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.

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