2.3. Word-stock

The vocabulary is changing quickly. Many new words are formed to express new notions, which are numerous.

Ways of enriching vocabulary:

1. Inner means (conversion: hand => to hand);

2. Outer means: the sources here are numberless, as English has not only direct, but also indirect (through books, later – TV, radio, internet) contacts with the entire world.

In the beginning of the Early New English period (15^th – 16^th century) – the epoch of the Renaissance – there appeared many borrowings from Greek, Italian, Latin.

In the 17^th century is the period of Restoration => borrowings came to the English language from French (a considerable number of these words being brought by Charles II and his court).

In the 17^th century the English appeared in North America => borrowings from the Indians’ languages were registered.

In the 18^th century the English appeared in India => borrowings from this source came to the English language (but these words are not frequent, for they denote some particular reality of India, example: curry).

In the 19^th century the British colonizers appeared in Australia and New Zealand => new borrowings follow (kangaroo, etc.)

At the end of the 19^th – beginning of the 20^th century the British appeared in Africa, coming to the regions formerly colonized by the Dutch => borrowings from Afrikaans and Dutch appeared.

Old English and Middle English Russian borrowings were scares – the contacts between the countries and their peoples were difficult. In New English there more borrowings: sable (very dark), astrakhan, mammoth; in the 20^th century – Soviet, kolkhoz, perestroika, etc.

Lecture 5.

List of principal questions:

1. OLD ENGLISH VOWELS

   1. Origin of Old English vowel phonemes

   2. Changes in Old English vowel phonemes

      1. Breaking

      2. Palatal mutation

      3. Effect of palatal mutation upon grammar and word-stock

2. OLD ENGLISH CONSANANTS

   1. Dependence of the quality of the consonant phoneme upon its environment in the word

   2. Grimm’s law, Verner’s law

Literature

1. R.V. Reznik, T.C. Sorokina, I.V. Reznik A History of the English language. M., 2003.

2. T.A. Rastorguyeva History of English. M., 1983.

3. А.И. Смирницкий Лекции по истории английского языка. М., 2000.

4. К. Бруннер История английского языка. Т.1 М., 2001.

5. И. Чахоян, Л. Иванова, Т. Беляева. История английского языка. СПб., 1998.

6. А.И. Смирницкий Древнеанглийский язык. М., 1955.

1. Old english vowels

1.0. There were the following vowel phonemes in Old English

Monophthongs diphthongs

a æ e i o u y ea eo

ā ǽ ē ī ō ū ý ēa ēo

As we see in Old English there existed an exact parallelism between long vowels and the corresponding short vowels. Nor only monophthongs but even diphthongs found their counterparts which differed from them not only in quality but also in quantity. Thus we may say that in the system of vowels both the quality and the quantity of the vowel was phonemic. All the diphthongs were falling diphthongs with the first element stronger than the second, the second element being more open than the first.

Examples:

Monophthongs diphthongs

ā – a: stān – dagas ēo – eo: cēosan – heorte

(choose) (heart)

ǽ - æ: dæd – dæg ēa – ea: cēas – eald

(chose) (old)

ō – o: gōd – god

(god) (good)

ī – i: wrītan – writen

(write) (written)