32. Middle English. General characteristics. Means of enreaching vocabulary. Internal means. External means.

General characteristics

Many words became obsolete, many more appeared in the rapidly developing language under the influence of contacts with other nations.

Internal means of enriching vocabulary

Though the majority of Old English suffixes are still preserved in Middle English, they are becoming less productive, and words formed by means of word-derivation in Old English can be treated as such only etymologically. Words formed by means of word-composition in Old English, in Middle English are often understood as derived words.

External means of enriching vocabulary

The principal means of enriching vocabulary in Middle English are not internal, but external borrowings. Two languages in succession enriched the vocabulary of the English language of the time — the Scandinavian language and the French language.

— Scandinavian borrowings

The Scandinavian invasion and the subsequent settlement of the Scandinavians on the territory of England brought about many changes in different spheres of the English language: wordstock, grammar and phonetics.

Many words were borrowed from the Scandinavian language, for example:

Nouns: law, fellow, sky, skirt, skill, skin, egg, anger,cake, husband, leg, wing, guest, loan, race

Adjectives: big, week, wrong, ugly, twin

Verbs: call, cast, take, happen, scare, hail, want, bask,gape, kindle

Pronouns: they, them, their; and many others.

The conditions and the consequences of various borrowings were different.

1. Sometimes the English language borrowed a word for which it had no synonym: law, fellow

2. The English synonym was ousted by the borrowing. Scandinavian taken (to take) and callen (to call) ousted the English synonyms niman and clypian, respectively.

3. Both the words, the English and the corresponding Scandinavian, are preserved, but they became different in meaning: Native heaven, starve Scandinavian sky, die

4. Sometimes a borrowed word and an English word are etymological doublets, as words originating from the same source in Common Germanic: shirt skirt

5. Sometimes an English word and its Scandinavian doublet were the same in meaning but slightly different phonetically. For example, Modern English to give, to get come from the Scandinavian gefa, geta.

6. There may be a shift of meaning. Thus, the word dream originally meant "joy, pleasure"; under the influence of the related Scandinavian word it developed its modern meaning.

French borrowings

stands to reason that the Norman conquest and the subsequent history of the country left deep traces in the English language, mainly in the form of borrowings in words connected such spheres of social and political activity where French speaking Normans had occupied for a long time all places of importance. For example:

government and legislature: government, noble, baron, prince, duke, court, justice, judge, crime, prison, condemn, sentence, parliament, etc.

military life: army, battle, peace, banner, victory, general, colonel, lieutenant, major, etc.

religion: religion, sermon, prey, saint, charity

city crafts: painter, tailor, carpenter

pleasure and entertainment: music, art, feast, pleasure, leisure, supper, dinner,pork, beef, mutton

words of everyday life: air, place, river, large, age, boil, branch, brush, catch, chain, chair, table,

relationship: aunt, uncle, nephew, cousin.

The place of the French borrowings within the English language was different:

1. to denote notions unknown to the English up to the time: government, parliament, general, colonel, etc.

2. The English synonym is ousted by the French borrowing: English French here army

3. Both the words are preserved, but they are stylistically different: English French to work to labour, to leave to abandon, life existence

4. Sometimes the English language borrowed many words with the same word-building affix. "government", "parliament", "agreement", but later there appeared such English-French hybrids as:

fulfilment, amazement.

The suffix -ance/-ence, which was an element of such borrowed words as "innocence", "ignorance".

A similar thing: French borrowings "admirable", "tolerable", reasonable.

5. One of the consequences of the borrowings from French was the appearance of ethymological doublets: from the Common Indoeuropean: native borrowed fatherly paternal

6. Due to the great number of French borrowings there appeared in the English language such families of words, which though similar in their root meaning, are different in origin:

native borrowed

sun solar

see vision

7. There are caiques on the French phrase:

It's no doubt - Se n'est pas doute

Without doubt- Sans doute

Out of doubt - Hors de doute.