5. The Latin borrowing of different periods & their historical background

The role of Latinwas very important due to such historic events asthe Roman occupation of Britain, the influence of the Roman civilization & the introduction of Christianity. That’s why Latin greatly influenced OE: its alphabet, the growth of writing & literature.

Latin words entered the E. language at different stages of OE history. Chronologically they can be divided into several layers:

1) The oldest layer wordswere borrowed into E. in the 1^stc. BC. Most of the territory known to us as now Europe was occupied by Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent are Germanic tribes. After a number of wars between Germanic tribes & the Romans, these 2 opposing peoples come into peaceful contact. Trade is carried. & the Germanic people get knowledge of some new & useful things. The first among them arenew things to eat. It is from the Romans that the Germanic tribes learn how to make butter & cheese. & as there are no words for these foodstuffs in their tribal languages, they are to use Latin words to name them.

It is also to the Romans that the Germanic tribes gain the knowledge of some new fruits & vegetables. & the Latin names of these fruits & vegetablesenter the language: cherry, pear, plum, pea, beet, plant.

Among other language borrowings of this period are: cup, kitchen, kettle, dish, pie

2) The second layerconsists of words, which directly or indirectly belong to the sphere ofreligion & church, & words connected with learning. This period of Latin influence began with the introduction of Christianity inthe late 6^th century& lasted to the end of OE. The total number of Latin loan-words in OE exceeds 500, this layer accounting for over 400 words. As Latin was the official language of the Christian Church, so Latin borrowings came from church Latin that time. & indicated persons, objects & ideas associated with church, religion & rituals.

e.g. priest, bishop, abbot, pope, monk, angle, c&le, devil.

After the introduction of Christianity many monastic schoolswere set up in Britain. The spread of education led to the wider use of Latin: teaching was conducted in Latin, or consisted of learning Latin.

e.g. school, scholar, magister

Also: accent, grammar, meter, notary, decline

A great number of miscellaneousborrowings came from Latin probably because they indicated new objects & new ideas, introduced into E. life together with their Latin names by those who had a good comm& of Latin: monks, priests, school-masters. Some of these scholarly words became part of everyday voc-ry. They belong todifferent semantic spheres:

names of trees & plants: elm, lily, pine, pear, mint, fennel, rose, plant.

of illnesses & words pertaining to medical treatment: cancer, fever, plaster.

names of animals: camel, elephant, tiger, mule.

names of clothes & household duties: cap, mat, sack, sock, silk.

names of foods: beet, oyster, radish.

The Latin impact on the OE vocabulary was not restricted to borrowing of words. There were also other aspects of influence. The most important of them is the appearance of the so-called “translation-loans” – words & phrases created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations. The earliest examples of translation-loans are names of the days of the week: Monday ═ day of the Moon, Tuesday ═ day of Mars, Wednesday ═ day of Mercury.

3) & again in the 16th-17th following the period of Renaissance, Latin became increasingly important as the language of learning & academic life

e.g. philosophy, music, phenomenon, to collect, to attract, to illustrate..