Old English Vocabulary.

Plan:

1. The main sources of vocabulary enrichment.

2. Native words.

3. Lain borrowings.

4. Celtic borrowings.

1. The main sources of the vocabulary enrichment are:

   • word derivation (the most effective),

   • word composition,

   • vowel interchange,

   • consonant interchange,

   • the stress in the word.

In its term word-derivation is subdivided into two means: prefixation and suffixation. Old English prefixes according to their origin are Proto-Germanic prefixes. The most productive of them were “-e” (means completion of the action) E.g. e-boren (M.E. to born); “- un” (had negative meaning) E.g. uneboren (M.E. unborn). The functions of the prefixes are:

• they formed new words,

• had the function of form-building.

Suffixation was the most productive means and it was used in the nominal system of the language ( in nouns, adjectives and adverbs). The suffixes which formed a noun were “agent suffixes” (doer of the action) and “abstract suffixes”. Agent suffixes were unproductive. E.g. “-a^” in Masc. hunta (M.E. hunter); “-end^” – the suffix of Present Participle freond – fiend (M.E. friend).

Among abstract suffixes were some survivals, such as “-t^” meaht (M.E. might); some suffixes formed abstract nouns: “-nes\nis^” beorhtnes (M.E. brightness), “-dom\hod^” freodom (M.E. freedom), cildhad (M.E. childhood).

In the derivations of adjectives there were some suffixes, such as: “-isc, -ede, -sum, -en^” E.g. mennisc (M.E. man, human); hocede (M.E. hooked). The productive suffix “-lic^” formed adjectives in Old English, and it corresponded to the suffix “-ly^”, which forms formed adverbs in Modern English. E.g. freondlic (M.E. friendly).

In the verbal system suffixation was not productive, in exception for the formation of the Past Tense. The most productive suffixes in this way were “-t; -d^”.

The formation of new words was based on two types of vowel interchange:

• ablaut (vowel gradation) E.g. beran – geboren.

• umlaut (e-mutation) E.g. domjan – deman (to deem)

The main function of this process is subdivided into:

• nouns formed from verbs,

• nouns formed from adjectives,

• the formation of verbs forms (Past and Present).

Word composition. This way of enrichment of Old English was more productive in nominal parts of speech than in verbs. Compound nouns contained various components:

• noun + noun. This pattern was the most productive. E.g. heafod-mann (M.E. haed-man).

• adjective + noun, E.g. fela-modi (M.E. very brave).

The function of word composition is the formation of new words.

Consonant interchange. It was not productive mean, and it was based on the phonetic phenomenon: Verner’s law, rhotacism (r→z), hardening (þ→d).

Word stress. Unlike other Indo-European languages, such means as the stress in the word was not so productive in Old English. The main function of it was to differentiate the nouns from verbs. In the nouns the stress fell in the first syllable and on the verbs – on the second.

2. Native Old English words can be subdivided into three groups: 1). common Indo-European words, 2). common Germanic words, 3). specifically Old English words.

The first group is the oldest part of O.E. vocabulary, it goes back to the period of the I.E. parent language. This group includes words of natural phenomena, names of plants, animals, parts of human body, demonstrative pronouns, and verbs denoting some basic man’s activities. E.g. M.E. brother, nail, tree, moon.

The second group includes words which are shared by most Germanic languages. These words originated from period when Teutonic tribes lived close together. The words are connected with nature, sea, and every day life. E.g. M.E. hand, sand, fox, green.

The third etymological group of native words is defined as specifically, because these words don’t occur in other Germanic or non-Germanic languages. These words are few and include the words whose roots have not been found outside English. E.g. M.E. call, bird, woman, wife, sheriff.

3. Latin language made a great impact on the development of the Old English language (especially on the lexical level). All the borrowings from Latin according to the time of borrowings can be divided:

• before the Roman invasion (the Germanic tribes brought some words),

• 3^rd-5^th c. (the period of Roman invasion),

• introduction of Christianity (6^th c.).

Latin borrowings were also classified according to the criteria of what aspects of life they denoted.

• trade: pound, inch, wine, plum;

• building: street, road, camp;

• religion: monk, bishop, archbishop;

• education: school, period, class.

Another source of borrowing was literary translation, when not the form of Latin word was borrowed, but only the context.

Most Latin words were treated in O.E. texts like native words, which mean that they were completely assimilated. These words were naturalized as regards their sound form. Stems of some Latin borrowings were used in derivations and word compounding. E.g. plantain (M.E. plant).

4. There are very few Celtic words in the O.E. vocabulary. In some parts of the island the Celts population was not exterminated during the West Germanic invasion. The great number of borrowings from Celtic is to be found only in place-names. The O.E. kingdom Kent and Deira derive their names from the names of Celtic tribes. The name of York has been traced from Celtic sources too. Various Celtic designations of “river” and “water” were understood by the Germanic invaders as proper names: Ouse, Exe, Avon. Many place-names with Celtic elements are hybrids; the Celtic component, combined with a Latin or a Germanic component, make a compound place-name:

Celtic plus Latin	Celtic plus Germanic
Man-chester	York-shire
Win-chester	Corn-wall
Lan-caster	Canter-bury

Among these kinds of borrowings beside place-names there were a lot of common nouns: E.g. O.E. binn – M.E. bin (crib); O.E. dun – M.E. dark colored.

A few words entered O.E. due to the activities of Irish missionaries in spreading Christianity. E.g. O.E. ancor – M.E. hermit (!); O.E. dry – M.E. magician. Later, some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects. E.g. loch (dial.) – lake, coomb (dial.) – valley.

Lecture 11