LECTURE 6. OLD ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Language is first and foremost a means of

transmitting ideas and information, its

study is the branch of the study of the

signs and objects they symbolize. (...)

Language is also a form of social

behaviour.

(J. Whatmough)

AIMS:

– to identify the Celtic influence on Old Germanic, Old English, and later English;

– to explore the Latin influence on Old English;

– to figure out evidence for extensive Scandinavian

– influence during the Old English period

– to understand the processes of word-building in Old English

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

Introduction

1. General Overview of the Old English Vocabulary

2. Native Words

3. Foreign Element in the Old English Vocabulary

Celtic Loans

Latin Loans

Scandinavian Influence

4. Word-Formation in Old English

Word Structure

Ways of Word-Formation: word-derivation, and word-composition

5. Stylistic Stratification of the Old English Vocabulary

Conclusion

Key-Terms to Know

Lexicon

etymological layer

native words

common IE words

common Germanic words

specifically Old English words

lexical invasions

loans

borrowings

word-formation

word-derivation

word-composition

LITERATURE:

Obligatory:

1

David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of The English Language.—

Cambridge University Press .—1994.—PP.22-27

Elly van Gelderen. A History of the English Language. – John Benjamins

Publishing Company.—Amsterdam/Philadelphia.—2006.—PP.90-99

Valery V. Mykhailenko. Paradigmatics in the Evolution of English. - Chernivtsi, -

1999. PP 116-131

T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English. - Moscow, 1983. - PP. 131-148

L.Verba. History of the English language. - Vinnitsa, 2004. - PP. 90-101

Additional

Аракин В. Д. История английского языка. - М., 1985. - C. 92-102

Vocabulary is the Everest (Crystal 1999:117) of a language. There is no

larger task than to look for the order among the hundreds of words which comprise

the lexicon.

The term lexicon is known in English from the early 17th century, when it

referred to a book containing a selection of a language’s words and meanings,

arranged in alphabetical order. The term itself comes from Greek lexis “word”.

To study the lexicon of Old English, accordingly, is to study all aspects of

the vocabulary of the language—how words are formed, how they have developed

over time, how they are used now, how they relate in meaning to each other.

In this lecture we will discuss the influence of different languages on

English, i.e.

Celtic, Latin, and Scandinavian, we will present etymological layers of

native OE words, and we will deal with types of word-formation in Old English.

1. General Overview of the Old English Vocabulary

The full word-stock of the OE vocabulary is not known to present-day

scholars. The historical records of English do not go so far back as this because the

oldest written texts in the English language (in Anglo-Saxon) date from about 700

and are thus removed by about three centuries from the beginnings of the language.

Despite the gaps in the accessible data, philological studies (Crystal:1994;

Gelderen:2006; Mykhailenko:1999; Rastorguyeva:1983) have given us a fairly

complete outline of the OE vocabulary as regards its etymology, word structure,

word-building and stylistic differentiation.

The OE vocabulary was almost purely Germanic; except for a small number

of borrowings, it consisted of native words inherited from PG or formed from

native roots and affixes. The importance of this purely Germanic basis is often

overlooked, largely, because of the large number of foreign words incorporated in

the vocabulary. Many studies of the English language give undue prominence to

the foreign element, thus leaving an incorrect impression of the foundation of the

language. Some foreign scholars (Smith: 1922; Bradley: 1931) assumed that the

development of English was mainly due to borrowings from foreign sources.

But an examination of actual usage shows how important the native words

are, and they are still at the core of the language. They stand for fundamental

2

things dealing with everyday objects and things. The native stock includes modal

verbs, most verbs of the strong conjugation, pronouns, most numerals, prepositions

and conjunctions.

2. Native words

It has been customary to subdivide the native OE words into a number of

etymological layers. The three main layers in the native OE words are:

1) common IE words,

2) Common Germanic words,

3) specifically OE words.

1. Words belonging to the common ie layer constitute the oldest part of the

OE vocabulary. They go back to the days of the IE parent-language before its

extension over the wide territories of Europe and Asia and before the appearance

of the Germanic group.

Among these words we find names of some natural phenomena, plants and

animals, agricultural terms, names of parts of the human body, terms of kinship,

etc.; verbs belonging to this layer denote the basic activities of man; adjectives

indicate the most essential qualities; this layer includes personal and demonstrative

pronouns and most numerals. Well-known examples of such words are terms of

kinship:

father (OE foeder); German—Vater; Greek—pater; Lat.—pater;

brother (OE broþor); German—Bruder ;Russian—брат; Ukrainian—брат;

Lat. – frater;

mother(OE modor); German—Mutter; Russian—мать; Ukrainian—мати;

Lat.—mater; Greek—meter;

daughter (OE dohtor); German—Tochter; Russian—дочь; Ukrainian—дочка;

Greek—thygater;

son (OE sunu) German—Sohn; Russian—сын; Ukrainian—син; Sanskrit—

sunu;

names for everyday objects and things and natural phenomena:

moon—(OE mona); German—Mond; Greek—mene;

night—(OE niht); German—Nacht; Russian—ночь; Ukrainian—ніч; Lat.—

nox;

Sanskrit—nakt;

tree (OE treo, treow); Russian—дерево; Ukrainian—дерево; Greek—drus-oak;

Sanskrit—dru forest;

water (OE woeter); German—Wasser; Russian—вода; Ukrainian—вода; Greek

— hydoe; Lat.—unda;

In the Indo-European stock we also find such English words as: bull, crow, cat,

fish, hare, hound, goose, mouse, wolf.

Here belong also quite a number of verbs: to bear, to come, to know, to lie, to

mow, to sit, to sow, to stand, to work, to tear, etc. (Амосова:1956).

Adjectives belonging to this part of the vocabulary may be illustrated by such

as:

3

hard, light, quick, right, red, slow, raw, thin, white.

Most numerals in some Indo-European languages are of the same origin.

2. Words of common Germanic stock, i. e. words having their parallels in

German, Gothic, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic, do not occur outside the group.

These words constitute an important distinctive mark of the Germanic languages at

the lexical level. This layer is certainly smaller than the layer of common IE words.

The ratio between specifically Germanic and common IE words in the Germanic

languages was estimated by 19th c. scholars as 1:2; since then it has been

discovered that many more Germanic words have parallels outside the group and

should be regarded as common IE (Rastorguyeva 1983:132).

Common Germanic words originated in the common period of Germanic

history, i.e. in PG when the Teutonic tribes lived close together. Semantically these

words are connected with nature, with the sea and everyday life. Old English

examples of this layer are given together with parallels from other Old Germanic

languages.

Words of Common Germanic Stock

OE OHG Gt O Icel NE

hand hant handus hợnd hand

sand sant — sandr sand

eorþe erda airþa jợrð earth

singan singan siggwan singva sing

findan findan finþan finna find

grēne gruoni — grǽn green

steorfan sterban — — starve

scrēap scâf — — sheep

fox fuhs — — fox

macian mahhon — — make

hūs hûs hus hús house

drincan trinkan drigkan drekka drink

land lant land land land

sǽ sēo saiws sǽr sea

wisdōm wístuom — vísdómr wisdom