Borrowings in the English language: the main source languages.

Celtic borrowing (5-6c A.D. – наша эра)

When the Anglo-Saxons took control of Britain, the original Celts moved to the northern and western fringes of the island – which is why the only places where Celtic languages are spoken in Britain today are in the west (Welsh in Wales) and north (Scottish Gaelic in the Scottish Highlands). Celtic speakers seem to have been kept separate from the Anglo-Saxon speakers. There is a surprising small number of Celtic borrowings. Some of them are dialectal such as cumb (deep valley) or loch (lake). Reminders of Britain’s Celtic past are mainly in the form of Celtic-based placenames including river names such as Avon, ‘river’, Don, Exe, Severn and Thames. Town names include Dover, ‘water’, Eccles,‘church’, Kent, Leeds, London and York.

It is very difficult to pick out Scandinavian (8-11с A.D.)loan-words in English. This is because they seem to have the same quality and texture as Anglo-Saxon words. They are ordinary, everyday words, and quite often monosyllabic and include grammatical words (like the verb are (to be), or the pronouns their, them and they and some of the commonest words in English today like bag, dirt, fog, knife, flat, low, odd, ugly, want, trust, get, give, take, raise, smile and though. A good number of sc - or sk- words today are of Scandinavian origin (scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, skill, skin, skirt, sky).

During the Norman Conquest French (11-14c A.D.)was the language of the Norman aristocracy and therefore also the language of prestige, government and polite social intercourse. English was the language of the common folk and menials.

When the Normans took over England, they changed the language of government and the court almost overnight and disregarded existing institutions. Instead, they took on almost wholesale institutions derived from France, including the feudal system which guaranteed strong control by the king. as English was on its way in, the gaps in English vocabulary had to be filled by loanwords from French. These include items pertaining to new experiences and ways of doing things introduced by the Normans. So whilst the English already had kings, queens and earls, terms taken from French include count, countess, sire,

· Government: parliament, government, country,

· Finance: treasure, wage, poverty

· Law:, fraud, verdict

· Morality: patience, courage, mercy,

· Recreation: scent, chase, quarry

· Art, fashion, etc.: art, beauty, colour,

· Cuisine: bacon, mutton, pork, veal

· Household Relationships: uncle, aunt, nephew, cousin

Latin, being the language of the Roman Empire, had already influenced the language of the Germanic tribes even before they set foot in Britain. Latin loanwords reflected the superior material culture of the Roman Empire, which had spread across Europe: street, wall, candle, chalk, inch, pound, port, camp, cup, candle, interiar, plant.

Greek (the Renaissance period together with Italian violin, umbrella, gondola and Spanish banana armada mosquito, tornado) was also a language of learning, and Latin itself borrowed words from Greek. Indeed the Latin alphabet is an adaptation of the Greek alphabet. Many of the Greek loan-words were through other languages: through French – agony, aristocracy, enthusiasm, metaphor; through Latin – ambrosia, nectar, phenomenon, rhapsody. There were somegeneral vocabulary items like fantasy, cathedral, charismatic, idiosyncrasy as well as more technical vocabulary like anatomy, barometer, microscope, homoeopathy.

As a result of empire and trade contacts, the lexicon of English continued to acquire terms from other languages including the following:

· American: racoon, coyote, prairie, wigwam

· Australian: wallaby, kangaroo, boomerang

· Arabic: saffron, sequin, tamarind, alchemy, zenith

· Persian: naphtha, jasmine, chess, lilac

· Japanese: samurai, kimono

Other Asian regions: avatar, yoga, stupa, karma

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14