19. Borrowings. Types of borrowings

The term borrowing is used in linguistics to denote the process of adopting words from other languages and also result of this process. Orrowings come onto vocabulary in 2 ways: 1) as a result of the blending of two languages; 2)as a result of historical, military, ciltural, social & economic connections between nations. (Ex: the english language blended with the scandinavian languags and the norman dialect of the french language). Blending means that the 2 languages exist for a long time side by side and that fuse together. Besides blending with scandinavian & french english came into contact with many other languages, practically with all the languages of the world. The number of borrowed words from any givenlanguage depends on the time of borrowing and on the cultural level of the language borrower. (Ex: In old times english equired more borrowings than now, because it’s quite a developed language now. It borrowed more words from french than from scandinavian because the french stood on a higher cultural level than the dains).

Borrowing can be classified according to their sourse & time of borrowing as follows: 1)celtic borrowings; 2)latin borrowings; 3) scandinavian borrowings; 4)french borrowings; 5)other; 6)russian.

Celtic borrowings. Whem the anglo-saxons came to the british isles in the 5^th century of our era they met with tribes of celts whom they pushed away to the west and to the north. The cultural level of the tribes was lower than that of the anglo-saxons. That’s why celtic borrowings are not very numerous. They are 1)geographical names (aber – устье реки, avon – река, car - замок); 2)everyday words (cradle – колыбель, cross – крест, bard – поэт).

Latin borrowings. They are aquired in 3 periods. 1)when the anglo-saxon tribes were still on the continent. They borrowed a lot of words because the romans were on a higher cultural level (Ex: cup – кружка, dish, fork, kettle, cheese, butter, wine, camel); 2)In the 17^th century in connection with the introduction of Christianity on the british isles. Most of the words were of religious character (church, clark, god, monarch, pope, angel); 3)In the epoche of renassence (14-16) they are mainly distract words (basis, area, admit, educate, senior, junior, inferior, superior). The borrowings of the 1^st and 2^nd period are mostly simple colloquial words. The words of the 3^rd period are littero-bookish words. The number of Latin borrowings is very great. It constitute ¼ of the vocabulary.

Scandinavian borrowings. They belong to the 9^th-12^th centuries. Then the Danes conquerred england and settled there and mixed with the native people. The languages of both proples belong to the teutonic group of languages. Both peoples were of the same cultural level therefore Scandinavian borrowings were chefly synonims of anglo-saxon words. In the course of time some scandinavian words replaced the corresponding english words. (scan. take <= eng. neman; scan. sky <= eng. heaven; saga, die, ski, ball, lunch, sister, harbour). The influence of scandinavian borrowings on the english language was great as both languages belonged to the teutonic group, they had common roots => anglo-saxons & the danes could understand each other without paying much attention to the inflexions of words, and they began to drop them. Hense the analytical system began to develop.

French borrowings. They are the most numerous in english. Approximately 10000 words. Because the cultural development of the normans was much higher than that of the english. They borrowed words connected with: 1)feudal relations (feudal, baron, vassel, sir, madame); 2)state governing (government, court, justice, state, crown); 3)military matters(army,battle, military); 4)trades(merchant, money, value); 5)the life of aristicracy (pleasure, leasure, fashion, present); 6)religion(saint, pray, chaple); 7)words expressing a)family relations(parent, cousin, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece), b)names of professions (tailor, butcher, painter). Some english words changed their meaning because of French synonims (ox бык, beef говядина, pig поросенок, pork свинина).Of 2 synonims the english word is more concrete, the french is more abstracts (eng. work – fr. labour).

Borrowings from other languages. They are numrous: 1)greek (authograph, telephone, poetry, thetre, scene); 2)italian (piano, chello, sonata); 3)spanish (armada, don, guitar, cigar, tomato); 4)russian & sovietisms (20^th: sable соболь, astrakhan каракуль; tzarisms: tzar, starosta;geography: taiga, tundra).

Classification: 1)assimilated words, 2)foreign words, 3)international words. 1)assimilated words are those that constitute the foundation of the english language & are concidered native. All the words borrowed into english before the 17^th century are regarded as native. These words are very stable especially root words. They are preserved in the anguage to our days (say, busy). In the course of time they naturally suffered quantitative and qualitativ changes. Native words have undergone semantic changes, changing their meanings acquiring new shades of meaning or developing polisemy. Besides native words those which wee borrowed after the 7^th century and were assimilated also belong to assimilated words.2) The group of foreign words includes all the words which were borrowed in later periods and remained unassimilated (vis-a-vis, tete-a-tete); 3)are those borrowed from 1 of the european languages not only into english but also into several other languages (industry, sport, revilution).

The term borrowing is sometimes used in a wide essense. It includes the so called translation loans (кальки) & semantic borrowings. Translation loans are words & expressions formed from the material already in the language according to the structural patterns, characteristics of the given language, but under the influence of foreign words & expressions (it goes without saying, cela va sans dire). Semantic borrowings – the development of meaning in a word as a result of the influence of the related word in another language.

Causes of borrowings. Most borrowings enter the language together with the introduction of the objects & concepts that they denote. The number & the character of the borrowed words tell us of the social relations among peoples & the state of their culture. Itis for this reason that borrowings have often been called the mile stones (вехами) of history. There are also linguistic reasons for borrowings. The number & the character of borrowings depend mainly on historical conditions and the degree ofthe genetic and structural proximily (близость) of th languages concerned. The closer the languages are the greater is the influence. Thus under the influence of scandinavian languages which were closely related to old english some classes of words were borowed that couldn’t have been adopted from non-related or distantly-related languages (they-them-their).

Ways of borrowings. As is known borrowings enter a language in 2 ways: 1)through oral speech by personal contact between the people; 2)through written speech by indo\irect contact through book, e t c. Oral borrowings took place chefly in the earlier periods of history whereas in recent times written borrowing has gained importance. Words borrowed orally are usually short words & underwent more changes when they were adopted. Written borrowings preserve their spelling, they are often rather long and their assimilation is a long and complicated process. Role of borrowings as a mean of enriching the vocabulary of the english language barried in different periods of history. In old english very few words were borrowed but in the middle english period there was a great influx (приток). Since then borrowings have always been an important means of increasing the english vocabulary.