The Etymology of English Words. Borrowings

Lecture 3

Plan:

1. English vocabulary from the point of its origin

2. Classification of borrowings in the English language

3. Assimilation

4. Criteria of Borrowings

5. International words, translation-loans, etymological doublets

Etymology - the branch of lexicology that studies the origin of words and their genetic ties with words in the same language and other language.

English vocabulary consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words.

Native stock of words comprise the historical basis of the English language and form 30 per cent of the total number of all English words, such words are: articles, conjunctions (and, if, though), auxiliary verbs (do, did), pronouns (I, you, we) and words of everyday importance.

Borrowings enter the language 2 ways through oral communication and written speech.

Oral borrowings took place in early periods of history: street, mill, inch. These words are short and undergo a lot of changes in their process of adaption.

Written borrowings are usually long and they preserve the peculiarities of the original language.

The English language contains an immense number of words of foreign origin. Explanations for this should be sought in the history of the language which is closely connected with the history of the nation speaking the language. The native words arc further subdivided into those of the Indo-European stock, those of Germanic origin and those of the English proper origin

The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary

The native element	The borrowed element
1. I Indo-European	I. Celtic (5th — 6th c. A.D.)
clement
11. Germanic clement	II Latin
	lsl group: 1st c B C
	2nd group 7th c A D
	3rd group: the Renaissance
	period
III English Proper	HI Scandinavian (8th — 11th
element (no earlier	c A.D.)
than 5th c A D.)	IV French
1 Norman borrowings: 11 th
	— 13th c A D
	2 Parisian borrowings
	(Renaissance)
	V Greek (Renaissance)
	VI. Italian (Renaissance and
	later)
	VII. Spanish (Renaissance
	and later)
	VIII German
	IX Indian
	X Russian And some other
	groups

I. Latin Affixes

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

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

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

III Animals: cow, swine, goose.

IV Plants tree, birch, corn.

V Time of day: day, night.

VI Heavenly bodies sum, moon, star.

VII Numerous adjectives: red (cf. Ukr. рудий, R. рыжий), new, glad (cf. R. гладкий), sad (cf. R. сыт).

VIII. The numerals from one to a hundred

IX Pronouns — personal (except they which is a Scandinavian borrowing); demonstrative

X Numerous verbs: be (cf. R быть), stand (cf. R. стоять), sit (cf. R. сидеть), eat (cf. R есть), know (cf. R знать, знаю).

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.

I Animals hear, fox, calf.

III Plants oak, fir, grass.

IV. Natural phenomena rain, frost.

V Seasons of the year winter, spring, summer

VI I Landscape features: sea, land.

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

VIII Sea-going vessels boat, ship.

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

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

The English proper element is in certain respects, opposed to the first two groups. Not only can it be approximately dated, but these words have another distinctive feature they are specifically English having no cognates (cognates — words of the same etymological root, of common origin. In other languages whereas for Indo-European and Germanic origin words such cognates can always be found, as, for instance, for the following words of the Indo-European group.

Star; Germ. Stem, Lat. Stella, Gr aster.

Sad: Germ, salt, Lat. satis, R. сыт.

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

Here are some examples of English proper words. These words stand quite alone in the vocabulary system of Indo-European languages: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always.

The native words can be characterized:

- great stability

- vital importance

- plurality

- word building power

- stylistic neutrality

Lexical Borrowings

Borrowed words serve to satisfy needs for expressing new ideas, abstract and scientific concepts.

Borrowings enrich the language with synonyms. They permit to express shadows of meaning, to vary the style and emotional colouring.

The origin and the source of borrowings.

Paper was borrowed from French language. French took it from Latin and Latin from Greek.

The origin is Greek that where appeared first; the source is French where English took it.

Classification is based on the source of borrowings:

Celtic:

• When in the 5th century the Anglo-Saxon tribes came to Britain they got in contact with the native Celtic population (which for about 4 centuries had been under the Roman rule). The language of the Celts did not influence Anglo-Saxon to any serious extent. Though some etymological dictionaries register about 160 words borrowed directly and indirectly from the Celts only some 10-12 words are really direct Celtic borrowings (apart from numerous place names). To these words belong the following: bin- a chest for com, brat - a child, down - a hill, badger a borrowing mammal related to the weasel, hog - a domestic swine, to curse - to use profane language against somebody. Some of Celtic words became international.

• e.g. whisky, plaid, clan

• Celtic geographical names are common in all parts of Britain, especially in Scotland and Ireland. The Celtic Avon (river) appears in the names of streams not only in England, but also in France and Italy, preserving the memory of the earlier Celtic occupation of Central Europe

• In Great Britain Avon is the name of several rivers (in Central England, Scotland and Wales).

• Other Celtic words can be found in place names such as:

• hurst (grove) in Billingshurt. Penchurst

• ire (a village) in Tredegar

• weald (a forest) in Cotswold

Latin:

The Germanic people, of which the Angles and Saxons formed part
had been in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin
words denoting objects of this civilization long before the invasion of
Angles, Saxons and Jutes into Britain.

The loan words of this period arc distinguished by their concrete character. These early words were borrowed in an oral manner, were easy to pronounce and remember. This is a distinctive feature of the oldest Latin loans as opposed to later strata of loan words. They were also short words, mostly of one or two syllables.

Many loan words of this period are connected with trade. Ancient Germans sold amber, silk, slaves and they bought everyday things, jewelry, wine and foodstuffs,

e.g. pound (Lat. Pondo) wine (Lat. vinum), inch, ounce(Lat. uncia), sack (Lat. asccus), candle (Lai candela), cheese (Lat. caseus).

Quite a number of words borrowed from Latin denote different containers.

e.g. cup (Lat. cuppa), dish (Lat. discus), kettle (Lai catellus).

The names of fruit-trees, plants, agricultural terms were also borrowed from Latin (total 136 words).

e.g. mint (Lai mint), pea (Lai peasum). pine (Lai pinus), pepper (Lat. pipere), poppy I(Lat. papaver), radish (Lat. rodicem).

These oral loan words, which were adopted in the early period of the history of English, underwent changes in the act of adoption. Most of them were fully assimilated, functioning according to the laws of English, and without an etymological dictionary it is difficult to trace heir origin.

The second great stratum of Latin borrowings came into English in the 6 -7^th centuries when the people of England were converted to Christianity.

Latin borrowings of this period may be divided into two groups, which arc different in character.

To the first group belong early borrowings, which refer to different spheres of life.

Here we find words denoting things of everyday use.

e.g. cap (Lat. cappa), chest (Lat. cisla), mat (Lat. matta).

We also find here names of many vegetables and plants introduced into culinary and medical practice by Roman monks.

e.g. beet (Lat. bête), lily (Lat. lilum), parley (Lat. рetrocelium), cucumber (Lat. cucumer).

Names of animals: e.g- camel (Lat. camelus), cancer (Lat. cancer), lion (Lat. leo), lobster (Lat. locuster), leopard (Lat. pardus).

To the first group also belong borrowings in the spheres of education, science and literature, music and art.

e.g. verse (Lat. versus), grammar (Lat. grammaticka), note (Lat. notare), term (Lat. terminus), fiddle (Lat. vitula).

The second group of Latin borrowings includes mainly religious terms.

e.g. abbot (Lat. abbadem), altar (Lat. altare), apostle (Lat. apostolus), cross (Lat. crucem), martyr (Lat. martyr).

The borrowings of the second group were not so frequently used as the words of the first group, as they expressed more abstract notions. A lot of words of the second group lost their religious meaning and acquired general meaning.

e.g. to offer - to sacrifice

rule - a set of rules for a monastery

Another great influx of Latin words came through French after the Norman Conquest. It is the third stratum of Latin borrowings. This period continued to the Renaissance. The loan words of this period are mainly of scientific character and were borrowed through writing. Among them there arc terms of philosophy, mathematics and physics.

e.g. diameter, fundamental, momentum, radius, vacuum

We also find here words referring to law and government. g e.g. alibi, affidavit. habeas corpus, veto

We also find here terms of medicine. e.g. anesthetic,

diagnosis

Many geographical or topographical terms are also of Latin origin.

e.g. equator, continental, meridian, latitude, peninsula

Also Latin abbreviations were borrowed during the third period. A great many of them usually suggest English equivalents.

for example: i.e. stands for “id est”, which means, simply, 'that is' or 'which is to say. The abbreviation introduces a definition or a clarification.

e.g. Lam was Still dressed in his work clothes, i.e. clown suit

“E.g.” is an abbreviation of "exempli gratia", which means “for example” or 'for instance."

A lot of adjectives were borrowed during this period e.g. appropriate, conspicuous, dexterous, external, hereditary.

In the 15^th century English scholars introduced many silent letters in Latin words borrowed through French proceeding from the idea that the spelling of a word should reflect its origin. The English word debt originates from the Latin word debitum but in French it lost the letter 'b" which was introduced by the English scholars. In the word doubt the letter 'b' was also introduced. In the words heir and honour the letter 'h’ was introduced, in receipt 'p', in island- ‘s’, and in scissors – ‘c ‘. So the presence of silent letters in the word indicates its Latin origin.

Some of these late Latin borrowings were partially assimilated grammatically. They have preserved their original plural inflexion.

e.g. phenomenon - phenomena, alumnus - alumni, bacterium -bacteria

Other borrowings of this period have two plural forms the native and Latin.

e.g. antenna - antennae/antennas, aquarium - aquaria/aquariums, crematorium- crematoria/crematoriums

Some Latin borrowings were not assimilated and function as barbarisms.

e.g. alma mater - a school or university from which one has graduated

alter ego - a second self//a trusted friend

terra incognita - unknown territory

The latest stratum of loans from Latin began in the 16^th century and continues up till now. The borrowings of this period include abstract and scientific words.

Whenever there is a need to coin a new word Latin or Greek elements arc combined

Latin borrowings considerably enriched the English vocabulary and brought about some changes in English synonymic groups, in the distribution of the English vocabulary through spheres of application.

There are a lot of Latin borrowings which have their synonymic native word, but the sphere of their application is different. Such pairs of words are called stylistic synonyms. Native words arc usually stylistically neutral and Latin loans arc bookish

e.g. fatherly - paternal, brotherly - fraternal, bodily – corporal, begin- initiate, rise- ascend

Greek:

Borrowing from Greek go back to an early period. A great many Greek words introduced into English came in chiefly through the medium of Latin. Early Greek borrowings were more or less latinized in form. They were spell and pronounced not as in Greek but as the Romans spelt and pronounced them. They were further assimilated in English

But an influx of Greek words on a large scale did not begin until the time of Renaissance. These are mostly bookish borrowings which came as terms for various fields of science. It is interesting to note that modern scientific and technical terms of Greek origin are nearly all of international currency. Greek terms added much to the precision of scientific technology.

Here are some borrowings, which linguistics owes to Creek: antonym, dialed. etymology, euphemism, homonym, hyperbole, synecdoche, synonym

Terms of literature and art are also numerous.

e.g. poet, rhythm, tragedy, comedy, drama

Terms of philosophy.

e. g. basis, category

Mathematical terms.

e.g. hypotenuse

Physical terminology.

e. g dynamo, hydraulic, pneumatic, thermostat

The medical vocabulary is for the most part Greek and the Latin medical terms are in the main translation from Greek, e.g. adenoids, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychoanalysis. Quite a number of proper names are also Greek in origin for example. Alexander (alexein - defender + aner - man: defender of people. Pamela [pan everything, + meli honey), Philip (philos loving -hippos horse). Peter (petra - rock), Sophia (sophos - wisdom)

Greek is peculiarly well fitted to supply needs for precise terms. It possesses an unlimited power of forming compound words and it has a complete and regular system of combining forms by means of which derivatives can be produced from any verb or noun

e.g. autos (sell) in autograph, autobiography; autocracy

ge\geo (earth) in geography, geopolitics, geology, geomagnetic

homo (the same) in homograph, homogeneous, homosexual

tele (at a distance) in telegraph, telephone, television, telemarketing, telecommunication

French

The French language has influenced English vocabulary greatly. French words have penetrated into the English vocabulary at different time and due to various circumstances.

Most lexicologists distinguish two periods of French influence, according 10 which all French loans may be divided into two groups:

a) early loans (borrowed before 1250),

b) later loans (borrowed after this date).

The battle of Hastings fought on the 14^th of October 1066 resulted in the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon Army and the victory of the Normans. The immediate result of the Conquest was that all the important places in the government, at court and in the church were filled by French-speaking Normans.

The new conditions brought about by the Norman Conquest opened the door for an abundant influx of French words.

state, authority, vassal, duke, prince, viscount, army, battle, defence, captain, lieutenant, danger, escape, accuse, judge, religion, blame, tempt, charity, conflict, pleasure, mutton, pork, champagne

Scandinavian:

The Scandinavian (Danish) invasion of England began in the century when the Danes occupied the northern regions. In 878 the English King Alfrcd the Great, by the Treaty of Wedmore, was obliged in recognize Danish rule over a territory covering two-thirds of modern England. In 10І7 the whole of England was conquered and the Danes reigned over it up to 1042.

The effect of the Danish conquest was a contribution of many Scandinavian words to the English vocabulary

As both languages were Germanic the two peoples could understand each other. Most of Scandinavian loans arc everyday words such as:

Nouns: crop, cake, egg, law, sky, skirt, window;

Adjectives: ill, low, meek, old, wrong, loose, ugly

verbs: call, die, drown, guess, give, take, scream, want

It is supposed that the Scandinavian element in MnE amounts to 650 words, most of which came into English orally. The similarity between English and Scandinavian words was so great that many of them differed from one another only in endings.

Besides lexical borrowings there arc some grammatical elements. Pronouns they, them, both, some and the preposition till belong here.

In distinguishing Scandinavian borrowings we may sometimes apply the criterion of sound, such as (sk) sound in Scandinavian words (e.g. skull, bask, scare, scream) regularly changed to [S] in native English words (e.g. shape, share, shout, shriek).

German: zinc, nickel, blitz

Italian bulletin, manifesto, basso, sonata, bank, traffic, casino, pizza, million, balcony, piano

Spanish: banana, cobra, bravado, embargo, tomato, potato

Dutch: albatross, deck, dock, skipper, landscape

Indian: curry, rickshaw

Russian: balalaika, vodka, samovar, sputnik, perestrojka

Ukrainian: borsch, vareniky

When words migrate from one language into another they undergo the process of assimilation. Assimilation is a process of changing of borrowed word so that it could not differ from the native words, i.e conformation to phonetic, graphical and morphological standard of the receiving language.

According to the degree of assimilation borrowings fall into three groups: completely assimilated, partially assimilated, unassimilated.

Completely assimilated borrowings do not differ in any aspect (morphological, phonetical, orthographical) from native words and behave like native words: table, husband.

Partially assimilated borrowings are further subdivided into two groups depending on the aspect which remains unassimilated.

a) not assimilated semantically denoting exotic realia (foreign currency, food, drinks, professions, clothes, vehicles): sombrero, TOREODOR, GRIVNYA, rickshaw

b) not assimilated grammatically which preserve their own way of expressing grammatical categories: analyses-analysis, datum-data

c) not assimilated phonetically: police, machine, confetti

d) not assimilated graphically: café, bouquet

Unassimilated borrowings are also called barbarisms. These are foreign words that are not used by English people in their communication so there exist their English equivalents: ciao (Ital.) – hello, chick - stylish, belles letters- fiction, carte blanche, terra incognito.

Criteria of borrowings

Though borrowings undergo changes in the adopted language they preserve the particularities of the original language for a long time. There are criteria to determining if a word belongs to a borrowed elements or not.

1. Graphic and phonetic criteria: The pronunciation, the spelling of a word, the correlation of letters and sounds enable us to determine the source of borrowings. E. g. the combination of letters “ch” can be pronounced in 3 ways if these letters are pronounced as [ ] the word is French borrowing: machine, chic, chef; ch [ ] the word is Greek: chemistry, character, psychology; ch [ ]- the word is of Anglo- Saxon origin: chair, cheese

If combination of letters: pt, ps, pn are pronounced as [ t], [s], [n] the word came from Greece: psychology

2. Grammatical Morphological Criteria: If the words preserve original plural form they are borrowed from Latin or Greek: criterion- criteria (Gr), stimulus- stimuli (Lat)

3. Semantic Criteria: The meaning of the word shows that the object denoted by a word belongs to another culture: imam (Arabic), hara-kiri (Japanese)

International Words

It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages, and not just by one. Such words usually convey concepts which are significant in the field of communication.

Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences, political, sports terms philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, lexicology, come dy, artist, primadonna.

It is quite natural that political terms frequently occur in the international group of borrowings: politics, policy, revolution, progress, democracy, communism, anti- militarism.

There are a lot of words of English origin which became international and are used in many European languages: tennis, football, meeting, leader.

Etymological Doublets

Words originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonemic shape and meaning are called etymological doublets.

They may enter the vocabulary by different routes. Some of these pairs, like shirt and skirt, consist of a native word and a borrowed word: shrew, n. (E.) — screw, n. (Sc.). Shirt is a native word, skirt is a Scandinavian borrowing

Others are represented by two borrowings from different languages which are historically descended from the same root: senior (Lat) — sir (Fr.), canal (Lat.) — channel (Fr.), captain (Lat.) — chieftain (Fr.).

Still others were 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.)/

Etymological doublets can be the result of shortening: history- story, defence- fence, fantasy-fancy

Translation-Loans

The term loan-word is equivalent to borrowing. Translation-loans are words or word combinations formed from the material available in the language but under influence of other language. masterpiece (from Germ Meisterstuck), wonder child (from Germ. Wunderkind), fair sex – прекрасный пол.

Questions for Self-Control

1 What is meant by the native element and by the borrowed element of English vocabulary?

2. How can you account for the fact that English vocabulary contains such an immense number of words of foreign origin?

3.What suffixes and prefixes can help you to recognize words of Latin and French origin?

4.Which conditions stimulate the borrowing process? Why are words borrowed?

5.What stages of assimilation do borrowings go through?

6. In what spheres of communication do international words frequently occur?

7.What do we understand by etymological doublets?

8.What are the characteristic features of translation-loans?

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