Lecture 1 The etymological background of the English Vocabulary

1. The Anglo-Saxon element, the Celtic element, the Latin element, the Greek element, the Scandinavian element, the French element.

1

The Anglo-Saxon element

The existence of the English language began in the 5-th century of AD when the Anglo-Saxon tribes had occupied Britain. They brought their dialects which we call now Old English and which formed the foundation of Modern English. The Anglo-Saxon element is very stable and has a high frequency value, because the native words stand for fundamental things and generally express the most vital concepts:

1. everyday actions – go, say, see, love, hunt, eat, etc.

2. everyday objects - food, fish, meat, milk, water, etc.

3. names of animals and birds – sheep, bull, ox, etc.

4. natural phenomena – land, sun, moon, summer, sea, etc.

5. geographical concepts – north, east, west, way, etc.

6. kinsmen – man, woman, father, mother, son, etc.

7. qualities – long, short, far, etc.

The native stock of words includes modal and auxiliary verbs (be, shall, will), pronouns (I, he, she, you), articles (a, the, an), most of the numerals (one, ten, fifty).

The Celtic element.

The first known language in Britain, the land where English began, was Celtic. It is now spoken by small groups of people mainly in Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands. But aside from some place and river names (among them Kent, Thames, Avon) and the first syllables of other (Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter and Glouster) and less than 20 words (among them crag “rock”, down “hill”, dun “colour”, bin “a chest for corn”), Celtic did not influence the English language much. The English refused to speak the Celtic language because they considered it the language of low people. The Celts, on the other hand, were made to speak English to communicate with their rulers. It is necessary to note that the words bard, brogue, plaid, whisky are all of Celtic origin, but none of them existed in the English of the Anglo-Saxon period.

Skeat registers 165 words borrowed directly or indirectly from the Celts, including in this number words of uncertain origin supposed to be derived from the Celtic. Here are a few words Celtic in origin which became international: budget, career, clan, flannel, mackintosh, etc. Some of the early Latin borrowings (street, wall, mill, kitchen) came through Celtic.

The Latin element.

We must distinguish between those Latin words that were borrowed orally, at the early stages of language development and those that came through writing. The early borrowings are mostly monosyllabic and denote things of everyday importance; the later borrowings are mostly long bookish words.

Oral borrowings belong to the first Latin layer. The Germanic tribes of which the Angles and Saxons formed part, were in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted several Latin words long before their invasion into Britain. Among the words of early loans from Latin are such as: wine (L. vinum), colony (colonia), cup (cuppa), pepper (piper), kettle (catillus), chest (cista), street (via strata), etc.

The second layer of Latin borrowings is connected with Christianity (the 7^th century). Here belong such words as: altar, chapter, candle, creed, cross, etc. At this period English adopted also some names of many article of foreign production the use of which was brought into England by the Romans, e.g. marble, chalk, linen, etc. Among Latin loans of the second period we also find such words as elephant, laurel, lily, fiddle, palm, pine, etc.

The third layer is connected with the Norman Conquest in 1066 and the Revival of Learning or Renaissance. The influence of the Norman Conquest upon the English language is often called the Latin of the third period.

In addition to the great stock of Latin words that had entered English through French, or under its influence, there are a great many words taken directly from Latin without change, e.g. animal, genius, omnibus, nucleus, series, species, senior, junior, etc.

The fourth layer of Latin loans includes abstract and scientific words which came through writing. To this layer belongs the main part of the international element of the English vocabulary: affidavit, bona fide, bonus, impetus, recipe, stimulus, superior, veto, etc.

The Greek element.

A great many Greek words came into English chiefly through Latin. These are mostly bookish borrowings, scientific and technical terms.

Among numerous Greek borrowings there are terms for various fields of science, such as:

1. Literature and art: epos, elegy, ode, tragedy, scene, etc.

2. Linguistics: archaisms, etymology, homonymy, idiom, polysemy, etc.

3. Sports: gymnastics;

4. Physics: pneumatic, thermometer;

5. Philosophy and mathematics: basis, category, diagram;

6. Medicine: rheumatism, adenoids, psychiatry, etc.

7. Botany: balsam, cactus, parasite, organism, etc.

Quite a number of proper names are also Greek in origin, e.g.: George, Eugene, Helene, Sophie, Peter, etc.

Words of Greek are recognized by their specific spelling (ch, ph, pn, rh as in character, philosophy, pneumonia, rhetoric), by the suffixes (-ist, -ics, -ism, ize, osis, etc. theorist, linguistics, philosophize, neurosis).

The Scandinavian element.

The Scandinavian invasion of England which influenced the English language began in 878. At this period many Scandinavian words came into the English language but as there was great similarity between the languages the Scandinavian element in English remains comparatively obscure. Numerous Germanic words in English with the sk sound are of Scandinavian origin (skill, whisk, scowl). There are about 650 Scandinavian root-words in Modern English. Among them we find such everyday words as: anger, calf, cake, egg, gate, kid, flat, ill, loose, mean, ugly, wrong, cast, call, drown, die, guess, get, give, seem, etc. The pronouns same and they, their and them are due to Scandinavian influence.

The French element

The French layer comes second after Latin and makes about 25% of the English language. It is due, firstly, to the Norman Conquest that began in 1066. French loans in the English vocabulary may be subdivided into two main groups:

1. early loans: 12^th-15^th centuries;

2. later loans: beginning from the 16^th century.

Early French loans were thoroughly assimilated in English and made to conform to the rules of English pronunciation. They were, as a rule, simple short words, e.g. age, air, arm, boil, calm, chaise, clear, course, crime, etc.

It is necessary to distinguish between loan words from the Norman dialect and those from the central dialect of France (that came into English later and mostly through writing).

Among later French borrowings we find numerous Latin and Greek words which entered the English Vocabulary in the epoch of the French bourgeois revolution, e.g. democrat, aristocrat, revolutionary, revolutionize, royalism; law terms: justice, prison, jury, etc; military terms: army, peace, officer; religious terms: pray, preach, sermon; terms of rank: duke, prince, baron; terms of art and architecture: colour, image, design, paint, garment, tower, column, mansion.

Later adoptions are characterized by the following phonetical peculiarities:

a). Keeping the stress on the last syllable, e.g. finance, supreme;

b). ch pronounced as [∫] chauffeur, chic, machine;

c). g before e and i pronounced as [ک] regime, bourgeois, massage;

d). ou pronounced as [u] rouge;

e). eau – [ou], chateau;

f). Final constant p, s, t not pronounced as in coup, debris, ragout, ballet.