3)Latin borrowings in the English vocabulary

There are 2 main ways of enriching the vocabulary. The 1st is vocabulary extension, that is the appearance of new words, new vocabulary units. The second is semantic extension that is the appearance of new meanings. As for vocabulary extension, it\s associated with the process of borrowing words from other languages to express new concepts or to differentiate the existing concepts and to name new objects, things, phenomena. English vocabulary which is one of the most extensive among the word’s languages contains a great number of words of foreign origin. It is so because each epoch left its traces in the language.

The Latin borrowing in the English vocabulary. In the 1st century B.C. the territory of Europe was occupied by the Roman empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent were Germanic tribes. Barbarians as Romans called them were on a primitive stage of development. Their main engagement was cattle-breeding and they didn’t know much about land-cultivation. Their tribal languages contained only Indo-European and Germanic elements. In the cause of development Romans and Germanic tribes (the Teutons) came into contact, and the latter gained a lot of knowledge from their former enemies. From the Romans the Teutons learnt how to make butter and cheese and there were no words for these food-stuffs. In their tribal languages they used the Latin words to name them – cheese (from ceseus) and butter (from butyrum). Alongside with it, the Latin names of some fruits and vegetables entered their vocabulary – cherry (from cerasum), pear (from pirum), plum (from prunus), beet (from beta), plant (from planta). The Romans taught the Teutons many useful things and gave them very important words, that the forefathers of the English later brought with them and that had remained in the English language up to now. For example – ‘kitchen’ and ‘table’ are Latin words, borrowed in those far off days. ‘Dish’, ‘cup’ and ‘cattle’ also became known to the Teutons at that time. The early words of Latin origin give us a vague picture of Roman traders, traveling with their mules and asses along the paved roads of the German provinces , their boxes and wine are full of goods, that they profitably bargained with the primitive ancestors of the nowadays. English wine was one of the 1st items of trades between the Romans and the Teutons, that’s how the word ‘wine’ from Latin ‘vinum’ came into use. The Germanic tribes knew only 1 fruit – apple, they didn’t grow fruit trees or cultivated gardens, but they were eager to learn. For they borrowed ‘pair’, ‘plum’, ‘cherry’, ‘plants’. The Teutons were agricultural people and under the influence of the Romans they began to grow beet, onion and pea, they also learned the names of spices such as pepper and mint. Thus, Germanic tribal languages got a considerable number of new words and these Latin borrowings became the earliest group of borrowings in the future English language.

The 7th century A.D is very important in the British history, because Christianity was introduced in the country, monasteries with schools and libraries were set up all over the country. The English language was considerably enriched by the Latin words, it was another period of Latin borrowings, but this time they mostly indicated persons, objects and ideas associated with church and religious rituals.- priest (from presbiter), bishop (from episcopus), monk (from monachus), nun (from nonna), candle (from candela). Evan the word ‘school’ is a borrowing from Latin ‘schola’ as the first schools in England were church schools and the 1st teachers were priests and monks.

The Renaissance period was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture and there was a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. There occurred a considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings. This time Latin borrowings were mostly abstract nouns and verbs – major, minor, intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create. Also some scientific and artistic terms were borrowed – datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music.