west Germanic tribes brought from the continent whom they came to settle in Britain. Contact with the Roman civilization began a long time before the Anglo-Saxon invasion. The adoption of word continued in Britain-had been under Roman occupation for almost 400 years. Though the Romans left Britain before the settlement of the west tentons Latin words could be transmitted to them by the Romanized Celts. Early O.E. borrowings from Latin indicate the new things & concepts which the Tentons had learnt from the Romance. These words pertain to war, trade agriculture, building & the whole life. Words сonnected with trade indicated general concepts, units of measurement and articles of trade unknown to the tentons they came into contact with Roman.

O.E. N.E.

pund pound

ynce inch

flasce flask

ciest chest

The following words denotes the articles of trade & agriculture of product introduced by the Romance.

O.E. Latin N.E.

win vinum wine

plume prunus plum

piror piper pepper

It should be noted that the distinction of 2 layer of early latin borrowing is problematic for it is practically impossible to asign precise days to events so far back in history. The 3 period of latin influence on the O.E. vocabulary began with the introduction of Christianity in the late sixth century and lasted to the end of O.E. Numerous latin words which came to the English language during five-hundred years can be divided into two main groups: 1) words pertaining to religion 2)words сonnected with learning.