Celtic borrowings (15th century)

They are one of the most ancient groups of borrowings. Celts were the original inhabitants of modern Britain, before the migration of Germanic, tribes. Angles, Saxons, Jutes - these tribes migrated across the sea to the Britain. One of the Celtic tribes, Brits, gave the name to the whole country. During the confrontation with Germanic tribes, Celts yielded most of their territories. They retreated on the north and southwest.

1.Bald, glen, druid, bard, cradle, bin, brat, down.

2.Place means name of rivers, hills, originated from Celtic words: uisge, exe, esk, Aberdeen, aber, dun, Dundee, London

3.English proper names: Evan, Arthur

4.Some Latin words: street, wall

5.Later borrowings: flannel, clan, robber, wisky, Tory.

Scandinavian borrowings (8 - 11 century)

These borrowings are opposed to all other groups of borrowings, due to the way of borrowing their meaning and finally to the fact that penetrated to the language. Only during 8 - 11 centuries and in later periods only single cases of borrowings can be noted.

During this period England underwent several Scandinavian invasions. As Scandinavians were at higher stage of development then Anglo - Saxons, most Scandinavian borrowings were notions and words of everyday live

1. nouns: sky, ski, root, wing, anger, fellow, gate, scar.

2.adjectives: happy, weak, ill, ugly, low, wrong.

3.Verbs: take, hit, call, want.

4.Propositions: them, they, their, same, till

5. Geographical names: Derby, Whitby, Rugby, Althorp, Linthorp

6. Certain words changed their meaning under the influence of Scandinavian words:

Dream (old English: joy), Bread (old English: piece)

Norman borrowings (most numerous group)

Norman French borrowings began with the famous battle of Hastings when English were defeated by the Normans. England became bilingual country and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this 2 hundred years period was immense. French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. French became the lang. of state. Teaching was led in French, business documents were also written in French.

1. Administrative terms: state, government, council, power, country, people, nation,

2. Feudalism: liege, vassal, fief - these words are disused.

3. servant, prince, count, duck, baron.

4. words, denoting qualities: honor, glory, noble, fine, genteel.

5. Military terms: siege, defense, victory, conquest, captain.

6.Legal terms: judge, prison, slander, felony, fraud.

7. religion: perish, communion, parson, abbey, saint, vice, blame.

8.Education: people, library, science, pencil, pen.

9.Entertainment: moda, supper, dinner, pastry, to fry, dice, luxury, jewels.

10. Everyday life: table, plate, autumn, uncle.

11. Literature and art: to paint, colour, architecture, design, prose, story, volume, arch, vault.

Stages of assimilation

1. Fully assimilated words.

These words adjust themselves to the new environment and get adapted to the norms of the language. They undergo certain changes. But these words are not felt like foreign. (e.g. French word “sport” and the native “start”.) These words belong to the regular verbs.