Borrowed words in English

The larger part of English vocabulary consists of loan words. Borrowing is one of the ways of enriching the vocabulary. Words can be borrowed through all kinds of contacts between nations: wars, invasions, occupation, cultural and trade relations between countries. It is natural, therefore, in discussing the problem of loan words in any language to give a survey of certain historical facts from the life of the people speaking that language.

3.1. Latin borrowings

The earliest borrowings came into English from Latin. In the 1^st century B.C. the Germanic tribes lived in Central Europe, they spoke numerous Germanic languages which contained Indo-European and Common Germanic elements. As most of Europe was occupied by the Roman Empire at that time The Germanic tribes came into constant contacts with the Romans. There were both military conflicts and trade relations. The Germanic tribes were primitive cattle-breeders who knew next to nothing about land cultivation. The only products known to them were meat and milk. So, from the more civilized Romans they learnt how to make butter and cheese. Since there were no words to name the new foodstuffs in their tribal languages they had to use Latin words for them. The Latin names of some fruits and vegetables new to the Germanic tribes also entered their vocabulary: cherry, pear, plum, pea, pepper, peach, beet. The very word plant is also of Latin origin. Other Latin borrowings of this period are: cup, dish, mill, kitchen, wine, mule, pound, inch, mile, kettle.

As Britain was also part of the Roman Empire at that time, such words as street (strata via), wall (vallum), camp (campus), port (portus), chester (as in Manchester) (castra) remaine in the language.

Historically, all Latin loan words in English can be divided into 3 layers. The borrowings described above belong to the first layer.

The second stream of Latin borrowings came into English with the Christianization of the British Isles in the 7^th century A.D. The language of the Christian church was Latin and, naturally, the second layer of Latin borrowings consists mostly of different religious terms: pope, bishop, monk, nun, priest, altar, devil, creed, angel, psalm, candle, hymn, apostle, disciple. The priests were educated people who began to establish church schools and the words school, master, verse, scholar, chalk came into the language. Of words other than religious and educational terms we may name such as lion, copper, marble, gem, palm-tree, cap, spade, fork (вилы).

The third layer of Latin borrowings refers to the epoch of Renaissance (in England it came in the 16^th century, later than in Italy). This period was marked by the prospering of art, science and culture in all European countries. There also came a revival of interest in ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. The words that came into English during this period differ greatly from earlier Latin borrowings. Now the borrowing was done from literature and scientific works that were written in Latin and the loan words, in contrast to the previous two layers, were mostly abstract in meaning and many of them were scientific terms. There were many verbs and adjectives among them and comparatively few nouns: introduce, execute, collect, decorate, senior, solar, triangular, evident, cordial, obvious, union, relation, etc. The words of the first and second layers were mostly nouns and the borrowing was from oral everyday communication, not from written sources.

3.2. Celtic borrowings

When the Germanic tribes migrated to Britain in the 5^th century A.D. they confronted Celts and waged merciless wars with them. As a result of this the Celts were defeated and they retreated to Scotland, Cornwall, Wales and the peninsula of Brittany, which now belongs to France. The language of Celts dropped out of usage, only some words penetrated into Old English: binn (MnE bin “a receptacle for corn”, рус. ларь), dūn (MnE down “a hill”), dunn (MnE dun “grayish-brownish colour”).

The words cradle “a bed for an infant”, bannock “a round flat loaf” (рус. пресная лепёшка), glen “a narrow valley”, bard “a minstrel, a poet”, druid “a member of the priesthood among the Celts”, loch “lake” (used in Scottish dialects) and some geographical names (Kent, Dover, the rivers Esk and Avon) are also of Celtic origin.

The name of the British capital London originates from the Celtic compound noun Llyndūn meaning “a fortress on the hill over the river” (Celtic llyn, “a river” + dūn, “a fortified hill”).

3.3. Scandinavian borrowings

The period between the 8^th and the 11^th centuries was marked by several invasions of Scandinavian Vikings who founded extensive settlements in the North and North-East of Britain. In the course of nearly 300 years half of England was overrun by the invaders. Naturally, Scandinavian ways and people left an important mark on the land. As both the languages belonged to the Germanic group and were closely related the process of borrowing went very easily.

The borrowings were simple words of everyday use. The borrowed nouns are: sky, law, husband, skin, wing, anger, egg, window, fellow, gate, seat; adjectives: low, ill, ugly, weak, loose, odd, wrong, happy; verbs: cast, die, hit, lift, call, take, want. Some pronouns were borrowed: they, them, their (instead of OE hie, him, hiera), both and same and one preposition – till.

Some of the Scandinavian borrowings can be distinguished by the initial sound cluster [sk]: sky, skill, skin, skirt, ski, skull. Another distinctive feature is the sound [g] before front vowels: give, get.

Borrowing from Scandinavian continued till the middle of the 11^th century when another invasion took place in the history of English people.

3.4. French borrowings

This time the whole of the country was conquered by the Normans. After winning in the year of 1066 the battle of Hastings and defeating the English troops the duke of Normandy William, who later came to be called William the Conqueror, became King of England.

The Norman Conquest influenced the life of English people and their language more than any other event in their history. For more than two centuries England became a bilingual country. Norman French gradually began to be used in all governmental offices, in the court, in the church, in the army, at school. Much of the literature was written in French, translated from French, or strongly influenced by French models. All the key positions in government were held by the Normans and those Anglo-Saxon lords who stayed alive after the conquest had to adjust themselves to the French ways of life if they wanted to remain part of the ruling class.

English came to be used only in the speech of poor townsfolk, craftsmen and peasants. But, nevertheless, the poor people formed the majority of the population and in the 13^th and 14^th centuries the practice of English was re-established and French began to be gradually ousted from schools, courts of justice, governmental institutions and everyday communication. But the English language was replenished by a great number of French words.

All French borrowings of the Norman dialect can be arranged according to several semantic groups:

1) administrative words: state, government, parliament, chancellor, council, power, country, county, nation, people;

2) legal terms: court, judge, justice, jury, crime, prison, to accuse, to plead, damage, fraud, slander, attorney, solicitor;

3) military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, enemy, battle, peace, regiment, retreat, victory, defence, sergeant, lieutenant, captain,general;

4) educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil;

5) titles and words denoting some feudal relations: duke, duchess, baron, baroness, count, countess, prince, princess, sir, madam, peasant, servant, manor;

6) religious terms: religion, clergy, parish, prayer, sermon, abbey, saint, vice, virtue, parson, chapel;

7) art and crafts: art, colour, ornament, temple, palace, chamber, architecture, literature, prose, story, volume, chapter, poet, choir, design, tower, arch, aisle, butcher, carpenter, tailor, painter;

8) medical terms: medicine, malady, poison, diet;

9) terms of kinship: aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin;

10) numerous words denoting objects and notions of everyday life: table, chair, plate, saucer, money, market, leisure, pleasure, journey, dinner, supper, dress, costume, luxury, comfort, jewels, river, autumn, large, clear, to use, to turn, to catch, to cry, to cover, to boil, to fry, to dance and lots of others.

Norman French ceased to be used in Britain in the second half of the 14^th century, though already in the 13^th century it was only an official language used in governmental institutions but not in everyday communication.

Borrowings from French of the later period, after the 14^th century, came already from another dialect – Parisian French. Especially numerous was the flow of French borrowings in the second half of the 17^th, first half of the 18^th centuries. Unlike Norman French words, Parisian French borrowings were the result of cultural ties, political and trade relations. The characteristic feature of loan words of this period is the preservation of French spelling, pronunciation, stress on the final syllable: memoir, bourgeois, camouflage, regime, police, mirage, bomb, marine, ballet, corps, grotesque, machine, technique, campaign, routine, etc.

3.5. Greek borrowings

Words from Latin, Scandinavian and French constitute the bulk of all borrowed words in English. However, borrowings from other languages also form an important part of present-day English vocabulary.

In Old English period there were very few words that came into English from Greek. Such was the word church which became known already to the Germanic tribes before their invasion of Britain. Most Greek words came into English through Latin and French: abbot, bishop, apostle, monk, priest, school, idea, fancy, catalogue, chronicle.

It was only in the Renaissance period that borrowing was directly from Greek: lexicon, myth, petal, sympathy, atom, philosophy, physics. But even here some of the words came through classical Latin (gymnastics, drama, athlete) and French (astronomy, geography, geometry, theatre, tragedy, idiom, dialect).

Nowadays the influence of Greek is felt in the sphere of special terminology because of the frequent use of Greek morphemes: telephone, telegraph, television, aerodrome, aerodynamic, aerogram, photograph, phonograph, etc.

3.6. Italian borrowings

Borrowing from Italian started in the 15^th-16^th centuries. Italy at that time was a country with high culture which influenced not only England but the whole of Europe. The vocabularies of many languages reflect this influence because many words became international, i.e. they are met in most world languages.

All Italian borrowings can be arranged into several semantic groups:

1) terms of house-building and architecture: balcony, fresco, studio, corridor, cornice, mezzanine, stucco, loggia, colonnade;

2) military terms: colonel, alarm, cartridge, cavalry, infantry, pistol, squadron;

3) words dealing with finance: bank, bankrupt;

4) names of food: pizza, cappuccino, macaroni, spaghetti;

5) words referring to no particular semantic group: casino, volcano, lagoon, revolt, risk, monkey, bandit, mafia, mafioso (pl. mafiosi), umbrella, influenza, incognito, to manage, to isolate.

Especially numerous are Italian borrowings referring to the sphere of music:

a) names of musical instruments: (violon) cello, piano, violin;

b) singing voices: bass, baritone, tenor, contralto, soprano;

c) musical compositions: sonata, opera, aria;

d) other musical terms: solo, duet, concert, libretto, tempo, bel canto.

In the first half of the 20^th century with the emergence in Italy and Germany of a new form of dictatorship the Italian words fascist and fascism came to be used in many languages including English.

3.7. Spanish borrowings

One of the richest European countries in the 16^th century was Spain. The discovery in 1492 by Christopher Columbus of a new continent started the colonization of the so-called New World. The colonizers came to see new lands with new animals and plants. They exploited the newly colonized territories and brought back with them new foodstuffs such as potato, tomato, cocoa, chocolate, banana. The names of these foodstuffs came through Spanish into many languages.

There were contacts of two kinds between England and Spain: trade relations at first, military conflicts later since the two countries had to fight for supremacy in world markets. All this enriched the vocabulary of English with Spanish borrowings.

We can single out the following semantic groups among them:

1) trading terms – cargo, embargo, contraband;

2) foodstuffs and other products – in addition to what was mentioned above we may name also tobacco, cigar, cork, quinine;

3) natural phenomena and names of animals and plants – hurricane, tornado, canyon, savannah, pampas, mosquito, coyote, armadillo, cockroach, maize;

4) military terms: armada, guerrilla;

5) miscellanea – bravado, canoe, matador, mulatto, Negro, ranch, renegade, junta, corral, lasso, comrade, macho, cafeteria.

3.8. German borrowings

Loan words from German can be arranged into the following semantic groups:

1) names of minerals – quartz, cobalt, wolfram, nephrite, zinc;

2) philosophical terms – objective, subjective, determinism, transcendental;

3) miscellanea – poodle, iceberg, zigzag, waltz, plunder, kindergarten, swindler, carouse.

3.9. Russian borrowings

The first Russian borrowing came into English in the 14th century. It was the word sable. Closer links between the English and the Russian peoples were established later – in the 16th century. In this century the words rouble, Cossack, boyar and tsar were taken into English. In the following two centuries more Russian words penetrated into English: troika, astrakhan, copeck, ukase, duma, verst, steppe, vodka, samovar, kvass, droshky, shuba, beluga, sterlet, arshin, knout, tundra, moujik.

The October Revolution and the emergence of the socialist state caused new borrowings from Russian: Soviet, Bolshevik, Komsomol, kolkhoz, sovkhoz, commissar, artel, sputnik, perestroika, glasnost. These borrowings are also known under the term “Sovietisms”.

3.10. Dutch borrowings

The first Dutch borrowings appeared in English in the 13th century. But borrowing on a larger scale began in the 15-17th centuries. Among Dutch loan words we may point out:

1) words dealing with ships and navigation – skipper, deck, yacht, reef, buoy, dock, cruise;

2) words dealing with art – easel, landscape, sketch, to etch;

3) military terms – bulwark, drill, onslaught, knapsack;

4) miscellanea – luck, groove, brandy, boss, slim, wagon, uproar, to smuggle, to loiter.

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