3. Loan Words and Their Role in the Formation of the English Vocabulary

In the long history of its evolution the English language happened to come in contacts with many languages, which resulted in numerous loan words. Over 120 languages are on record as sources of its present-day vocabulary, and the locations of contact are found all over the world. Especially strong was the influence of Latin, Old Norse (Scandinavian) and French, other languages being Celtic, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German, Oriental languages, Russian. The number (about 70%) and character of loan words tell us of the relations between the nations, the level of their culture. Thus if we go through the lists of borrowings in English and arrange them in groups according to their meanings, we shall obtain much valuable information about England’s contacts with many nations. Extensive borrowing enriched the English lexicon to a great extent and it continues replenishing it till this day.

I. Lexical borrowing from Latin

Latin has been, since the earliest period of the history of English, one of the principle donor languages in the replenishment of the English vocabulary. In the course of its development the English nation was under the great influence of the Roman civilization. Latin for a long time has been used in England as the language of learning and religion. Even as a dead language in modern times, Latin has been adopted for scientific terms.

A great many of the lexical items that can ultimately be traced back to Latin have entered English indirectly via French and other Romance languages, which along with Latin contributed the majority of the word-stock of present-day English. Still the number of direct loans from Latin is considerable.

Three layers of Latin borrowings are distinguished. The first layer - the earliest borrowings are subdivided into:

(1) The so-called ‘continental’ borrowings - those taken over in the centuries before the migration of Anglo-Saxons to Britain. They reflect innovations in the life of the Germanic peoples which resulted from direct contacts with the Romans. Due to commercial contacts the Anglo-Saxons gained knowledge of new and useful things and adopted several Latin words typical of early trade. Here belong foodstuffs: cheese (L caseus), butter (L butyrum), oil (L oleum), wine (L vinum), pepper; fruits and vegetables: cherry, plum, beet, pea; words used in commercial contacts: market (L mercatus), cheap (L caupo), pound, inch, mile. Also such words as dish, cup, kitchen, cook, sack, chalk, copper, mill, port, plant, lily, cat, etc. The word Saturday is a hybrid as the first part Satur- is of Latin origin while the second part -day is native English.

(2) Indirect contacts via Britons and Celts. Julius Caesar brought troops to attack Britain and raided the country in 55 and 54 BC but his attacks were strongly resisted by the Celts, and the Romans had to retire. It was only a hundred years later in 43 AD that Romans invaded and occupied most of Britain till in 407 Roman troops were withdrawn from Britain. While in Britain the Romans built roads, streets, military camps and walls to protect themselves. Hence, the words wall from L vallum, street (L strata), cam (L campus) were loaned and also the element castra ‘camp’ which survived in some geographical names: Lancaster, Dorchester, Manchester, etc.

The second layer of Latin borrowings refers to post-continental borrowings in the period of Christianization of Britain in the 7th century AD. Latin is the official language of the Catholic church and consequently there was an influx of religious words: altar (LL altare), anthem (LL antiphona), candle (L candela), creed (L credo), cross (L crux), mass (L massa), minister (L minister), nun (LL nonna), priest (L presbyter), temple (L templum), tunic (L tunica), etc. Some of religious words which came from Latin are of Greek origin: abbot (LL <Gk abbas), angel (LL angelus < Gk angelos), bishop (LL episcopus < Gk episcopos), cleric (LL < Gk clerikos), devil (LL < Gk diabolos), monk (LL monachus < Gk monachos), pope (L papa < Gk papas). The word church is of Greek origin. The words god, gospel (OE godspel – good tidings) are native English.

Along with religious words some educational words came from Latin at this period of time, for the first schools in England were religious schools, and the first teachers were priests and monks. The words school (L schola < Gk skhole), scholar, master, grammar, verse, meter, etc. are Latin loans.

To the third layer of Latin loans belong words borrowed in the epoch of Renaissance in Middle English period. Although French became the most important source of new words in this period, the number of loans that entered directly from Latin, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries was by no means small. Latin played an important role as an official written language. It was the language of the educated scholarly people, the clergy. Part of the literature of medieval England was written in Latin. Many of Latin loans entered English via French, so that it is not always easy to determine the actual way of borrowing. Thus, the word of Latin origin doubt, was borrowed via French < Fr. doute [du:t] > [daut], but in its spelling (the letter ‘b’) Latin influence can be traced < L. dubitare.

Since Latin was the language of the educated, loans of this period include scientific, literary terms, abstract words. Some of examples of nouns: act, action, admission, animal, certificate, collision, conflict, conduct, content, contract, datum, formula, forum, fracture, genius, literature, nucleus, picture, promise, progress, etc. Concrete names: chalk, marble, silk, linen, etc. Verbs: add, admit, abbreviate, accept, act, affect, assimilate, assume, attract, complete, constitute, construct, correct, direct, dismiss, distribute, exhibit, express, divide, include, interrupt, prevent, produce, reject, separate, subdivide, subscribe, transport, violate, etc. Adjectives: absolute, acute, artificial, convenient, delicate, desperate, equal, fabulous, finite, frequent, fortunate, infantile, inferior, intelligent, junior, major, maternal, mental, minor, moderate, paternal, polite, private, senior, superior, etc.

At this period of time also appeared pairs of synonyms, where one word is native, the other – a Latin loan: fatherly – paternal, motherly – maternal, childish – infantile, sunny – solar. Synonyms of Latin origin have more formal terminological character. Cf.: sunny day and solar orbit, motherly feelings and maternal duties. Most of Latin borrowings are words consisting of two or more syllables. Many affixes in English are also of Latin origin: ab-, ad-, com-, dis-, ex-, in-/im-, il-, ir-, sub-, -ate, -al, -or, -ant, etc.

A number of words from Greek were also borrowed: atom, cycle, Bible, myth, philosophy.

II. Scandinavian borrowings

The English and Scandinavians are the nations closely connected with each other throughout the history of England. From the end of the 8th c. to the middle of the 11th c. England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which left their trace on English vocabulary. In 878 a peace treaty known as Danelaw (Danelagu) was signed, that’s how the word law was borrowed. Lexical borrowing from Scandinavian unlike Latin occurred exclusively via spoken communication.

As English and Scandinavian (Danish and Old Norse), both Germanic languages, were closely related as to their origins and structure, some classes of words were borrowed that could not have been borrowed from non-related or distantly related languages. Such as the pronouns they, (their, them), which ousted the OE hie ‘they’, same; prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs: both, till, though, fro (from to and fro).

The borrowings are predominantly made up of vocabulary items of a more or less general character. Certain minor groups to be distinguished among them may be assigned to vocabulary areas such as those of shipping, fishing, farming, hunting, trading and others. Nouns: fellow, husband, sister (OE sweostor), bond, loan, bulk, keel, booth, window, cake, egg, steak, bag, kettle, gap, link, bank (of a river), brink, root, wing, bark (of a tree), dirt, anger, leg, etc. Words beginning with sk-, sc- : scale, scare, score, ski, skin, skirt, sky, skill, but sceptic, skeleton – from Greek, square – from French. Verbs: cast, die, gaze, gasp, crawl, hit, lift, raise, ransack, seem, take, thrust, want, call, slaughter, etc. Words get и give are native English but the pronunciation of the initial [g] is due to Scandinavian influence, otherwise these words would have been pronounced with the sound [y]. Adjectives: bleak, weak, ill, sly, odd, loose, low, happy, ugly, wrong.

Certain English words changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian words of the same root. Thus, the OE word bread which meant ‘a piece’ acquired its modern meaning by association with the Scandinavian braud, the OE dream which meant ‘joy’ assimilated the meaning of the Scandinavian draumr (сf. with the German Traum ‘dreаm’ and the R. ‘дрема’).

III. The impact of French upon English

Language contacts in the case of English and French started in the 10th c. in the days of the Benedectine reform when some French words, such as proud and tower were borrowed. In the 11th с. after the battle of Hastings in 1066 the British were conquered by the Normans, the people who lived in Normandy – the Northern province of France, and spoke the Norman dialect of the French language. The Norman invasion lasted till the end of the 14th c. Since that period of time thousands of Norman French lexical items entered English, they are qualified as Norman French.

The Normans established their rule over England. The lexical items adopted by the English language at that period of time include words now belonging to the bulk of the English vocabulary. Most of the words reflected the social order (developed feudalism) and the way of living of the conquerors. They fall into various thematic groups:

а) words describing the conquered country: country, coast, river, valley, lake, mountain, village, border, frontier, etc.;

b) family relations: parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew;

c) units of time: hour, minute, second; season, autumn;

d) lexical items referring to the social hierarchy or differentiation in feudal society are, for the largest part, Middle English loans from French. The few native words retained in this group include king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight. Among the borrowings from French we find: duke, duchess, baron, vassal, noble, prince, emperor, count, gentle, people, peasant, sir, madame, chivalry, palace, castle, etc.;

e) ruling of the country, the law and its enforcement: feudal, state, government, parliament, crown, court, office, rule, reign, serve, command, obey, authority, liberty, power, glory, civil, danger, nation, property, justice, judge, privilege, crime, accuse, jail, prison, client, defendant, process, attorney, defendant, etc.;

f) military terms were important as the feudal military system relied heavily on military service: war, peace, army, navy, soldier, chief, captain, battle, enemy, victory, defense, fortress, resistance, destroy, conquer etc.;

g) words centering round man and his nature, his mental or emotional states, traits of character, or similar things: ease, joy, delight, pleasure, leisure, comfort, enjoy, disease, honour, reason, grief, despair, desire, passion, courage, envy, etc.;

h) words referring to various branches of medieval knowledge, sciences, art and literature: art, science, instruction, anatomy, surgery, divinity, theology, poet, dialogue, ballad, romance, story, comedy, etc.;

i) names of trades, professions and terms of trading: barber, carpenter, butcher, broker, forester, fruitier, grocer, merchant, painter, tailor, physician, surgeon, apprentice, cost, value, price, money, coin, measure, bottle, basket, etc.;

j) articles of clothing, ornaments, household utensils: fashion, coat, cloak, frock, garment, gown, robe, boot, fur, ornament, jewel, button, mirror, carpet, curtain, blanket, table, chair, pen, pencil, etc.;

k) words related to food and cooking: boil, broil, fry, roast, mince, dine, dinner, supper, flour, sugar, beef, pork, mutton, veal, salad, juice, cabbage, onion, cucumber, biscuit, etc.

Thousands of other words borrowed from the French language and belonging to other groups besides the above-mentioned ones have become part and parcel of the English vocabulary. Below are listed the most frequently used lexical items. Nouns: age, affair, action, air, baggage, beauty, branch, cage, cattle, chance, company, consent, couple coward, cry, damage, difference, error, example, exercise, experience, face, fate, favour, force, foreigner, honour, labour, marriage, language, question, wages, etc. Adjectives: able, ancient, brief, certain, clear, considerable, cruel, different, difficult, easy, familiar, famous, favourable, fine, foreign, poor, sure, etc. Verbs: achieve, affirm, approach, approve, arrive, assist, attend, blame, catch, carry, change, consent, consider, count, cover, cry, demand, deny, depart, deserve, discover, finish, employ, enter, escape, examine, excuse, increase, fail, form, marry, refuse, suffer, paint, perish, perform, propose, save, touch, travel, tremble, etc.

French remained an important source of lexical borrowing after the Conquest and in Modern English times. If the former borrowings are qualified as Norman French, the following ones are referred to as Parisian French.

The permanent additions to the English vocabulary reflect to some extent the character of the relations with France or highlight the spheres of life, especially the social and cultural, where the French had taken the lead.

Among the Parisian French borrowings there are those that have become political vocabulary, especially the influx of them was noticeable after the French bourgeois revolution of the 17th c. (1650): society, aristocracy, democracy, republic, regime, bourgeois, tyranny, ideology, democrat, dissident, etc.; words connected with trade and industry: commerce, manufacture, economy, economic, machine, vehicle, traffic, artisan, etc. Artistic and cultural ties are reflected in loans like: artist, ballet, baroque, vase, memoir, essay, cartoon, précis, brochure, envelope, etc. French cuisine and fashion preserved their attraction for the English beyond the Middle Ages as can be seen from the numerous loans: cuisine, pastry, champagne, cutlet, picnic, canteen, menu, restaurant, café, blouse, vogue, etc. The French language also continued to provide English with military terms: troops, battalion, brigade, platoon, cadet, cannon, bayonet, rocket, barricade, barracks, parole, campaign, etc. A miscellaneous group of French loans of fairly general character includes words such as the following: comrade, pilot, trial, entrance, attitude, detail, zero, apartment, bureau, development, fiancée, garage, chauffeur, interview, detach, embarrass, etc.

IV. Borrowings from other languages

Other languages contributing to the replenishment of the English lexicon are as follows:

1. Celtic. Celtic borrowings along with the Latin ones belong to the most ancient ones. The Celts were the people whom the Angles, Saxons and Jutes confronted when they migrated to the British Isles in the 5th c. AD From the Celts the conquerors got to know a number of words: down, bard, glen, bald, druid, cradle. The English language retained a lot of Celtic names of certain regions (Kent), rivers (Avon, Exe, Thames), towns, e.g. London (Llyn ‘river’ + dun ‘a fortified hill’), hills, forests and other natural features.

2. Dutch. In the 14 – 17-th centuries due to intense overseas trade with the Low Countries (the Netherlands, Flanders) which involved shipping, nautical terms were borrowed: bowsprit, dock, deck, yacht, cruise, freight, scoop, etc. words related to trade (cloth-manufacturing and brewing): bale, brick clock, pack, spool, brandy, booze, etc. Painters’ terms such as: sketch, easel, landscape and others were adopted during the flourishing period of the Dutch school of painting in the 17th c.

3. Italian. The lexical items borrowed into English include loans in the fields of art, music, literature, architecture, military terms, words to do with Italian life and customs, food, finance, commerce, etc: сupola, balcony, loggia, opera, sonata, aria, solo, concert, sonnet, soprano, piano; colonel, squadron; firm (commerc.), bank (financ., via French); carnival, gondola, macaroni, pizza, umbrella, influenza, malaria, propaganda, bandit, etc.

4. Spanish. Direct loans from Spanish and, to some extent, from Portuguese, which have entered English since the 16th c., include such as the following: embargo, cargo, armada, flotilla, breeze, junta, renegade, guerrilla, negro, mulatto, caste, sherry, cigar, cockroach (Sp. cucaracha), etc. Via the language of the conquistadors, the Spanish conquerors in the Americas, came quite a few of the loans from the Western Hemisphere: tomato, chocolate (via French), cocoa, potato, barbecue, canoe, maize, hurricane, cannibal, tobacco, etc.

5. German: zinc, cobalt, quartz, nickel, paraffin, vitamin, kohlrabi, sauerkraut, schnitzel, schnapps, plunder, iceberg, waltz, kindergarten, leitmotif, Zeitgeist, rucksack, blitz, blitzkrieg, ablaut, etc.

6. Russian. Russian borrowings are subdivided into: a) pre-Revolutionary: samovar, tsar, tsarina, steppe, vodka, kvass, knout, borsch, troika, steppe, verst, astrakhan, sable, sterlet, sevruga, babushka, intelligentsia; b) post-Revolutionary: Soviet, agitprop, bolshevik, kolkhoz, sputnik, perestroika, glasnost, pryzhok, etc.

The age of colonialist expansion brought English into direct contact with languages from all parts of the world and resulted in numerous additions to its vocabulary, e.g. from the languages spoken on the Indian sub-continent: jungle, loot, jute, pyjamas, khaki, yoga, bungalow, verandah, guru, shampoo, etc.

From the Malay-Polynesian and the languages of the Australian aborigines came borrowings like gong, taboo, boomerang, boondocks; Arabic was the source of coffee (via Turkish), sofa, sash, hashish, sheikh, emir, harem, sherbet, mohair, azimuth, zero, intifada, assassin; Chinese was that of tea, silk, tycoon, kung-fu; words adopted from Japanese are kimono, bonsai, geisha, haiku, karate, kamikaze, hara-kiri; those from Turkish are pasha, sultan, bazaar, caftan, jackal, kiosk (via French). A number of loans came from the vernacular languages spoken by North American Indians: opossum, skunk, moccasin, tomahawk, totem, chipmunk wigwam, pow-wow, etc.

A small proportion of the above-listed loan words are in common use in English today, a greater number of them have a limited currency and are mostly used to denote objects associated with the foreign culture where from they originated.