Old English Latin/French

Ask for request (F)

Din commotion (L)

Drive back repulse (L)

Drop globule (L)

Glove gauntlet (F)

Need require (F)

Pock (mark) pistule (L)

Rope cable (F)

Slake satisfy (F)

Smother suffocate (L)

The words from OE are generally shorter than their French or Latin synonyms. They also tend to belong to the ordinary, colloquial language, whereas their Latinate synonyms belong to a more formal context.

Words borrowed directly from Latin may sometimes be more formal or technical than a synonym that entered English as a consequence of the Norman French invasion. Here are some examples of this case, with the French – derived word on the left and the Latin – derived word on the right: commencement, inception, devise – excogitate, generous – munificent, imprison – incarcerate, mount – ascend, pardon – amnesty, urgency – exigency.

It is not always the case that the Latin – derived word will be more formal and less familiar. In the course of history, some words derived directly from Latin have found their place in the common language, but the clear tendency is for words derived from Latin, especially where these were borrowed into Latin from Greek, to belong to formal and often technical styles.

33.A loan word (borrowed word, borrowing) is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language.

The part played by borrowings in the vocabulary of a language depends upon the history of each given language, being conditioned by direct linguistic contacts and political, economic and cultural relationships between nations. Each history contains innumerable occasions for all types of such contacts. The very fact that up 70 % of the English vocabulary consist of loan words, and only 30% of the words are native is due to specific conditions of the English language development.

The term “source of borrowing” should be distinguished from the term “origin of borrowing” The first should be applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English. The second refers to the language to which the word may be traced. There are certain structural features which enable us to identify some words as borrowings and even to determine the source language.

Latin affixes: N.: - ion, - tion. V.: - ate, - ute, - ct, - d (e), dis -. Adj.: - able, - ate, - ant, - ent, - or, - ar.

French Affixes: N.: - ance, - ence, - ment, - age, - ess. Adj.: - ous. V.: en - .

Alongside loan words proper, we distinguish loan translation and semantic loans. Loan translations are words and expressions formed from the material already existing in the British language but according to patterns taken from another language, by way of literal morpheme – for – morpheme or word – for – word translation. Loan translation is facilitated by the existence of formally related words, even though in other context and with a different meaning. The term “semantic loan” is used to denote the development in an English word of a new meaning due to the influence of a related word in another language.

Many loan words in spite of the changes they have undergone after penetrating into English, retain some peculiarities in pronunciation, spelling, orthoepy, and morphology. The phono – morphological structure of borrowings is characterized by a high percentage of polysyllabic words. L. Bloomfield points out that English possesses a great mass of words (he calls them “foreign – learned” words) with a separate pattern of derivation. Their chief characteristic is the use of certain accented suffixes and combinations of suffixes. Another feature, according L. Bloomfield, is the presence of certain phonemic alterations. There are also prefixes which mark certain words as foreign – learned.