Borrowings from contemporary languages in ne

In the late 15^th & in the 17^th century the influx of French words continued & reached new peaks. French remained the international language of diplomacy for several hundred years. French borrowings of this period mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art & fashions.

● attache, communique, dossier, ball, cafe, hotel, picnic, restarant, genre, balley, essay & so on.

Most of them have not been completely assimilated & have retained their spelling or position of the stress to the present day.

In addition to the three main source – Greek, Latin & French in the NE period there appeared a lot of borrowings from other languages. The main contributors to the vocabulary were Italian, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portuguese & Russian. A number of words were borrowed from Persian, Chinese, Hungarian, Turkish, Malayan, Polynesian, the native languages of India & America.

Italian (14^th century) (mainly through French): studio, million, pedestal, gallery, alarm, cartridge, piano, violin, balcony, design.

Spanisch (16^th – 17 th century): cargo, embargo, barricade, banana, potato, tomato, tobacco, etc,

Dutch (15^th – 16^th century): pack, scour, stripe, cruise, deck, dock, skipper, freight, etc.

German (18^th – 19^th century): cobalt, zink, nickel, dynamics, kindergarten, plunder, poodle, etc.

Russian element (16^th – 19^th century): beluga, copeck, collective, farm, wall newspaper, sputnik, cosmonaut, Five-Year-Plan.

Borrowings from classical languages

The Latin language was used in OE & ME in religions spheres, documents & in texts of scientific & phylosophical character. It was partly replaced by official Anglo-Norman. The most Latin borrowings of ME reffered to the translations of religions texts, e.g. the Bible. A new wave of borrowings from Latin & Greek appeared in the age of Renaissance.

Many classical words were borrowed into ENE through French. Many new ideas encountered in classical works retained the Latin terms. So all classical borrowings can be divided into (1) genuine Latin & Greek words & (2) those which were based on Latin & Greek roots.

A lot of borrowings from these classical languages appeared in the works of Thomas More (16^th century), Shakespeare’s works, John Wyclif’s translations, scientific works of that time.

One of the effect of the classical borrowings was the further increase of the number of synonyms.

● English French Latin

reckin count compute

kingly royal regal

Word-formation history

The growth of the English vocabulary from internal sources, i.e. through word – formation & semantic change, may have become relatively less important in ME because hundreds of foreign words (esp. French) entered the language. In the 15^th, 16^th, 17^th century the role of internal sources of the replenishment of the vocabulary became more important again though the influx of borrowings from other languages continued.

As before word-formation fell into two types: word derivation & word composition.

The means of derivation used in OE were generally the same. Suffixation has been the most productive way of deriving new words.

Verb suffixes of native origin have never been productive in English –en (ME) < -nian or –an (OE)

Borrowed suffixes: -ess (French), -ee (Fr.), -or (Fr.), -ist, -ite (Fr.) – “nomina agentis”.

Noun suf-es: -ance, -ence, -ty, -age, -ry, -ment (Fr.), -tion/sion (Fr.-Lat.), -ism (Greek).

Adj. suf. – able/ible (Lat.-Fr.), -ous (O. Fr.), -al, -ic, -ive (Fr.), -ise, -fy (Fr.).

During the ME period prefixes were used in derivation less frequently than before.

Native prefixes: many OE prefixes dropped out of use: a-, to-, on-, of-, ƺe-, or- or fused with the root simplifying the structure of the word.

ME prefixes were: be-, mis-, un-

OE ut > out, OE ofer > over, OE under > under.

Borrowed prefixes: re- (Fr.), de-, dis- (Fr.-Lat.), en/in (Fr.), non- (Fr.-Lat.), anti- (Gr.), co- (L.), ex- (L.), extra-(L.), post- (L.), pre- (L.), semi- (L.).

In ME the suf. –end, -en, -estre took place as inseparable parts of the stem.

● ME frend, fysen, spinnestre NE friend, she-fox, spinster

The sub –ere- developed into –er & it had several rival among the suffixes –or, -ist, -ite.

The old suffixes of abstract nouns –af, -of, -f were lost & replaced by the suffixes –ness, -ing (from OE inƺ/unƺ).

The OE suffixes –dom, -lac, -hād, -ræden, -scipe that had developed from root – morphemes remained relative productive in ME but their productivety fell later.

New derivatives with –dom, -ship, -hood can be found in the texts of all historical period.

A new suf. –man developed from a root – morpheme in ME.

● seaman, nobleman.

The adj. suffixes were very productive: -isc (OE) > ish (ME), iz (OE) > y (ME), lic (OE) > ly (ME), leac (OE) > less (ME), -ful (from OE).

Sound interchanges & the shifting of word stress were employed as a means of word differeantiation rather than as a word building means.

In the ENE period there appeared specifically English way of word derivation – conversion, when the word is transformed into another part of speech with an identical initial from.

● NE house (v) – house (n)

● OE LME NE

lufu (n) – luflian (v) love (n) – loven (v) love (n, v)

Many compounds recorded in OE texts went out of use in ME together with the genre of OE poetry.

In early NE word compounding productivity grew. As before, compounding was more characteristic of nouns & adj-s than of verbs.

All through the ME & ENE periods compounds words were subjected to morphological simplification, i.e. to become an indivisible word.

● OE OI cel. wind – auga > OE windoƺe > NE window.

● ME all one > NE alone

NE good-bye < God be with you!

OE wifman > woman

In ME there appeared another way of simplication, so called “back formation”. It’s a process of word building based on an analogy.

● ME beggere > NE “beggar” produced the verb “beg” by dropping the suffix.

● televise < television edit < editor

Internal source of the replenishment of the English vocabulary were semantic changes which created new meanings & new words. They can be divided into widening & narrowing of meaning & also metaphoric & metonymic shifts.

● OE deor (animal) ⇨deer (narrowing) (NE)

● OE slogan (battle cry) ⇨NE (widening)

holiday (religions festival)

journey (a day’s work)

● ME vixen (she-fox) (metaphoric change) > NE “bad-tempered woman”

● ME Gang (a set of tools) > a group of workman NE – metonymic change.

Many semantic changes proceed together with stylistic changes enriching the English vocabulary.

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