48. Etymological survey of English Vocabulary

The native element:.Indo-European element .Germanic element. English Proper element (no earlier than 5th c.A.D.)

The borrowed element: Celtic (5th – 6th c.A.D.). Latin, Scandinavian (8th – 11th c.A.D.), French (Norman borrowings: 11th–13th c.A.D., Parisian borrowings (Renaissance), Greek (Renaissance), Italian (Renaissance and later), Spanish (Renaissance and later), German, Indian, Russian and some other groups

The English Proper words appeared in the English vocabulary in the 5th century or later, that is, after the Germanic tribes migrated to the British Isles. The tribal languages of the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, by the time of their migration, contained only words of Indo-European and Germanic roots plus a certain number of the earliest Latin borrowings.

By the Indo-European element are meant words of roots common to all (or most) languages of the Indo-European group. The words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. The following groups can be identified.

1. Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter.

2. Parts of the human body: foot, nose, lip, heart.

3. Animals: cow, swine, goose.

4. Plants: tree, birch, corn.

5. Time of day: day, night.

6. Heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star.

7. Numerous adjectives: red, new, glad, sad.

8. The numerals from one to a hundred.

9. Pronouns - personal (except “they” which is a Scandinavian borrowing) and demonstrative.

10. Numerous verbs: be, stand, sit, eat, know.

The Germanic element represents words of roots common to all or most Germanic languages. Some of the main groups of Germanic words are the same as in the Indo-European element.

1. Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm, finger, bone.

2. Animals: bear, fox, calf.

3. Plants: oak, fir, grass.

4. Natural phenomena: rain, frost.

5. Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer.

6. Landscape features: sea, land.

7. Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench.

8. Sea-going vessels: boat, ship.

9. Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white, small, thick, high, old, good.

10. Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, answer, make, give, drink.

The English proper element is opposed to the first two groups. For not only it can be approximately dated, but these words have another distinctive feature: they are specifically English have no cognates in other languages whereas for Indo-European and Germanic words such cognates can always be found, as, for instance, for the following words of the Indo-European group.

Star: Germ. - Stern, Lat. - Stella, Gr. - aster.

Stand: Germ. – stehen, Lat. - stare, R. – стоять.

Here are some examples of English proper words: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always.

49. Main sources of borrowings

The Anglo-Saxon base

Germanic settler tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) entered Britain in AD 449 onwards and displaced the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants. If we can assume that the lexicon reflects the preoccupations of the language users, we would not be surprised that the original Anglo-Saxon lexicon is concerned about basic, down-to-earth matters. The Anglo-Saxons were originally not a settled group; there was a settled civilisation, but not very literate or sophisticated. Many of the words are still used today. Some are grammatical words (such as be, in, that) while others are lexical words (sing, live, go). Anglo-Saxon words are usually short and concrete. Although Anglo-Saxon lexemes form only a relatively small proportion of the modern lexicon, in any passage of English, there is a relatively high density of Anglo-Saxon-derived lexemes, and indeed the 100 most frequently used items are almost all Anglo-Saxon.

There are number of items that pertain to down-to-earth, everyday matters. Many of the words that we described as ‘core’ earlier seem to be from Anglo-Saxon. These words are of parts of the body (arm, bone, chest, ear, eye, foot, hand, heart), the natural environment (field, hedge, hill, land, meadow, wood), the domestic life (door, floor, home, house), the calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year), animals (cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, swine), common adjectives (black, dark, good, long, white, wide) and common verbs (become, do, eat, fly, go, help, kiss, live, love, say, see, sell, send, think). This is not to say that the Germanic settlers were without poetry, music and culture; there were also some heroic components to Anglo-Saxon vocabulary.

Celtic borrowings

When the Anglo-Saxons took control of Britain, the original Celts moved to the northern and western fringes of the island – which is why the only places where Celtic languages are spoken in Britain today are in the west (Welsh in Wales) and north (Scottish Gaelic in the Scottish Highlands). Celtic speakers seem to have been kept separate from the Anglo-Saxon speakers. The end result is a surprising small number – only a handful – of Celtic borrowings. Some of them are dialectal such as cumb (deep valley) or loch (lake). Reminders of Britain’s Celtic past are mainly in the form of Celtic-based placenames including river names such as Avon, ‘river’, Don, Exe, Severn and Thames. Town names include Dover, ‘water’, Eccles, ‘church’, Kent, Leeds, London and York. More recently, though, Celtic words were also introduced into English from Irish Gaelic – bog, brogue, blarney, clan, slogan, whisky.

Scandinavian borrowings

The Scandinavian influence on Britain can be thought of in terms of three episodes.

Firstly, we can think of the period 750–1016 when the Vikings (Scandinavians) began attacking the northern and eastern shores of Britain and settling in those parts of Britain.

Secondly, the period 1016–1050, where the conditions were more or less similar to the earlier period, only that King Alfred the Great had succeeded in uniting the Anglo-Saxons through actively promoting the English language (among other things). There were more borrowings, including cnif (knife) and diegan (die). Finally, the period 1050–1480. The French-speaking Normans took over Britain in 1066, and both the English and Scandinavians were given the same fate and were subdued by the Normans.

It is very difficult to pick out Scandinavian loan-words in English. This is because they seem to have the same quality and texture as Anglo-Saxon words. They are ordinary, everyday words, and quite often monosyllabic and include grammatical words (like the verb are (to be), or the pronouns their, them and they and some of the commonest words in English today like bag, dirt, fog, knife, flat, low, odd, ugly,want, trust, get, give, take, raise, smile and though. A good number of sc- or sk- words today are of Scandinavian origin (scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, skill, skin, skirt, sky).

French borrowings

There were three periods of French borrowings. The first, from about 1066 to 1250 represents the height of Norman power. The language spoken by the Normans, known as Norman French (different from Central or Parisian French) was the the language of the King’s court, the nobles’ castles and the courts of law. Norman French was therefore the language of honour, chivalry and justice. The second period, roughly from 1250 to 1400 represents the period of English-French bilingualism in individuals (not just in the nation). The number of French loanwords ballooned in this period So whilst the English already had kings, queens and earls, terms taken from French include count, countess, sire, madam, duke, marquis, dauphin, viscount, baron, chevalier, servant and master. Other domains that became enriched with French loanwords include:

• Government: parliament, chancellor, government, country, crown

• Finance: treasure, wage, poverty

• Law: attorney, plaintiff, larceny, fraud, jury, verdict

• War: battle, army, castle, tower, siege, banner

• Religion: miracle, charity, saint, pardon

• Morality: virtue, vice, gentle, patience, courage, mercy, courtesy, pity

• Recreation: falcon, covert, scent, chase, quarry

• Art, fashion, etc.: apparel, costume, gown, art, beauty, colour, image, design, cushion, tapestry

• Cuisine: stew, grill, roast, . . . (compare these with AS-based terms like bake), bacon, mutton, pork, veal, venison (compare these with AS-based terms like boar, calf, cow, deer, ox, sheep, swine)

• Household Relationships: uncle, aunt, nephew, cousin (form from OE: father, mother, brother and from Scandinavian sister)

 

The third period of French borrowings is from around 1400 onwards. The borrowings of the first two periods tend to be more elegant and sophisticated but yet not too far away from the core and several became quitenativised (dance, April, native, fine, line, punish, finish). These later borrowings were more, distant from the core, with attention being explicitly called to their sophisticated, well-bred, cultivated, even arty ‘French’ texture: notice the spellings and pronunciations of some of these items: ballet, tableau, statuesque, cliché, motif, format, trousseau, lingerie, soufflé, hors d’oeuvre, rouge, etiquette.

Latin borrowings

Latin, being the language of the Roman Empire, had already influenced the language of the Germanic tribes even before they set foot in Britain. Latin loanwords reflected the superior material culture of the Roman Empire, which had spread across Europe:  street, wall, candle, chalk, inch, pound, port, camp.

 The native Celts had also learnt some Latin, and some of these were borrowed by the Anglo-Saxons in Britain: sign, pearl, anchor, oil , chest, pear, lettuce.

 Latin was also the language of Christianity, and St Augustine arrived in Britain in AD 597 to christianise the nation. Terms in religion were borrowed: pope, bishop, monk, nun, cleric, demon, disciple, mass, priest, shrine. Christianity also brought with it learning: circul, not (note), paper, scol (school), epistol.

 Many Latin borrowings came in in the early MnE period. Sometimes, it is difficult to say whether the loan-words were direct borrowings from Latin or had come in through French (because, after all, Latin was also the language of learning among the French). One great motivation for the borrowings was the change in social order, where scientific and philosophical empiricism was beginning to be valued. Many of the new words are academic in nature therefore: affidavit, apparatus, caveat, corpuscle, compendium, equilibrium, equinox, formula, inertia, incubate, momentum, molecule, pendulum, premium, stimulus, subtract, vaccinate,vacuum. This resulted in the distinction between learned and popular vocabulary in English.

Greek borrowings

Greek was also a language of learning, and Latin itself borrowed words from Greek. Indeed the Latin alphabet is an adaptation of the Greek alphabet.

Many of the Greek loan-words were through other languages: through French – agony, aristocracy, enthusiasm, metaphor; through Latin – ambrosia, nectar, phenomenon, rhapsody. There were some general vocabulary items like fantasy, cathedral, charismatic, idiosyncrasy as well as more technical vocabulary like anatomy, barometer, microscope, homoeopathy.

 Other Greek elements used to coin new words include crypto-, hydro-, hyper-, hypo-, neo- and  stereo-.

Other borrowings

As a result of empire and trade contacts, the lexicon of English continued to acquire terms from other languages including the following:

• American: racoon, coyote, prairie, wigwam

• Australian: wallaby, kangaroo, boomerang

• Arabic: saffron, sequin, tamarind, alchemy, zenith

• Persian: naphtha, jasmine, chess, lilac

• Japanese: samurai, kimono

• regions: avatar, yoga, stupa, karma, curry, bangle, chop, catamaran, mandarin, ketchup, kowtow

 

Summary

1. The vocabulary of English has vastly increased in size during the last 1,500 years as language reflected historical events, social and cultural factors

2. Language contact and cultural domination has greatly influenced the word stock of English. Social and cultural changes are accordingly clearly reflected in changes in vocabulary.

3. From the social point of view, more interesting than the mere addition of new words is the change in the character of English word stock, from one which can be called Germanic to one that is also partly Romance – French and Latin, which have been associated with domains of power and prestige.

4. There have also been fundamental developments in the principles of word-formation (borrowing of prefixes and suffixes as well as words from French, Latin and Greek) and its social consequences.