Lecture 12. Native words versus loan words (2 hrs)

Objective. To inform the students of the origin of English words; to raise the students’ awareness of the process of assimilation of loan words; to develop cognitive skills of analyzing & summarizing the information, distinguishing between major & minor aspects, categorizing & estimating relevant facts.

Plan

1. The origin of English words

2. Etymological structure of the English vocabulary

3. Assimilation of loan words

4. Etymological doublets and triplets

5. International words

12.1. The origin of English words

English vocabulary (one of the most extensive) contains an immense number of Ws of foreign origin. Explanation → in the history of the language closely connected with the history of the nation. A borrowing / loan-word (LW) is W which came into the vocabulary of 1 language from another & was assimilated by the new language.

1^st c. ВС. Most of the present-day Europe is occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of Europe are Germanic tribes, primitive cattle-breeders knowing almost nothing about land cultivation. Their tribal languages contain only Indo-European & Germanic elements.

After a number of wars the Germanic tribes & the Romans come into peaceful contact. Trade is carried on, the Germanic people gain knowledge of new things. They knew only meat & milk. From the Romans they learned how to make butter & cheese → the Lat Ws to name them (butyrum, caseus). New fruits & vegetables: cherry (cerasum), pear (pirum), plum (prunus), pea (pisum), beet (beta), pepper (piper); plant (planta). Besides: cup (cuppa), kitchen (coquina), mill (molina), port (portus), wine (vinum). These Latin Ws – the earliest group of LWs in the future Engl language later built on the basis of the Germanic tribal languages.

5^th c. Several of the Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) migrated to the British Isles. The Celts gradually yielded most of their territory & retreated to the North & South-West (Scotland, Wales & Cornwall). The conquerors assimilated a number of Celtic Ws (Mod.E. bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle), place names, names of rivers, hills: Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux from Celtic Ws meaning ‘river’ & ‘water’. London originates from Celtic Llyn + dun (llyn is a Celtic W for ‘river’; dun ‘a fortified hill’ → fortress on the hill over the river.

Some Lat Ws entered the Anglo-Saxon languages through Celtic: street (Lat. strata via), wall (Lat. vallum).

7^th c., Christianisation of England. Lat was the official language of the Chr. church → a period of borrowings from church Lat indicating persons, objects & ideas associated with church & religious rituals: priest (presbyter), bishop (episcopus), monk (monachus), nun (nonna), candle (candela). Educational terms, the 1^st schools were church schools, the 1^st teachers priests & monks: school (Lat. schola, of Gr origin), scholar (scholar(-is) & magister (magister).

Late 8^th c. – mid. 11^th c. Scandin. invasions → early Scandin. borrowings: call, take, cast, die, law, husband (hus + bondi, inhabitant of the house), window (vindauga, the eye of the wind), ill, loose, low, weak. Some Ws of this group are recognisable by the initial sk-: sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt.

Certain Eng Ws changed their meanings under the influence of Scand. Ws of the same root: the OE bread ‘piece’ acquired its modern meaning by association with the Scand. brand. The ОЕ dream (joy) assimilated the meaning of the Scandinavian draumr (cf. the Germ. Traum ‘dream’ & the R. дрёма).

1066, the Battle of Hastings, the Norman Conquest. England is a bilingual country. Norman Fr. borrowings: administrative: state, government, parliament, council, power; legal: court, judge, justice, crime, prison; military: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy; educational: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil; everyday life: table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle.

The Renaissance Period: significant developments in science, art, culture; a new interest in Greece & Rome → Lat & Gr borrowings. In contrast to the earliest Latin LWs, the Renaissance ones were mostly abstract Ws: major, minor, filial, moderate, intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create. Scientific & artistic terms: datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music (borrowed into Eng from Lat, had earlier come into Lat from Gr). Gr Renaissance borrowings: atom, cycle, ethics, aesthete. Phenomenon, philosophy, method, music. The most significant new Ws, entering the Eng vocabulary from other European languages, were Fr borrowings from the Parisian dialect (Parisian borrowings): regime, routine, police, machine, ballet, matinee, scene, technique, bourgeois. From Ital: piano, violin, opera, alarm, colonel.

Structural features of LWs enable to identify the source language. The initial sk – Scand. origin.