Lecture 23

ME

OE

Borrowings from Classical Languages (Latin, Greek) during the Renaissance

Latin Borrowings in Old English

Lecture 22

Word-Composition

Word-composition – a combination of 2 ore more root-morphemes – was a highly productive way of word-formation. The main patterns were:

· N + N à N (the most frequent) (e.g. OE ζimm-stān (gemstone), OE mann-cynn (mankind));

· syntactical compounds à N (e.g. OE d æζ es-ēa ζ e (literally “day’s eye” = NE daisy));

· Adj + N à Adj (so-called bahuvrihi type) (e.g. OE mild-heort (literally “mild heort” = NE merciful), OE ān-ēaζe (literally “one eye” = NE one-eyed));

· N + Adj à Adj (e.g. OE dōm-ζeorn (eager for glory), OE mōd-ceariζ (sorrowful));

· V + N à N (very rare) (e.g. OE b æ c-hūs (baking-house)).

Word composition was often accompanied by other ways of word formation mentioned above (e.g. OE þēaw-f æ st-nes (þēaw = “custom” N, f æ st = “firm” N, nes = “-ness” suffix)) = NE discipline).

Latin has been the most long-lasting donor of borrowings to English because its influence started before the 5^th A.D. (when Anglo-Saxons still lived on the Continent) and continues up to present day.

Usually Latin borrowings in OE are classified into the following layers:

1. Continental borrowings – words that the West Germanic tribes borrowed from Latin while they still lived on the Continent. Later, when they conquered the British Isles, they brought these words with them. These words are present in all the Germanic languages.

Semantic fields:

· concrete objects (household (cup, pillow, etc. ), food (cheese, butter, etc.), animals (mule, turtle, etc.));

· units of measurement (mile, pound, inch, etc.).

2. Borrowings after the Roman Invasion of the British Isles (through the Romanised Celts) that lie within the following semantic areas:

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

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

· domestic life (dish, kettle, etc.);

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

· place names:

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

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

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

3. Borrowings after the Introduction of Christianity (597) that lie within the following semantic areas:

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

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

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

Plus there appeared a lot of so-called translation loans – words that were translated part-for-part from Latin (e.g. Monday (“moon day”, from Latin Lunae dies), goldsmith (from Latin aurifex (auri = gold, fex = worker)), etc.).

All Latin borrowings in OE underwent assimilation, i.e.:

- changed their spelling according to the English rules;

- underwent some phonetic changes according to the English rules;

- were used in derivation and compounding;

- acquired grammatical categories of the English parts of speech.

After the Norman Conquest the main spheres of the Latin Language remained:

· church;

· law;

· academic activities.

French became the official language of administration (it was used in the king’s court, in the law courts, in the church (as well as Latin), in the army, by the nobles in the south of England).

English was the language of common people in the Midlands and in the north of England. It still remained the language of the majority who were the representatives of the lower classes of society and never learned French, so the Norman barons had to learn English to be able to communicate with locals and soon English regained its position as the language of the country.

The surge of interest in the classics during the Age of the Renaissance led to a new wave of borrowings from Latin and Greek (through Latin mainly).

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.)	rootsfor 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.)
Greco-Latin Hybrids(words one part of which is Greek and the other one – Latin): e.g. tele-graph, socio-logy, tele-vision, etc.

Fate of these Borrowings in English:

1. Many of them underwent a shift of meaning:

e.g. Lat. musculus (literally “little mouse”) à Eng. muscle;

Gr. kosmos (“universe”) à Eng. cosmetics;

Gr. climax (“ladder”) à Eng. climax (the top of something).

2. Many of them formed the basis for international terminology:

e.g. Latin borrowings: facsimile, introvert, radioactive, relativity, etc.;

Greek borrowings: allergy, antibiotic, hormone, protein, stratosphere, etc.

3. Many of them increased the number synonyms in English:

Native Germanic Word	French Borrowing	Latin Borrowing
reckon	count	compute
size	calibre	magnitude
kingly	royal	regal

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