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12.3. Assimilation of loan words

Most LWs get adapted to the norms of the recipient language. The process of assimilation may develop to the point when the W foreign origin is unrecognisable. Dinner, cat, take, cup are not Eng. Distance, development are identified as LWs by their Fr suffixes; skin, sky by the initial sk; police, regime by the Fr stress on the last syllable.

LWs are adjusted in the phonetic, grammatical & semantic areas of the new language system.

The 3 stages of gradual phonetic assimilation of French LWs: different phonetic variants of garage: gə`rɑ:ʒ > gæ`rɑ:ʒ > `gæriʤ. The lasting nature of phonetic adaptation. The Norman borrowings have been long fully adapted to the phonetic system of Eng: table, plate, courage, chivalry, no phonetic traces of their Fr origin. Parisian borrowings, even of the 15th c., still sound Fr: regime, valise, matinee, cafe, ballet. Phonetic adaptation is not completed.

Grammatical adaptation: a complete change of the former paradigm of the LW. Пальто was borrowed from Fr in the early 19th c. & has not yet acquired the Rus. system of declension. Eng Renaissance borrowings datum (pl. data), phenomenon (pl. phenomena), criterion (pl. criteria). Earlier Lat borrowings cup, plum, street, wall were fully adapted to the grammatical system of Eng long ago.

Semantic adaptation: adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. Large was borrowed from Fr in the meaning of ‘wide’. It coincided with the Eng wide without adding any new shades to its meaning. Large entered another synonymic group with the general meaning of ‘big in size’. At 1st it was applied to objects of vast horizontal dimensions. Now it has approached big in frequency & meaning.

Gay was borrowed from Fr in meanings: noble of birth; bright, shining; multi-coloured. It developed the meaning ‘joyful, high-spirited’, a synonym of the native merry. There was no place in the vocabulary for the former meanings of gay’; the group with the general meaning of ‘high spirits’ lacked certain shades supplied by gay.

Nice was a Fr borrowing meaning ‘silly’. The meaning of ‘foolish’ was not wanted in the vocabulary → nice had to look for a gap in another semantic field.

12.4. Etymological doublets and triplets

Shirt & skirt etymologically descend from the same root. Shirt is a native W; skirt is a Scand. LW. Their phonemic shape is different, yet there is a certain resemblance which reflects their common origin. Their meanings are different but easily associated: articles of clothing. Ws originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonemic shape & meaning are etymological doublets.

They enter the vocabulary by different routes: 1) a native & a borrowed W: shrew ‘мегера’ (E) :: screw (Sc); 2) 2 borrowings from different languages historically descended from the same root: senior (Lat) :: sir (Fr), canal (Lat) :: channel (Fr), captain (Lat) :: chieftan (Fr); 3) borrowed from the same language twice, but in different periods: corpse [ko:ps] (Norm. Fr) :: corps [ko:] (Par. Fr), travel (Norm. Fr) :: travail (Par. Fr), cavalry (Norm. Fr) :: chivalry (Par. Fr), gaol (Norm. Fr) :: jail (Par. Fr); 4) a shortened W & the one from which it was derived: history :: story, fantasy :: fancy, fanatic :: fan, defence :: fence, courtesy :: curtsy, shadow :: shade.

Etymological triplets occur rarer: hospital (Lat) :: hostel (Norm. Fr) :: hotel (Par. Fr), to capture (Lat) :: to catch (Norm. Fr) :: to chase (Par. Fr).