4. French borrowings, their influence on the English vocabulary.

1066. With the famous Battle of Hasting, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful not only in national, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bilingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this two-hundred-years period is immense: French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a brief list of example of Norman French borrowings.

• Administrative words: state, goverment, parliament, council, power.

• Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.

• Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy.

• Educational terms: pupil, lesso, library, science, pen, pencil.

Everyday life was not unaffected buy the powerful influence of French words, Numerous terms of everyday life were also borrowed from French in this period: e.g. table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle, etc.

According to different sources, nearly 30% of all English words have a French origin. This fact suggests that 80,000 words should appear in this list. However, this list does not include derivatives formed in English, but only the ones imported as such directly from French (for instance joy and joyous, but not joyful, joyfulness, nor partisanship, parenthood, …). It does not include either combinations of words of French origin with words of origin other than French (e.g. icecream, sunray, jellyfish, killjoy, lifeguard, passageway). It also excludes English-made combinations of words of French origin (e.g. grapefruit is made of grape + fruit but has been coined in English, layperson: lay + person, consider also mailorder, magpie, marketplace, petticoat, straitjacket).

The influence of the French language has also marked the domain of the arts: surrealism, impressionism, symbolism, art nouveau, gouache, collage, grisaille …; Architecture : aisle, arcade, arch, vault, belfry, arc-boutant, buttress, bay, estrade, facade, balustrade, terrace, lunette, niche, pavilion, pilaster, porte cochère ; Cuisine: petit four, soufflé, mille-feuille, croissant, pastry, gateau, baba au rhum, cream, caramel, custard, marmalade, meringue, clafoutis, flognarde, beef bourguignon, cassoulet, casserole, confit, gratin, mustard, mayonnaise, sauce, pâté, foie gras, terrine, navarin …

Other examples include color names (ecru, mauve, beige, carmine, maroon, blue, orange, violet, vermilion, turquoise, lilac, perse, scarlet) ; vegetables or fruits (courgette, aubergine, cabbage, carrot, nutmeg, quince, lemon, orange, apricot); months of the year (January, March, May, July, November, December).

5. Celtic and Scandinavian borrowings.

They are one of the most ancient groups of borrowings. Celts were the original inhabitants of modern Britain, before the migration of Germanic, tribes. Angles, Saxons, Jutes - these tribes migrated across the sea to the Britain. One of the Celtic tribes, Brits, gave the name to the whole country. During the confrontation with Germanic tribes, Celts yielded most of their territories. They retreated on the north and southwest.

• 1.Bald, glen, druid, bard, cradle, bin, brat, down.

• 2.Place means name of rivers, hills, originated from Celtic words: uisge, exe, esk, Aberdeen, aber, dun, Dundee, London

• 3.English proper names: Evan, Arthur

• 4.Some Latin words: street, wall

• 5.Later borrowings: flannel, clan, robber, wisky, Tory.

Scandinavian borrowings.

By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.

Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life, their cultural level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore there were many words in these languages which were almost identica.

However there were also many words in the two languages which were different, and some of them were borrowed into English, such nouns as: bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat, ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as : call, die, guess, get, give, scream and many others.

Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed which happens very seldom, such as: same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal forms with «th»: they, them, their. Scandinavian influenced the development of phrasal verbs, which did not exist in Old English, at the same time some prefixed verbs came out of usage, e.g. ofniman, beniman. Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in English /take off, give in etc.