Роль латинских заимствований в английском языке

Latin borrowings - The old-Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxes and Gutes got to know Romans on the Continent before these tribes invaded the British Isles.

The earliest borrowings from Latin are: wine - vinum (the Germanic tribes could not make wine and bought it from the Romans); pound - pondo, inch - uncia. These tribes bred cattle, they drank ale, milk, but could not make cheese or butter; they learnt the art of cheese- and butter-making from Romans, thus, cheese and butter are borrowings from Latin. These tribes knew only apples, names of all other fruit are borrowed, so are the names of vegetables, even the word plant - Latin planta.

In Britain the Romans built good roads which they called strata via - street. The word wall also belongs here. With introduction of Christianity in the 7 c. many religious terms appeared in English: bishop, monk, priest, candle; monasterium - minster (Westminster — западный монастырь), school was borrowed at the same time.

he second influx of Latin borrowings was observed during the Renaissance (15-16 cc.). Numerous translations of ancient authors called forth a number of bookish words (verbs with the suffix -ate - create, accommodate, illustrate, participate; verbs, ending in -ct - act, elect, direct, protect; -ute - constitute, distribute; adjectives in -ent/-ant - decent, evident, important, private.

Различные типы заимствований. Ассимиляция заимствований

Borrowed words (or loan words) - are words the origin of which can be traced to some other language outside English irrespective of the period of adoption.

The way this or that word was borrowed:

1. through speech (by immediate contacts between the peoples)

2. through written speech (by indirect contact, through books)

Oral borrowing took place chiefly in the early periods of history (trough trade with Roman merchants, e.g. wine, cheese, butter, pepper).

Written borrowings preserve their spelling (communique - French), sometimes pronunciation. They are often rather long and literary.

Borrowed words can be classified according to the degree of assimilation:

1. Completely assimilated words: travel, sport.

2. Partially assimilated words: words that are not assimilated semantically, or grammatically, or phonetically (prestige, garage). We must take into consideration the date of penetration, the changes that a word undergoes. We must not forget about the fact that the newcomer may influence the English Vocabulary (people - French, it drove away the native word folk).

3. Unassimilated words - cafe, policeman, car, machine, garage. They are words that are easily recognized as foreign words. Some borrowed words are unrecognizable as adoptions - table, wine.

Reasons for the degree of assimilation. The degree of assimilation depends upon:

1. the time of borrowing.

2. frequency and sphere of usage (words that are rarely used in everyday speech retain their foreign peculiarities.

3. It depends upon the way of borrowing. As words borrowed orally are assimilated much more, through written - are assimilated less: phenomenon.