Lecture 9 – Word stock of Old and Middle English

1. Word stock of Old English.

2. Ways of developing the vocabulary.

3. Rise of English language.

4. London dialect.

1. According to some rough counts OE vocabulary had between 23 000 and 24 000 lexical units. About only 15% of them survived in Modern English. The OE vocabulary is mainly homogeneous. Loan-words are an insignificant part of it. Among native words we can distinguish the following layers:

1. Common Indo-European words, which were inherited from the Indo-European parent language. For example:

Semantic fields:

• family relations (father, mother, daughter, brother, etc. (except aunt, uncle – words of the Germanic origin));

• parts of human body (eye, nose, heart, arm, etc.);

• natural phenomena, plants, animals (tree, cow, water, sun, wind, etc.).

Parts of speech:

• nouns (eye, brother, etc.);

• verbs (basic activities) (to be, can, may, to know, to eat, to stand, to sit, etc.);

• adjectives (essential qualities) (new, full, red, right, young, long, etc.);

• pronouns (personal and demonstrative) (I, my, this, that, those, these, etc.);

• numerals (most of them) (1-10, 100, 1000, etc.);

• prepositions (for, at, of, to, etc.).

2. Common Germanic words – the part of the vocabulary that was shared by most Germanic languages. These words never occurred outside the Germanic group of languages. This layer was smaller than the IE layer.

Semantic fields:

• nature, plants, animals (earth, fox, sheep, sand, etc.);

• sea (starve, sea, etc.);

• everyday life (hand, sing, find, make, etc.).

Parts of speech:

• nouns (horse, rain, ship, bridge, life, hunger, ground, death, winter, evil, etc.);

• verbs (to like, to drink, to bake, to buy, to find, to fall, to fly, to make, etc.);

• adjectives (broad, sick, true, dead, deaf, open, clean, bitter, etc.);

• pronouns (such, self, all, etc.);

• adverbs (often, again, forward, near, etc.).

3. Specifically English words, not found in any other language. They are very few and are mainly derivatives and compounds (e.g. fisher, understand, woman, etc.).

2. The OE vocabulary, like that of any other language, develops in two ways: (1) by forming new words from elements existing in the language, (2) by taking over words from other languages. In OE the first of these is by far more important.

Word-building. There are three main types of word- building in OE:

1. Morphological word-building that is creating new words by means of morphological elements.

2. Syntactical word-building that is building new words from syntactical groups.

3. Semantic word-building that is building new words by using existing words in new meanings.

Morphological word-building is subdivided into two types: affixation (suffixes and prefixes) and composition.

Suffixes play a rather important part in OE. We shall consider OE suffixes, grouping them according to the parts of speech which they derive:

- Substantive suffixes.

• Suffixes of agent nouns (-ere (fiscere ‘fisher’), -areis (laisareis ‘teacher’), (-end (frēond (friend)), -estre (feminine) (bæcestre (female baker)),- in3 (cynin3 ‘king’);

• Suffixes of abstract nouns (-þ, -uþ, -oþ (trëowþ ‘truth’, fiscoþ ‘fishing’), -un3, -in3 (rædin3 ‘reading’), -t (OE siht (sight)), -þu (OE lengþu length), -nes/nis (beorhtnes brightness, blindnis blindness), etc.);

- Adjectival suffixes. (-en (3ylden ‘golden’), -i3 (hāli3 holy), -isc (folcisc popular), -ede (hōcede hooked), -sum (OE lan3sum lasting) etc.);

- Verb suffixes. -læc- (nëälæcan approach), -ett- (bliccettan sparkle).

The most important feature of OE suffixation is the growth of new suffixes from root-morpheme.

1. New suffixes derived from noun root-morphemes (-dōm (frēodōm freedom), -hād (cīldhā childhood), -lāc (wedlāc wedlock), -scipe (frēondscipe frendship);

2. New suffixes derived from adjective root-morphemes (-lic (woruldlic worldly), -full (carfull careful), -lēas (slǽplēas sleepless).

Prefixes.

• Prefixes with negative meaning (mis- (mislïcian displease), un- (uncuþ unknown), wan- (wanhäl unwell).

• Other prefixes (be- (be3än go around, ‘adore’, beþencan think over), for- (fordön destroy), 3e- (3emynd mind, 3esëon see), of- (ofslëan kill, oftëon take away) etc).

Often prefixes modified lexical meaning, and there were grammatical prefixes, for example to build participle II (sitten (to sit) – 3esett (sat).

Composition was widely used in OE. There are compound substantives, adjectives, and, in lesser number, verbs.

Compound substantives may be formed by joining:

(1) “Noun + Noun”: evening time, goldsmith;

(2) “Adjective + Noun”: quicksilver.

Compound adjectives may be formed by joining:

(1) “Noun + Adjective”: satiated with wine;

(2) “Adjective + Adjective”: widely known;

(3) “Adjective + Noun”: happy- hearted, glad- minded.

Loan-words or borrowings are the words from other languages. It is also a way to develop the language.

Old English has only words from two sources-from Latin and Celtic languages. Some words taken over from Latin had been borrowed by Latin from Greek.

Celtic. Celtic language had a marginal influence on the English vocabulary. Some Celtic elements have been preserved in geographical names.

Semantic areas:

• common nouns (bin, cross, cradle, etc.) – most of them died out, some survived only in dialects;

• place names and names of waterways: Kent, London, York, etc.; Ouse, Avon, Evan, Thames, Dover – all with the meaning “water”;

- comb (“deep valley”) – Duncombe, Winchcombe, etc.;

- torr (“high rock”) – Torr, Torcross, etc.;

- llan (“church”) – Llandoff, Llanelly, etc.;

- pill (“creek”) – Pylle, Huntspill, etc.

Latin. In OE period these borrowings may be classified into two layers: (1) the oldest layer words taken over either directly from the Romans before the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain, or from the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, (2) the second layer: words concerning religion and the church, taken over after the introduction of Christianity, which began in 597; these words belong to the 7th century.

First Layer. Here belong, on the one hand of objects of material culture, and on the other, names of products which the Anglo-Saxons bought from Roman merchants.

Semantic areas:

• trade (trade, deal, chest, flask, etc.);

• building (chalk, file, copper, etc.);

• domestic life (dish, kettle, kitchen, pepper, etc.);

• military affairs (wall, street, pile, etc.);

• place names:

- castra (“castle”) (Chester, Lancaster, etc.);

- wich (“village”) (Norwich, Woolwich, etc.);

- port (“port“) (Bridport, Devonport, etc.).

Second Layer. The second layer consists of words which directly or indirectly belong to the sphere of religion, church and learning. When Christianity was introduced in England the Latin language came to be used as language of the church.

Semantic areas:

• religion (angel, hymn, idol, pope, psalm devil, monk; from Greek through Latin – anthem, bishop, candle, apostle, etc.);

• learning (teacher, school, scholar, master, verse, accent, grammar, etc.);

• everyday life (plant, pine, radish, cap, sock, etc.).

Vocabulary developed in ME period both by internal processes and by borrowing words and word-building morphemes from other languages.

Latin. Third Layer. Latin words were borrowed in all historical periods. In the age of Renaissance there was a new wave of Latin and Greek borrowings. In the 16^th – 17^th centuries Latin was the main language of philosophy and science. In the sphere of internal development we may note deriving new words by means of affixation by Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes.

Latin	Greek
abstract concepts (anticipate, exact, exaggerate, explain, fact, dislocate, accommodation, etc. )	theatre (drama, episode, scene, theatre, etc.)
	literature (anapest, climax, epilogue, rhythm, etc. )
	rhetoric (dialogue, metaphor, etc.)
affixes de- (demolish, destroy, etc.), ex- (extract, , explore, explain, etc.), re- (reread, retell, retry, etc.), -ate (locate, excavate, etc.), -ent (apparent, present, turbulent, etc.), -ct (correct, erect, etc.)	roots for creation of new words ( )
	affixes -ism (humanism, mechanism, aphorism, etc.), -ist (protagonist, terrorist, cyclist, etc.), anti- (antibody, antidote, antibiotic, etc.), di- (digest, diverse, etc.), neo- (neo-realism, neo-conservatism, etc.)

Many of these borrowings formed a base for international terminology and increase a number of synonyms in English language.

In ME period the borrowing were mainly from Scandinavian and French languages.

Basis for Comparison	Scandinavian Borrowings	French Borrowings
Time	since the 9th c. (Scandinavian Invasion)	since the 11th c. (Norman Conquest)
Number	1 000	10 000
Area	Scandinavian borrowings came to English from Northern and North-Eastern Dialects	French borrowings started to penetrate from the South and spread northwards.
Ways of Borrowing	Scandinavian borrowings penetrated only through oral speech. They were just raiders.	French borrowings penetrated through oral and written speech and at first were adopted only by the high strata of the society.
Assimilation of Borrowings	Scandinavian borrowings were easier to assimilate as far as the Scandinavian Dialects as well as Old English Dialects were Germanic dialects. So the languages were very similar and the assimilation was easy.	French borrowings were more difficult to assimilate as far as French was a Romance language while English was a Germanic one. So they two languages differed in some essential features (stress/accent, vocalic system, etc.) and the assimilation was hard.
Semantic Fields	everyday life (cake, raft, skirt, birth, dirt, fellow, root, window, to die, etc.); military (knife, fleet, etc.); legal matters (law, husband, etc.); some pronouns and conjunctions (they, their, them, both, though, etc.); essential notion (N scar, anger; V to call, to take, to want to kill, to cast, to scare; Adj happy, ill, weak, wrong; Pron same, both; Prep till, fro, etc.).	government and administration (assembly, authority, council, to govern, office, nation, etc.); feudal system (baron, countess, duke, feudal, noble, etc.); military (aid, arms, army, battle, defeat, force, etc.); law (crime, court, jury, justice, false, defendant, etc.); church (abbey, Bible, chapel, clergy, grace, etc.); art, architecture(chimney, palace, colour, figure, design, etc.); entertainment (pleasure, leasure, sport, dance, cards, etc.); address (madam, sir, mister, etc.).
Recognition in ModE	Scandinavian borrowings are hard to distinguish from the native words as far as Scandinavian Dialects belonged to the same language group (Germanic). The only distinctive Scandinavian feature in English: Scandinavian cluster [sk] (sky, skill, skin, skirt, etc.);	French borrowings are often recognisable due to some phonetic, word-building and spelling peculiarities: oi, oy (point, joy, toy, etc.); initial v (very, voice, etc.); -age (village, carriage, etc.); c as [s] (pierce, city, etc.).
Contributions	A lot of Scandinavian borrowings disappeared, some were left only in dialects; Some Scandinavian borrowings replaced the native words (they, take, call, etc.); Scandinavian borrowings enlarged the number of synonyms in English: native to blossom – Scan. borr. to bloom, native wish – Scan. borr. want, native heaven – Scan. borr. sky, etc.	French borrowings enlarged the English vocabulary (a lot of new words); Some French borrowings replaced the native words (very, river, easy,etc.); French borrowings enlarged the number of synonyms in English: native to hide – Fr. borr. To conceal, native wish – Fr. borr. desire, native smell – Fr. borr. odour, etc. Some French affixes were borrowed into English (com-, sub-, dis-, -ment, -ish, -able, etc.).

Etymological Doublets. Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As a 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: