THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

1. The oe vocabulary.

1.1. Etymological analysis.

The OE vocabualry was mostly Germanic except for a small group of borrowings. The OE native words were inherited from PG or formed from native roots and affixes.

The native OE words were:

1. common IE;

2. common Germanic;

3. specifically OE.

The oldest layer of the OE language – IE words – included names of some natural phenomenon, plants, animals, agricultural terms, names of the human body parts; verbs denoting basic activities; adjectives indicating the most essential qualities; personal and demonstrative pronouns & most numerals.

● mere (sea), mona (moon), treow (tree), broðor (brother), moðor (mother), sunu (son), don (do), beon (be), niwe (new), ic (I), min (my), twa (two), etc.

In this group there were many borrowings from the Baltic & Slawonic tribes as well as the Italic & Celtic groups due to the history of the Germanic tribes.

The layer of the Common Germanic word was much smaller. Semantically these words were connected with nature, with sea & everyday life. They reflected the contacts between the Teutonic tribes at the beginning of their migration, i.e. West & North Germanic tribes having many words in common.

● hand (OHG hant), sand (OHG sant), eorðe (OMG erda) “earth”, zrene (OHG gruoni) “green”, screap (OHG scaf), sheep, fox (OHG fuhs), macian (mahhon) “make”.

Specifically OE native words included the words whose roots have not been found outside English.

● clipian (call), brid (bird)

They also included OE compounds and derived words formed from Germanic roots.

● OE wifman (wimman) (O.I. cel. γif) (OMG wib)

wif = OE compound

man Gt (manna)

● OE hlāford < hlāf (“lard”) + weard (“keeper”) G : wards

“lord” R : хлеб

Borrowing in the OE Voc. included about 600 words. They came from 2 sources: Celtic & Latin.

A lot of borrowings from Celtic could be found mainly in place-names.

● Kent, Deira, Bernicia (names of Celtic tribes).

York (Cel. Dun),

Downs «hill»

London

Ouse

Exe go back to Celtic

U sk amhuin (“river”)

Avon nisge (“water”)

Evan

B atcombe

D ancombe Celtic – comb “deep valley”

Wincombe

T orr Cel:

Torcross – torr “high rock”

L landoff Cel.:

Llanely – llan “church”

P yll Cel.:

Huntspill – pill “creck” (бухта)

Celtic + Latin (compound place-names):

Man-chester, Winchester, Devon-port, Lan-caster, Wor-cester, etc.

Celtic + Germanic compounds:

York-shire, Corn-wall, Salis-bury, Lich-field, etc.

Outside of place-names borrowings from Celtic were very few no more than a dozen.

● binn “crib” (ясли, кормушка),

cradol “cradle” (колыбель);

bratt “cloak”

dun “dark-coloured”

cross

dun “hill”

dry “magician”

cursian “curse”

loch “lake”

coomb “valley”

The Roman civilization influenced the OE γoc. in many spheres. Latin words (≈ 500) entered the OE language at different stages.

The 1^st layer of Latin borrowings comprises words which WG tribes brought from the continent.

The 2^nd layer comprises words adopted after the Roman invasion.

The 3^rd layer of Latin influence began with the introduction of Christianity in 6^th century and lasted to the end of OE.

The 1^st and 2^nd Latin borrowings layers indicated the new things and concepts; they pertain to war, trade, agriculture, building & home life.

● OE ceapian “to trade” < caupo (L) “mechant”

L:

pondo uncia vinum butyrum piper cāseus

OE:

pund ynce win butere pipor ciese

“pound” “inch” “wine” “butter” “pepper” “cheese”

T he 3^rd layer consisted of words

1. pertaining to religion 400

2. connected with learning words

● L (from Greek) OE apostolus episcopus candela clericus

OE apostol biscop candel clerec

NE apostle bishop candle clerk

There also appeared so called “trabslation loans, i.e. the words & phraser created on the pattern of L. words.

● L.: Lunae dies OE Monan – dæƺ “Monday”

Martis dies Tiwes – dæƺ “Tuesday”

A Teutonic God (Roman Mars)

The name of a Roman God was substituted by the name of a Germanic God.

Loan words aqired English grammatical forms & were inflected like respective parts of speech.

O E voc.

n ative words borrowings

IE Common Specifically Cetic Latin

Germanic English

1^st layer (Teutonic tribes)

2^nd (Roman invasion) 3^rd (Introd. of Christianity)