The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary

II French Affixes

I. Latin Affixes

Criteria of borrowings

The criteria of borrowings can be divided into phonetical, grammatical and lexical.

The phonetical criteria are strange sounds (sound combination, position of stress), its spelling and the correlation between sounds and letters (e.g. walt z (G.), ps ychology (GR), communi qué (Fr)), the initial position of sounds [v], [z] or the letters x, j, z is a valid sign that the word is borrowed (e.g. volcano (It.), vaccine (L.), Jungle (Hindi), zinc (G.), etc.)

The morphological structure of the word and its grammatical forms also indicate that the word is adopted from another language (e.g. the suffixes in the words neurosis (Gr.), violoncello (It.); the irregular plural forms bacteria (bacterium, L.), papyra (papyrus, Gr.), etc.

There are certain structural features which enable us to identify some words as borrowings and even to determine the source language. You can recognize such words by certain suffixes, prefixes or endings. The two tables below will help you.

Nouns	The suffix -ion	communion, legion, opinion, union
The suffix -tion	relation, revolution, starvation, temptation
Verbs	The suffix -ate [eit]	appreciate, create, congratulate
The suffix -ute [ju:t]	attribute, contribute, constitute, distribute etc.
The remnant suffix -ct	act, conduct, collect, connect
The remnant suffix -d(e)	applaud, divide, exclude, include
The prefix dis-	disable, distract, disown, disagree
Adjectives	The suffix -able	detestable, curable
The suffix -ate [it]	accurate, graduate
The suffix -ant	arrogant, constant important, etc.
The suffix -ent	absent, decent, evident
The suffix -or	major, minor, junior, senior
The suffix -al	cordial, final, fraternal, maternal etc.
The suffix -ar	lunar, solar, familiar

Nouns	-ance	arrogance, hindrance
-ence	consequence, patience
-ment	appointment, experiment
-age	courage, marriage
-ess	tigress, lioness, adventuress
Adjectives	-ous	curious, dangerous, joyous, serious
Verbs	prefix en-	enable, endear, enslave

The lexical meaning of the word is also crucial (e.g. the concept denoted by the word ricksha(w), pagoda (Chin.) make us sure that we deal with borrowings).

Sometimes the form of the word together with its meaning in Modern English enables us to tell the source of borrowing (e.g. the diagraph ch as [∫] – a late French borrowing (in ma ch ine, e ch elon); as [k] – through Greek (ar ch aic, ar ch itect); as [t∫] – either an early borrowing (chase, OFr., cherry, L.) or a word of Anglo-Saxon origin (child, choose)

All the above can be summarized in the format of the following table.

The native element   I. Indo-European element II. Germanic element     III. English Proper element (no earlier than 5^th c. A. D.)

The borrowed element   I. Celtic (5^th-6^th c. A. D.)   II. Latin 1st group: 1st c. B. C. 2nd group: 7th c. A. D. 3rd group: the Renais- sance period III. Scandinavian (8^thA.D.)     IV. French 1. Norman borrowings: 11^th-13^th 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

Let us turn to the first column of the table representing the native element, the original stock of the English vocabulary. The column consists of three groups, only the third being dated: the words of this group appeared in the English vocabulary in the 5th c. or later, that is, after the Germanic tribes migrated to the British Isles. As to the Indo-European and Germanic groups, they are so old that they cannot be dated. It was mentioned in the historical survey opening this chapter that the tribal languages of the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, by the time of their migration, contained only words of Indo-European and Germanic roots plus a certain number of the earliest Latin borrowings.

The question of loan words naturally concerns the historical circumstances that stimulate the borrowing process. Each time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions or conquests when foreign words are in effect imposed upon the reluctant conquered nation. There are also periods of peace when the process of borrowing is due to trade and international cultural relations.

These latter circumstances are certainly more favorable for enhancing the borrowing process, for during invasions and occupations the natural psychological reaction of the oppressed nation is to reject and condemn the language of the oppressor. In this respect the linguistic heritage of the Norman Conquest seems exceptional, especially if compared to the influence of the Mongol-Tartar Yoke on the Russian language. The Mongol-Tartar Yoke also represented a long period of cruel oppression, yet the imprint left by it on the Russian vocabulary is comparatively insignificant. The difference in the consequences of these evidently similar historical events is usually explained by the divergence in the level of civilization of the two conflicting nations.

But all this only serves to explain the conditions which encourage the borrowing process. The question of why words are borrowed by one language from another is still an enigma.

Sometimes the reason is to fill a gap in vocabulary. When Saxons borrowed Latin words for "butter", "plum", "beet", they did it because their own vocabularies lacked words for these new objects. For the same reason the words potato and tomato were borrowed by English from Spanish when these vegetables were first brought to England by the Spaniards.

There are also other reasons. There may be a word (or even several words) which expresses some particular concept, so that there is no gap in the vocabulary and there does not seem to be any need for borrowing. Yet, one more word is borrowed which means almost the same, – almost, but not exactly. It is borrowed because it represents the same concept in some new aspect, enlarging groups of synonyms and greatly enriching the expressive resources of the vocabulary. That is how the Latin cordial was added to the native friendly, the French desire to wish, the Latin admire and the French adore to like and love

6.3. Assimilation of borrowings. Etymological doublets. The term assimilation of a loan word is used to denote a partial or total conformation to the phonetical, grammatical and morphological standards of the receiving language and its semantic system. The assimilation degree depends on the length of the period during which the word has been used in the receiving language, upon its importance for communication purposes and its frequency.

Grammatical adaptation, for instance, consists in a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed word (i. e. system of the grammatical forms peculiar to it as a part of speech). If it is a noun, it is certain to adopt, sooner or later, a new system of declension; if it is a verb, it will be conjugated according to the rules of the recipient language. Yet, this is also a lasting process.

By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. It has been mentioned that borrowing is generally caused either by the necessity to fill a gap in the vocabulary or by a chance to add a synonym conveying an old concept in a new way. Yet, the process of borrowing is not always so logical and efficient as it might seem at first sight. Sometimes a word may be borrowed "blindly", so to speak, for no obvious reason, to find that it is not wanted because there is no gap in the vocabulary or in the group of synonyms which it could conveniently fill. Quite a number of such "accidental" borrowings are very soon rejected by the vocabulary and forgotten. But there are others which manage to take root by the process of semantic adaptation. The adjective large, for instance, was borrowed from French in the meaning of "wide". It was not actually wanted, because it fully coincided with the English adjective wide without adding any new shades or aspects to its meaning. This could have led to its rejection. Yet, large managed to establish itself very firmly in the English vocabulary by semantic adjustment. It entered another synonymic group with the general meaning of "big in size". At first it was applied to objects characterized by vast horizontal dimensions, thus retaining a trace of its former meaning, and now, though still bearing some features of that meaning, is successfully competing with big having approached it very closely, both in frequency and meaning.

From this point of view borrowings are divided into 1) completely assimilated loan-words that are found in all layers of older borrowings, following all morphological, phonetical and orthographic standards, taking an active part in word formation (street, wall, wine, cheese (Latin); husband, fellow, gate,, take, ill, root, wing, wrong, etc. (Scandinavian); table, face, figure, chair, matter, finish, etc. (French); 2) partially assimilated loan words (semantically: e.g. sombrero, toreador, rickshaw, sherbet; grammatically: e.g. crisis – crises, datum – data; phonetically: e.g. cartoon, police, machine; graphically: e.g. buffet, coup, debris); 3) unassimilated loan words or barbarisms that are not assimilated in any way, for which there are corresponding English equivalents (e.g. the Italian addio – good-bye; Latin ad libitum – at pleasure, etc.)

It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages, and not just by one. Such international words usually convey concepts which are significant in the field of communication (e.g. philosophy, mathematics, physics, music, theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy, politics, policy, revolution, progress, democracy, atomic, antibiotic, radio, television, sputnik, sports terms, fruits and foodstuffs imported from exotic countries, etc.)

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