Celtic Borrowings

Celtic borrowings are of primary historical importance for English. When the Anglo-Saxons came to the British Isles in the 5^th century A.D. they met with the Celts or Britains – the native inhabitants of the British Isles whom they pushed away to the North and the West. The whole number of Celtic words in English whether borrowed directly or indirectly is 165 according to Walter Skeat’s counts: banner (булкадомашнегохлеба), bard, glad, clad, cradle, loch/lock (lake).

Celtic elements are mostly found in place names, e.g. aber (the mouth of the river) – Aberdeen; avon (a river) – Stratford-on-Avon; inch (an island) – Inchcape.

Greek Borrowings

Greek borrowings were usually adopted through Latin and French. Many Latin Christian terms were of Greek origin: abbot, bishop, school, Christ, monk; chair, police, policy, chronicle came to English from Greek through Latin and French.

The direct borrowing of the Greek words into English started only in the period of the Renaissance: literature owes the following terms – tragedy, comedy, drama… Greek elements, affixes and roots are widely used in English to create new terms: telephone, photography, telegramme etc.

Italian Borrowings

Italian borrowings are mostly musical terms: allegro, aria, finale, piano, opera, solo, sonata, soprano, trill, violin, macaroni, spaghetti, influenza, umbrella, manifest etc.

Spanish Borrowings

The Spanish element in English like the Italian is mainly modern, e.g. cigar, embargo, junta, mosquito etc. The following words were introduced through Spanish to Europe from America: coco, chilly, chocolate, tomato, potato, tobacco, canoeing, yucca etc.

Russian Borrowings

Russian borrowings may be subdivided into 2 principle groups:

• Borrowings that took place before 1917 such as: izba, ruble, kopeck, tsar, borzoi, Cossack etc.

• And borrowings after 1917. The so-called sovietisms: Bolshevik, soviet, Komsomol, udarnik; later – sputnik, lunnik; recent – perestroika, glasnost, Gorbotchov etc.

Translation Loans

Translation loans are words and expressions formed from the material already existing in the English language but according to patterns taken from another language by way of literal (буквальный) morpheme or word-for-word translation, e.g.: world outlook (мировоззрение) – from German Weltanschauung; class struggle – Klassenkampf; wall newspaper – stennaya gazeta (Russian), a slip of the tongue – lapsus lingua (Latin); pale-faced, pipe of piece, fire-water – from Indian. Some other translation loans from Russians are: old believer, cult of personality, candidate/doctor of science, white night, Red square, Winter Palace etc.

Semantic Borrowings

Semantic borrowings are the expansion of the semantic structure of a word under the influence of correlated foreign one. It’s the borrowing of a meaning from the semantic structure of the correlated foreign word, e.g.: the English word pioneer (explorer) under the influence of the new meaning of the correlated Russian word (пионер) developed one more meaning: a member of a young pioneer organization; brigade (an army unit) under the influence of the new meaning developed one more meaning – active social workers; norm=standard – norm developed one more meaning – “an amount of work”.

101. Celtic and Latin influence.

 We should find in the Old English vocabulary numerous instances of words that the Anglo- Saxons heard in the speech of the native population and adopted. For it is apparent that the Celts were by no means exterminated except in certain areas, and that in most of England large numbers of them were gradually assimilated into the new culture. The evidence of the place-names in this region lends support the Celtic influence.

5.  Such evidence as there is survives chiefly in place-names. The kingdom of Kent, for example, owes its name to the Celtic word Canti or Cantion, the meaning of which is unknown, while the two ancient Northumbrian kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia derive their designations from Celtic tribal names.

6.  Devonshire contains in the first element the tribal name Dumnonii, Cornwall means the ‘Cornubian Welsh’, and the former country Cumberland (now part of Cumbria) is the ‘land of the Cymry or Britons’.

7. Celtic Place-Names and Other Loanwords The name London itself, although the origin of the word is somewhat uncertain, most likely goes back to a Celtic designation. The first syllable of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Worceste r, Lichfield, and a score of other names of cities is traceable to a Celtic source, and the earlier name of Canterbury (Durovernum) is originally Celtic. But it is in the names of rivers and hills and places in proximity to these natural features that the greatest number of Celtic names survive. Thus the Thames is a Celtic river name, and various Celtic words for river or water are preserved in the names Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Dover, and Wye.

8. Celtic Place-Names and Other Loanwords Outside of place-names, however, the influence of Celtic upon the English language is almost negligible. Not more than a score of words in Old English can be traced with reasonable probability to a Celtic source. Within this small number it is possible to distinguish two groups: (1) those that the Anglo Saxons learned through everyday contact with the natives, and (2) those that were introduced by the Irish missionaries in the north. The former were transmitted orally and were of popular character; the latter were connected with religious activities and were more or less learned.

9. Celtic Place-Names and Other Loanwords As a result of their activity the words ancor (hermit), (magician), cine (a gathering of parchment leaves), cross, clugge (bell), gabolrind (compass), mind (diadem), and perhaps (history) and cursian (to curse), came into at least partial use in Old English.

 Latin was not the language of a conquered people. It was the language of a highly regarded civilization, one from which the Anglo-Saxons wanted to learn.

11.  Thus there occurred in Old English, as in most of the Germanic languages, a change known as i-umlaut. This change affected certain accented vowels and diphthongs (oe, and ) when they were followed in the next syllable by an or j. Under such circumstances oe and ă became ĕ, and became ā became and became The diphthongs became later Three Latin Influences on Old English

12.  The first Latin words to find their way into the English language owe their adoption to the early contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent. In general, if we are surprised at the number of words acquired from the Romans at so early a date by the Germanic tribes that came to England, we can see nevertheless that the words were such as they would be likely to borrow and such as reflect in a very reasonable way the relations that existed between the two peoples.

13.  It would be hardly too much to say that not five words outside of a few elements found in place-names can be really proved to owe their presence in English to the Roman occupation of Britain. It is probable that the use of Latin as a spoken language did not long survive the end of Roman rule in the island and that such vestiges as remained for a time were lost in the disorders that accompanied the Germanic invasions.

14.  At best, however, the Latin influence of the First Period remains much the slightest of all the influences that Old English owed to contact with Roman civilization. Latin through Celtic Transmission (Latin Influence of the First Period)

101. Phonetic changes in Germanic languages.

In ancient IE, prior to the separation of Germanic, there existed two ways of word accentuation: musical pitch and force stress (otherwise called dynamic, expiratory or breath stress). The position of the stress was movable and free, which means that it could fall on any syllable of the word – a root morpheme, an affix or an ending – and could be shifted both in form building and word-building. (cf. Russian: домом, дома, дома, etc.).

But these properties of the word accent were changed in PG. Force or expiratory stress became the only type of stress used. The stress was now fixed on the first syllable, which was usually the root of the word and sometimes the prefix; the other syllables – suffixes and endings – were unstressed. The stress could no longer move either in form-building or in word-building. This phenomenon has played an important role in the development of the Germanic languages, and especially in phonetic and morphological changes. Due to the difference in the force of articulation, the stressed and unstressed syllables underwent different changes: accented syllables were pronounced with great distinctness and precision, while unaccented became less distinct and were phonetically weakened. The differences between the sounds in stressed position were preserved and emphasised, whereas the contrasts between the unaccented sounds were weakened and lost. Since the stress was fixed on the root, the weakening and loss of sounds mainly affected the suffixes and grammatical endings. Many ending merged with the suffixes, were weakened and dropped. E.g. (the reconstructed word )PG *fiskaz Goth fisks Oicel fiscr OE fisc

 

The First or Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift (Grimm's Law)

 

Comparison with other languages within the IE family reveals regular correspondences between Germanic and non-Germanic consonants. It looks as if the Germanic consonants 'shifted' as compared with their non-Germanic counterparts. This phenomenon was first observed and later formulated in terms of phonetic law (1822) by (Rasmus Rask and Jacob Grimm. Hence its name- Grimm's Law. By Grimm's Law, which includes 3 acts, voiceless plosives (stops) developed in PG into voiceless fricatives (1 act); voiced aspirated plosives were shifted to pure voiced plosives or voiced fricatives; and voiced plosives changed into voiceless plosives (stops).

 

1 act	2nd act	3d act
p] ® [f] pater – fadar [t] ® [θ] tres – Þreis [ i:] [k] ® [h] cor(d) - heorte	[b] ® [p] слабый – slepan [d] ® [t] древо – treow [g] ® [k]горе - caru	[bh]® [b] bhrata – broðor [dh]® [d] vidhave –widve [gh]® [g] гость - Gast

 

[bh – b - - p – f ] [ dh – d - t- θ ] [ gh – g – k – h ]

 

The correspondences found between IE and Germanic consonants are interpreted in the following manner: the Germanic sounds are the result of a development of the original IE sounds caused by external and internal factors.

101. The phonetic system of Germanic languages.

Old German languages show differences in comparison with other European Lang on 3 main linguistic levels: grammatical, phonetic and lexical.

IN PHONETICS:

v accent (word stress) in IE was characterized by free and musical accent (fixed & unfixed) ; in PG accent became fixed on the root syllable and dynamic, strong (силовое); characteristics of musical accent disappeared in Gmc languages

Indo-European (Non-Germanic)	Proto-Germanic
1. free stress (movable, i.e. can appear in any part of a word (root, prefix, suffix));	1. fixed stress (can’t move either in form- or word-building and is usually placed on root or prefix);
2. pitch stress (musical)	2. dynamic stress (force, breath stress)
E.g.: русский	E.g.: German	English
б`елый	`Liebe	`white
белизн`а	`lieben	`whiteness
белов`атый	`lieberhaft	`whitish
бел`ить	ge`liebt	`whitewash

 

The Proto-Germanic type of stress led to the formation of the followingpeculiarities of the Germanic languages as compared to non-Germanic Indo-European languages:

a. phonetic – as a result of the fixed position of the stress the unstressed syllables were becoming weaker and weaker, they got less distinct and neutral sounds (such as “schwa”) appeared;

b. morphological – as a result of the fact that the stress was fixed on the root and the syllables following the root were always unstressed and weak, many Germanic languages began to lose suffixes and grammatical endings (all the vocalic endings) and became ANALYTICAL LANGUAGES.

101. i-umlaut (mutation) and lengthening of vowels.

Mutation –a change of one vowel to another one under the influence of a vowel in the following syllable.

Palatal mutation(or i-Umlaut) happened in the 6th -7th c.and was shared by all Old Germanic Languages, except Gothic. I-mutation is a change of root back vowels to front ones or root open vowels to closer ones under the influence of i/j in the next syllable.

Palatal mutation – fronting and raising of vowels under the influence of [i] and [j] in the following syllable (to approach the articulation of these two sounds). As a result of palatal mutation:

· [i] and [j] disappeared in the following syllable sometimes leading to the doubling of a consonant in this syllable;

· new vowels appeared in OE ([ie, y]) as a result of merging and splitting:

before palatal mutation	after palatal mutation	Gothic	OE
a à o à æ à	e	badi	bedd (bed)
a: à	æ:	dails	dælan (deal)
ŏ/ō à	ĕ/ē	mōtjan	mētan (meet)
ŭ/ū à	ŷ/ỹ(labialised) (new!)	fulljan	fyllan (fill)
ĕă/ēā à ĕŏ/ēō à	ĭě/īē (new!)	eald (early OE)	ieldra (late OE)

Traces of i-Umlaut in Modern English:

1. irregular Plural of nouns (man – men; tooth – teeth);

2. irregular verbs and adjectives (told ←tell; sold ←sell; old – elder);

3. word-formation with sound interchange (long – length; blood – bleed).

IN GRAMMAR:

A synthetic grammatical system (relationships between the parts of the sentence were shown by the forms of the words rather than by their position or by auxiliary words). In the early periods of history the grammatical forms were built by means of: sound interchanges, inflections and suppletion.

Suppletion (inherited from Indo-European) – the usage of 2 or more different roots as forms of one and the same word:

Part of Speech	Indo-European Non-Germanic Languages	Germanic Languages
Italian	русский	English	German
Personal Pronouns	io, mio, mi/me	я, меня, мне	I, my, mine, me	ich, mich, mir
Adjectives	buono, migliore, ottimo	хороший, лучше, лучший	good, better, best	gut, besser, bester
Some Verbs	essere, sono, e`, ero, saro`, etc.	есть, был, будет	be, is, are, am, was, were	sein, bin, ist, sind, war, gewesen, etc.

Inflections(inherited from Indo-European) – though in the Germanic languages inflections were simpler and shorter than in other Indo-European languages.

Let’s take the system of declensionsas an example.In PG it was well-developed but in the Old Germanic languages, due to the stress that was fixed on the root and the weakening of the end of a word as a result, the declensions started to disappear. While the nouns and adjectives still preserved stem-suffixes, they had declensions but once the stem suffixes started to weaken and disappear, the declensions were lost as well and the endings were simplified and got fewer:

Word Structure
PG	mak-oj-an	root + stem-suffix(word-deriv.)	+ gram. ending(form-marker)
Old Germanic Languages	mac-ian	stem(root melted with stem-suffix)	+ gram. ending

Sound Interchange –the usage of interchange of vowels and consonants for the purpose of word- and form-building (e.g.: English: bear – birth, build – built, tooth – teeth; German:gebären – Geburt)

Ablaut/Vowel Gradation – an independent vowel interchange, unconnected with any phonetic conditions (phonetic environment/surrounding) used to differentiate between grammatical forms of one and the same word. The Germanic ablaut was consistently used in building the principle forms of strong verbs.

Jacob Grimm has subdivided all the verbs into two groups according to the way they build their principle forms:

	Strong Verbs (irregular)	Weak Verbs (regular)
called so because they have preserved the richness of forms since the time of Proto-Germanic	called so because they have lost their old Proto-Germanic forms and acquired new ones
form-building	vowel interchange + gram. ending	suffix –d/t (a Germanic invention!!!)
E.g.	OE	reisan – rais – risum – risans	macian – macode - macod
	cepan – cepte - cept
ModE	rise – rose - risen	make – made – made
	keep – kept – kept

The most important innovation in Gmc was the emergence of the new types of verbs – “weak”, past tense with the dental suffix d: open – opened, work – worked.

101. Vowel changes in OE.

Sound changes, particularlyvowelchanges,took place in English at every period of history.

The development of vowels in Early OE consisted of the modification of separate vowels, and also of the modification of entire sets of vowels. All phonetic changes strictly conformed to the general pattern: the change begins with growing variation in pronunciation, which manifests itself in the appearance of numerous allophones, after the stage of increased variation some allophones prevail over the others and a replacement takes place.

Stressed vowels in OE underwent a number of considerable changes both independent and dependent. As a result of these changes the number of vowels in stressed position grew as compared with the PG vowel system.

Scheme 1

Changes of Stressed Vowels in OE

↓ ↓

Independent Changes Dependent Changes

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Development Development Accommodation Assimilation

of Monophthongs of Diphthongs / \ / \

Breaking Diphthongisation Palatal Mutation Fronting

The OE back vowels were more stable than the front ones. The OE front vowels underwent different changes very frequently. Especially the OE short front vowels changed very often.

1)Independent Changes.

The PG monophthongs and diphthongs underwent regular independent changes in Early OE: they took place in all phonetic conditions irrespective of environment.

The PG short [a] and the long [a:], which had arisen in West and North Germanic, underwent similar alterations in Early OE: they were fronted and, in the process of fronting they split into several sounds.

The principal regular direction of the change is the following: [a]>[æ] and [a:]>[æ:]. This type of changes is often referred to as the fronting or palatalisation of [a, a:]:

e.g. Gt þata OE þæt NE that

OHG dâr OE þǽr NE there

Sometimes the PG [a] and [a:] could change to other sounds: [a] > [o], [a:] > [o:]. But these directions can be interpreted as changes under the influence of the succeeding nasal.

e.g. Gt mann OE mon NE man

OHG mano OE mona NE moon

The short [a] from PG [a] was caused by a back vowel in the next syllable.

e.g. Gt magan OE maзan NE may

Scheme 2

Splitting of [a] and [a:] in Early OE

> æ independent >æ: independent

a { >o, a before a nasal a:{

>a before the syllable with a >o: before a nasal

As the result of the independent changes in OE the PG diphthongs* with the i-glide [ei, ai] were monophthongised into [i:] and [a:] respectively.

The diphthongs in - u [iu, eu, au] were reflected as long diphthongs [io:, eo:, ea:]

e.g. PG a+i > OE a: Gt ains OE ān NE one

i+u > OE io: Gt diups OE dēop, dīop NE deep

*Some scholars interpret these PG diphthongs [ei, ai, eu, au, ou] as sequence of two independent monophthongs. The process of fronting is considered to take place in the 5th c.

101. OE alphabets.

(ᴁ) can be considered the first difference between OE and PDE alphabet (æ) is used to express the sound (a) as in (sad). This letter is called (ash). So, (æ) comes second in OE alphabet after (A, a) As you pronounce it, you must notice that it is an open unrounded front vowel.  (Ƿ) is the second difference between OE and PDE alphabet. Today we have the letter (w) to indicate the sound (wa) but in Old English times this letter was used instead (Ƿ) as in (will). This letter is called (wynn) and comes after (U,u). To avoid confusion between (p,þ, and Ƿ), the letter (w) will be used instead.  (Ð ð) can be regarded as another difference between OE and PDE alphabet. (ð) is used to reflect the sound (th- in father). The letter is called "eth" and comes after (D,d) in place.  (Þ þ) is a fourth difference. It reflects the sound (th- in throw). This sound is called (thorn) and comes after the letter (T,t). What's interesting is that in late OE times, (th and th) were used interchangeably. So both represent either (th or th). If I want to write the word (this), for example, I can write it as (þis or ðis). This has nothing to do with pronunciation. It is the scripting. All three sounds (a, th, th) do exist in PDE, the difference is that OE actually used symbols for these sounds. So, they existed in their alphabet to represent unique sounds, instead of using the letter (a) for the sound "a" as in (sad) and "a" as in (father) or combining the letters (t+h) for (th- weather) or (th- thing). So (th) had its own letter, (th) had its own letter as so did (a). What about (w)? In both times it had its own letter but the letter (w) in OE is different from the letter (w) in PDE The Alphabet: A ᴁ B C D Ð E F G H I L M N O P R S T Þ U Ƿ X Y A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z So first we talked about the letters that OE had (a, th, th) Now let's note the letters that exist in PDE and did not in OE: (J, K, Q, V, Z) This again does not mean that OE did not have the sounds (J, K, Q, V, Z), they only did not have letters to represent them.

101. Vowel changes in Middle English.

The first lengthening of vowels took place as early as late Old English (IX century). All vowels which occurred before the combinations of consonants such as mb, nd, Id became long. Old English Middle English (New English) [i] > [i:]

climban climben climb

findan finden find

cild cild child

[u] > [u:] hund hound hound

The second lengthening of vowels took place in Middle English (XII—XIII century). The vowels [a], [o] and [e] were affected by the process. This change can be observed when the

given vowels are found in an open syllable.

— Shortening of vowels

All long vowels were shortened in Middle English if they are found before two consonants (XI century).

Through phonetic processes the lengthening and the shortening of vowels mentioned above left traces in grammar and wordstock.

Due to it vowel interchange developed in many cases

between:

— different forms of the same word;

— different words formed from the same root.

For instance:

Middle English [i:] — [i] child children

[e:] — [e] kepen but kept

[i:] — [i] wis wisdom

101. Vocalizationof R, appearance of sibilants in new positions.

In OE there were no affricates and no sibilants, except [s, z]. the new type of consonants developed from OE palatal plosives [k’, g’], which had split from the corresponding velar plosives [k] and [g], and also from the consonant cluster [sk’]. The three new phonemes which arose from these sources were [t∫], [dз] and [∫]. In Early ME they began to be indicated by special letters and digraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scribal tradition – ch, tch, g, dg, sh, ssh, sch. As a result of these changes – and also as a result of the vocalization of [γ] – the consonant system in Late ME was in some respects different from the OE system.

Palatal sonsonant finished palatalization: k-g, sk-∫ -sh. All palatal consonants disappeared. There was some dropping(сочетание) of consonants in initial position before sonorant. Hlof-lof, hlafa-lord. In Southern dialect –f- in initial position turn into –v-. Vocalization of -з- in the initial position before front vowel.з- formed new diphthong after front vowels. з – j –initial, з – I – final. (dæз –day [ai], weз – wei [ei], fæзer –fair [ai] –middle position)

101. Loss of consonants.

1. OE /j/, when appearing in the prefix spelled ge-, was reduced to ME /I/.

2. Final consonants following the vowel of an unstressed syllable were sometimes lost in ME.

i. OE /c</. E.g., OE ic "I" /ic</ > ME I /i/; OE suffix -lic "-ly" /li:c</ > ME -ly /li/.

ii. OE /n/, when in final position following an unstressed vowel, was lost. This occurred, for example, in various positions in the paradigms of verbs and pronouns, and in the indefinite article an (to produce a).

3. Certain consonants were lost in consonant clusters.

i. ME /b/, when in final position after /m/, was lost in pronunciation but not in spelling ( e.g., climb). Medial /mb/ was retained.

ii. OE /h/ was lost in the clusters /hl/, /hn/, and /hr/. In some dialects, /h/ was lost before /w/; but in some words, PDE retains /hw/, spelled wh.

iii. ME /l/ was sometimes lost in the vicinity of /c</.

iv. ME /v/ was sometimes lost before a consonant or vowel + consonant.

v. ME /w/ was sometimes lost after /s/ or /t/ (though the spelling is sometimes retained, as in sword).

4. OE /h/ was sometimes lost in unstressed positions. For example, OE hit "it" /hit/ > ME it /It/.

101. Grimm’s Law and its consequences.

Grimm’s law: The first Germanic consonant shifts took place in the V-II cent. BC. Jacobs Grimm’s Law in 1822. According to Grimm, he classified consonant correspondences between indoeuropean and germanic stops (plosives).

There are 3 acts of this law:

1. IE voiceless plosives p, t, k correspond to Gmc voiceless fricatives f, Ө, h. Eg: пламя – flame, три – three, кардио – heart.

2. IE voiced plosives b, d, g, →Gmc voiceless fricatives p, t, k. Eg: болото - pool, kardia – heart, ego – ic (ik).

3. IE aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh →to voiced plosives without aspiration b d g. Eg: bhrāta – brother, rudhira – red, ghostis – guest.

The second consonant shift was Carl Verner’s law (only in Old High German). According C.Verner all the common Gmc consonants became voiced in intervocalic position if the preceding vowel was unstressed (a change takes place in the course of time).

p-f> v septem

t-Ө> đ, d сто – hund (OE)

k-x> j, g

s-s> z/r auris – ēare

Consonant Correspondences	Latin	OE	ModE
1. [p, t, k] à voiceless stops/plosives	[f, q, h] à voiceless fricatives	[v, ð/d, g] voiced fricatives	septem	seofen	seven
pater	fæđer	father
socrus	swaiho(Gothic)	Schwager(Germ)
2. Rhotacism	ausis (Lithuanian)	Auso (Gothic)	ear, Ohr (Germ)
[s] à	[z] à	[r]

Devoicing took place in early common Gmc when the stress was not yet fixed on the root.

A variety of Verner’s law is rhotacism (greek letter rho). [s] →[z]→[r] we find traces of this phenomenon in form of the verb to be →was – were, is – are; ist – sind – war.

II consonant shift occurd in dialects of sothern Gmc. Eg: еда – eat – essen, вода – water – wasser, hope – hoffen, bed – bett.

101. Ch (G) → C (OE) : reich – ricostan.