3. Borrowed words in English

The larger part of English vocabulary consists of loan words. Borrowing is one of the ways of enriching the vocabulary. Words can be borrowed through all kinds of contacts between nations: wars, invasions, occupation, cultural and trade relations between countries. It is natural, therefore, in discussing the problem of loan words in any language to give a survey of certain historical facts from the life of the people speaking that language.

3.1. Latin borrowings

The earliest borrowings came into English from Latin. In the 1^st century B.C. the Germanic tribes lived in Central Europe, they spoke numerous Germanic languages which contained Indo-European and Common Germanic elements. As most of Europe was occupied by the Roman Empire at that time The Germanic tribes came into constant contacts with the Romans. There were both military conflicts and trade relations. The Germanic tribes were primitive cattle-breeders who knew next to nothing about land cultivation. The only products known to them were meat and milk. So, from the more civilized Romans they learnt how to make butter and cheese. Since there were no words to name the new foodstuffs in their tribal languages they had to use Latin words for them. The Latin names of some fruits and vegetables new to the Germanic tribes also entered their vocabulary: cherry, pear, plum, pea, pepper, peach, beet. The very word plant is also of Latin origin. Other Latin borrowings of this period are: cup, dish, mill, kitchen, wine, mule, pound, inch, mile, kettle.

As Britain was also part of the Roman Empire at that time, such words as street (strata via), wall (vallum), camp (campus), port (portus), chester (as in Manchester) (castra) remaine in the language.

Historically, all Latin loan words in English can be divided into 3 layers. The borrowings described above belong to the first layer.

The second stream of Latin borrowings came into English with the Christianization of the British Isles in the 7^th century A.D. The language of the Christian church was Latin and, naturally, the second layer of Latin borrowings consists mostly of different religious terms: pope, bishop, monk, nun, priest, altar, devil, creed, angel, psalm, candle, hymn, apostle, disciple. The priests were educated people who began to establish church schools and the words school, master, verse, scholar, chalk came into the language. Of words other than religious and educational terms we may name such as lion, copper, marble, gem, palm-tree, cap, spade, fork (вилы).

The third layer of Latin borrowings refers to the epoch of Renaissance (in England it came in the 16^th century, later than in Italy). This period was marked by the prospering of art, science and culture in all European countries. There also came a revival of interest in ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. The words that came into English during this period differ greatly from earlier Latin borrowings. Now the borrowing was done from literature and scientific works that were written in Latin and the loan words, in contrast to the previous two layers, were mostly abstract in meaning and many of them were scientific terms. There were many verbs and adjectives among them and comparatively few nouns: introduce, execute, collect, decorate, senior, solar, triangular, evident, cordial, obvious, union, relation, etc. The words of the first and second layers were mostly nouns and the borrowing was from oral everyday communication, not from written sources.