Lexicology of the English Language
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Latin borrowings.
Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are such words as: street, port, wall etc. Many Latin and Greek words came into English during the Adoption of Christianity in the 6-th century. At this time the Latin alphabet was borrowed which ousted the Runic alphabet. These borrowings are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong Latin words: alter, cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem.
Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English
period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific
words because Latin was the language of science at the time. These words
were not used as frequently as the words of the Old English period, therefore some of them were partly assimilated grammatically, e.g. formula
- formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, minimum, maximum, veto etc.
Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. Mostly
they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes. There are
quite a lot of them in medicine (appendicitis, aspirin), in chemistry
(acid, valency, alkali), in technique (engine, antenna, biplane, airdrome), in politics (socialism, militarism), names of sciences (zoology, physics) .
In philology most of terms are of Greek origin (homonym, archaism, lexicography).
French borrowings
The influence of French on the English spelling.
The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them came
into English during the Norman conquest. French influenced not only the
vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents were written
by French scribes as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the
ruling class was French. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin
alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations
of letters, e.g. «v» was introduced for the voiced consonant /v/ instead of
«f» in the intervocal position /lufian - love/, the digraph «ch» was
introduced to denote the sound /ch/ instead of the letter «c» / chest/
before front vowels where it had been palatalized, the digraph «sh» was
introduced instead of the combination «sc» to denote the sound /sh/ /ship/, the digraph «th» was introduced instead of the Runic letters «0» and « »
/this, thing/, the letter «y» was introduced instead of the Runic letter
«3» to denote the sound /j/ /yet/, the digraph «qu» substituted the
combination «cw» to denote the combination of sounds /kw/ /queen/, the
digraph «ou» was introduced to denote the sound /u:/ /house/ (The sound
/u:/ was later on diphthongized and is pronounced /au/ in native words and
fully assimilated borrowings). As it was difficult for French scribes to
copy English texts they substituted the letter «u» before «v», «m», «n» and
the digraph «th» by the letter «o» to escape the combination of many
vertical lines /«sunu» - «son», luvu» - «love»/.
Borrowing of French words.
There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings: a) words relating to government : administer, empire, state, government; b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle; c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barrister; d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery; e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl ; f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast, to stew.
Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through
French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not
completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these
borrowings: a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville; b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre; c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau; d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.
Italian borrowings.
Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many
Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into
English in the 14-th century, it was the word «bank» /from the Italian
«banko» - «bench»/. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the
streets on benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their
benches, it was called «banco rotta» from which the English word «bankrupt»
originated. In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed :
volcano, granite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were
borrowed: manifesto, bulletin.
But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo-
European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian : alto, baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, opera, operette, libretto, piano, violin.
Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention : gazette, incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffitto
etc.
Spanish borrowings.
Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant.
There are the following semantic groups of them: a) trade terms: cargo, embargo; b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera, guitar; c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, tobbaco, cocoa, banana, ananas, apricot etc.
GERMANIC BORROWINGS
English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages, though their number is much less than borrowings from Romanic languages.
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 identical, e.g.
ON OE
Modern E syster sweoster
sister fiscr fisc fish felagi felawe
fellow
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/.
German borrowings.
There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them
have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt, bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words denoting
objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German: iceberg, lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten etc.
In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed:
Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber and many
others. After the Second World War the following words were borrowed:
Berufsverbot, Volkswagen etc.
Holland borrowings.
Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and
more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them
are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14-th century, such as:
freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others.
Besides two main groups of borrowings (Romanic and Germanic) there are also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak about Russian borrowings, borrowings from the language which belongs to Slavoninc languages.
Russian borrowings.
There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they borrowed
words from one language into the other. Among early Russian borrowings
there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rouble, copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to nature, such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.
There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English
through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik, moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed
in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist
etc.
After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian
connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were
borrowed into English, such as: collectivization. udarnik, Komsomol etc
and also translation loans, such as: shock worker, collective farm, five-
year plan etc.
One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with perestroika, such
as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc.
ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS
Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are called etymological doublets. In English there are some groups of them:
Latino-French doublets.
Latin English from Latin English from French uncia inch
ounce moneta mint
money camera camera
chamber
Franco-French doublets doublets borrowed from different dialects of French.
Norman Paris canal channel captain chieftain catch chaise
Scandinavian-English doublets
Scandinavian English skirt shirt scabby shabby
There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same
language during different historical periods, such as French doublets:
gentil - любезный, благородный, etymological doublets are: gentle - мягкий, вежливый and genteel - благородный. From the French word gallant
etymological doublets are : ‘gallant - храбрый and ga’llant - галантный, внимательный.
Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different
grammatical forms of the same word, e.g. the Comparative degree of Latin
«super» was «superior» which was borrowed into English with the meaning
«high in some quality or rank». The Superlative degree (Latin
«supremus»)in English «supreme» with the meaning «outstanding»,
«prominent». So «superior» and «supreme» are etymological doublets.
SEMASIOLOGY
The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called semasiology.
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