- •The Germanic languages. The Germanic tribes.
- •3.The North Germanic languages.
- •4.The West Germanic languages.
- •5.The periods in the History of English.
- •6.The Old English dialects and the formation of English language.
- •7.Middle English dialects and the formation of the National Literary English Language.
- •8.The Anglo –Saxon conquest and its historical and linguistic importance.
- •9.The historical background of Middle English.
- •10.The development of Middle English dialects.
- •11.The development of the English Vocabulary.
- •12.The English Basic Word Stock.
- •13.Foreign Influences upon English and their importance.
- •14.The Celtic influence.
- •15.The Latin influence.
- •16.The Scandinavian influence.
- •17.The French influence.
- •18.Phonetic peculiarities of Germanic languages.
- •19.The Germanic phonetic system.
- •20.First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s and Verner’s law).
- •21.Principles oe phonetic changes (breaking,I-umlaut (mutation) lengthening of vowels).
- •After sk’ k’
- •2. After j
- •22.Consonant changes in oe. Oe alphabets.
- •Voicing or devoicing
- •After sk’ k’
- •2. After j
- •23.Middle English spelling change and principal sound changes.
- •24.Weakening of Unaccented Vowels and its results.
- •25.Consonant changes in Middle English.
- •Voicing of Fricatives
- •The Great Vowel Shift and its importance.
- •Modern English consonant changes (Vocalization of r, appearance of sibilants in new positions, loss of consonants).
- •Phonetic analysis of Old English sound changes.
- •Phonetic analysis of Middle English and Modern English phonetic change.
- •The Evolution of the Old English phonetic system.
- •Middle English spelling change and principal sound changes.
- •The evolution of the English Noun.
- •The evolution of the Verb.
- •The evolution of the English Adjective.
- •The evolution of the English Pronoun.
- •The evolution of the English Numeral.
- •The evolution of the English Syntax.
- •The discovery of Sanskrit.
- •The Indo-European Family.
- •Grimm’s Law.
- •The Romans in Britain. Romanization of the Island.
- •The Latin Language in Britain.
- •The Anglo-Saxon Civilization. The names “England” and “English”.
- •The Periods in the History of English.
- •The dialects of Old English.
- •Verner’s Law
- •The Definite Article.
- •The Norman Conquest. The origin of Normandy.
- •The Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary.
- •80. Preterite-present and suppletive verbs.
- •81. The development of analytical tenses.
- •84. Wessex dialect.
- •85. Old English dialect and formation of the English language.
- •86. The periods in the history of English.
- •88. The main oe dialects.
- •89. The development of the English vocabulary. The English Basic Word Stock
- •92. Me phonetic system. Weakening of the unaccentedwords.
- •2.Development of oe å
- •94. Modern English phonetic changes. The Great Vowel Shift.
- •95. Modern English phonetic changes. Vocalization of “r”.
- •96. The importance of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest.
- •100. The definite article
- •Vikings and their influence on English.
- •Grammatical changes in Old English.
- •Grammatical changes in Middle English.
- •Grammatical changes in Early Modern English.
- •Loss of case system in Old English.
- •English as a Germanic language. Periods in the history of English.
- •Main Germanic historical written monuments.
- •London dialect. Formation of National language.
- •Phonetic changes in Germanic languages.
- •Word Stress
- •Consonants. Proto-Germanic consonant shift
- •Phonetic changes in Old English.
- •Phonetic changes in Middle English.
- •Phonetic changes in Early New English. Great Vowel Shift.
- •Word-building in Old and Middle English periods.
- •Main sources of borrowings in Old English.
- •Main sources of borrowings in Middle English.
- •Main sources of borrowings in Modern English.
- •The Noun. Main categories, declensions.
- •Main causes of losing the case system in English.
- •The adjective.
- •Development of degrees of comparison of adjectives.
- •Personal pronouns.
- •Possessive pronouns.
- •Demonstrative and indefinite pronouns.
- •Development of the articles.
- •Strong verbs in the history of English.
- •The periods in the History of English.
- •Middle English Prosody
- •Latin Borrowings
- •Scandinavian Borrowings
- •French Borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Greek Borrowings
- •Semantic Borrowings
12.The English Basic Word Stock.
Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogenous. It consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words.
In fact native words comprise only 30% of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides, the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valency, they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and set expressions.
Borrowed words or loanwords are words taken from another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving language.
In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is practically indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough etymological analysis. The number of the borrowings in the vocabulary of the language and the role played by them is determined by the historical development of the nation speaking the language.
The most effective way of borrowing is direct borrowing from another language as the result of the contacts with other nations. Though, a word may be also borrowed indirectly not from the source language but through another language.
When analyzing borrowed words one should distinguish between two terms - source of borrowing and origin of borrowing. The first term is applied to the language from which the word was immediately borrowed and the second - to the language to which the word may be ultimately traced. The closer the two interacting languages are in structure the easier it is for words of one language to penetrate into the other.
There are different approaches to classifying the borrowed stock of words
The borrowed stock of words may be classified according to the nature of the borrowing itself as borrowing proper, loans translation and semantic loans.
Loan translation or calque is a phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation.
Semantic loan is the borrowing of the meaning for a word already existing in the English language.
Latin loans are classified into the subgroups.
Early Latin loans. Those are the words which came into English language through the languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin words denoting objects belonging to that civilization long before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons and Judes into Britain (e.g., cup, kitchen, mill, wine, port).
Later Latin borrowings. To this group belong the words which penetrated into English language in the sixth and seventh centuries, when the English people were converted to Christianity (e.g., priest, bishop, nun, and candle).
The third period of the Latin borrowings includes words which came into English due to two historical events: the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance. Some came to English language through French but some were borrowed directly from Latin (e.g., major, minor, intelligent, permanent).
The latest layer of Latin words. The words of this period are mainly abstract and scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular, vaccine, phenomenon, and vacuum).
The tendency of the English language to borrow extensively can be traced during the centuries. Thus, one can confidently claim that borrowing is one of the most productive sources of enrichment of the English vocabulary.