The evolution of I

O.E. ic (1st p. Sg. Nom.) < Pr.G. *ekan (cf. O.Fris. ik, O.N. ek, Norw. eg, Dan. jeg, O.H.G. ih, Ger. ich, Goth. ik) < PIE *ego(m) (cf. Skt. aham, Hitt. uk, L. ego, Gk. ego, Rus. ja);

the dot on the ‘small’ letter -i- began to appear in the 11th c. Latin manuscripts, to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another letter (such as -m- or -n-);

ic was reduced to i by 1137;

I became capitalised since 1250.

Words of Common Germanic stock have cognates only in other Germanic languages, e.g. Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic, etc. Their areal distribution reflects the contacts between the Germanic tribes at the beginning of their migration:

-common nouns: hand, sand, earth, sheep, fox, bath, child, winter, rain, ice, house, life, bridge, rest etc.;

-common verbs: make, starve, sing, come, send, learn, can, buy, drive, burn, bake, keep, meet etc.;

-common adjectives: green, brown, cold, dead, deaf, deep, damp, thick, high, old, small etc.;

-adverbs: behind, much, still, well, yet etc.;

- Words of proper English stock do not occur in other Germanic or non-Germanic languages:

-words whose roots have not been found outside English, e.g. bird;

-compounds and derived words formed from the Germanic roots in England, e.g.

woman (O.E. wifman) < wife + man;

lord (O.E. hlāford) < loaf + weard (‘keeper’);

lady (O.E. hlāfdiʒe) < loaf + knead (‘bread-kneading’);

sheriff (O.E. scirʒerefa ‘chief of the shire’).

pronouns: we, he, you, it, self etc.

4. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.

the borrowed stock of words (70-75%) – words taken over from other languages and modified in phonetic shape, spelling, paradigm or / and meaning according to the standards of the English language.

Motivation for borrowing a word:

-to fill a gap in the vocabulary, e.g. butter (Latin), yogurt (Turkish), whisky (Scottish Gaelic), tomato (Nahuatl /’na: watl/ - the Aztec language), sauna (/’so:nə/ Finnish) etc.;

-to represent the same concept in a new aspect, supplying a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring, e.g. cordial (Latin), a desire (French), to admire (Latin) etc.;

-prestige, e.g. picture, courage, army, treasure, language, female, face, fool, beef (Norman French);in many cases these fashionable words simply displaced their native English equivalents, which dropped out of use.

The term source of borrowing is applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English.

The term origin of borrowing refers to the language to which the word may be traced.

paper < Fr papier <Gr papyros ‘paper made of papyrus stalks’

umbrella < It ombrella < L umbra ‘shade, shadow’ (cf. Ukr. парасоля).

Translation loans (calques) are compound words or expressions formed from the elements existing in the English language according to the patterns of the source language; such loans came in handy when original words were hard to reproduce.

G Umgebung – E environment

Modern English names of the days of the week were also created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations and are the earliest examples of calques; have become regularly capitalised since the 17th c.

Monday (O.E. mōnan-dæʒ) < L. Lunae dies ‘day of the moon’;

Tuesday (O.E. tiwes - dæʒ) < L. Martis dies (Tiw – a Teutonic God corresponding to Roman Mars);

The term semantic loans is used to denote the development in an English word of a new meaning due to the influence of a related word in another language.

pioneer ‘one who goes before’ ← ‘a member of the young communist organisation’;

dream ‘ joy, music’ (O.E.) ← ‘a vision during sleep’ (Sc.);

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