Evolution and functioning of French borrowings in the English vocabulary in the field of fashion, food, clothes
The
Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of KazakhstanKazakh National
Pedagogical University
Diploma
paper
-
“Two foreign languages: The English and German languages”THEME: EVOLUTION AND
FUNCTIONING OF FRENCH BORROWINGS IN THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN THE FIELD OF
FASHION, FOOD, CLOTHES
Done by: A. Nurzhigitova
year student- Foreign language: two
foreign languages: B.E.Bukabayeva,of philological sciences
Almaty,
2013
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
1. EVOLUTION OF FRENCH
BORROWINGS
1.1 The role of English language in
a global world
1.2 The historical background of the
English language
.3 The main periods of borrowings in
the English language
.3.1 The borrowed words in the
Middle English language
.3.2 The borrowed words in the
Modern English language
. THE FUNCTIONING OF FRENCH
BORROWINGS IN THE FIELD OF FASHION, FOOD, CLOTHES
.1 Functioning of French
borrowings in Middle English
.2 Functioning of French
borrowings in Modern English
INTRODUCTION
actuality of
the diploma paper. The English is a
Germanic language and took origin from the Indo-European Family. It is the
second spread spoken language in the world after Chinese. Nowadays about 300 million
people considered as native speakers, 300 million people use English as a
second language and 100 million people use it as a foreign language. English is
a language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, tourism and friendship.
Over 45 countries use English as official and co-official language, but in some
countries where it has not official status English is spoken extensively and
more actively.becomes the world`s unofficial international language and this
domination is unique in history. Chinese is spoken by more people, but English
is now the most wide spread language in the world. All business agreements,
official deals and documents conducted in English. Not only business documents,
but two third of all scientific papers are written in English. Over 70% of
State post and mails are written and addressed in English. Most international
tourism and business, aviation and diplomacy, computing and research works are
conducted in English.contains many borrowed words from other languages, brought
to England during its development. One of this languages is French. French
borrowed words brought to country during the 11th century by Norman
Conquest.learning French borrowings we learn its importance. Its theoretical
importance is used when we learn borrowings deeply in science. It means we
learn theoretical importance deeply for learning the lexicological studies.
This importance is used in the science, and in oral speech we needn`t to learn
theoretically. We can note that borrowed words were built by word-building
suffixes, and nowadays we know several French suffixes which build English
word.practice we analyze the functioning of French borrowed words when we try
to explain our minds. In the theoretical importance we need to learn the
cognitive and cultural aspects of borrowed words, their origin and structure of
these words and we try to understand their meanings. But in practice we needn`t
learn them deeply, we only use them in our speech.
The objects of
the diploma paper are French borrowed words from other languages. There used
the column of English-French equivalents.
The aims of
the diploma paper are to research the cognitive and cultural origin of French
borrowed words in the English language and its main role in our days, to
research the structure of the language and to divide borrowings into periods
according to their functioning.
Tasks:
First of all we must divide borrowings into three periods and learn their
classification according to their functioning. The classification of French
borrowed words consists of three periods: 1066-1250, 1250-1400, 1400- our
days.the first period there appeared about 900 words, because that was the time
when Normans began to settle and William the Conqueror allowed the common
people to keep their mother tongue. We can count very few borrowed words
because of it. But later there increased the number of loan words.the second
period there used borrowed words in such direction of the life, in government,
in cousin, in culture and etc. Norman Aristocracy began to use non-English
words, and those words used to be native ones.the third period the number of
French borrowed words increased and people mixed them with their native words.
Nowadays those words used to be English and the English lexicology full of
them.comparison of Middle English with Modern English is difficult, because in
some way we found some difficulties to derive words into periods. One of the
famous writers of Middle English is Chaucer, when we read his “Canterbury
tales” we note some borrowed words which were spoken at that time. Nowadays we
don`t use them very rarely. The language of that time was called
“Anglo-Norman”.how the language became Modern English. The language developed
and needed exchange. There came the time of technology and computing, this was
the first reason for changing it. The second reason is the wide spread of
English. So English is completed by foreign words.
Novelty of
the diploma paper is the researching of the French borrowed words from other
languages. Especially information about French borrowed words. There used table
of bilingualism equivalent of French and English words, map where shown the
territory of Normandy (the country of Norman people). The extract from the work
which was written in the Old English language.
Structure of
the diploma paper consists of two parts. In the first part I try to research
origin, the historical background, the cognitive and cultural structure of
borrowed words in the English language. We can know how developed the language,
its role in our lives and we get information about loan words and native
English words. In researching of the lexical structure of the language we find
interesting information about borrowed words from other languages.the second
part we find more information about borrowed words from the French language.
The French borrowed words consist of three main periods. The first period
depended on the Old Middle English period. The second period depended on the
Middle English period. The third period depended on the Late Middle and Early Modern
English period.
PART I.
EVOLUTION OF FRENCH BORROWINGS
english language french
borrowing
1.1 The role
of English language in a global world
English is Germanic
language and took origin from Indo-European Family. It is the first world
spread language in the world. Nowadays it is considered as a language of
development, computing and technology. About 45 countries use English as
official and co-official language, 300 million people speak English as a native
speakers, 300 million people use the language as the second language, and about
100 million people learn English as foreign language. The status of the English
language is more active and extensive. English is used in trade sphere also, it
is the language of international business, mailing and tourism. Today learning
the English language is essential [1, 35-40pp].will find more people
communicating in English than those speaking Arabic and French collectively.
Undoubtedly, the popularity of the language has termed English as the
international language of diplomacy, business, science, technology, banking,
computing, medicine, aviation, engineering, tourism, UN & NATO armed
forces, Hollywood films and the best pop and rock music of the world. Want
anymore? Apart from these unfamiliar and strange facts, there are several other
reasons that state the importance of learning the universal language,
English.addition to this, western culture carried in foreign countries in the
form of music and movies. If you want to be successful in international
business, learning English is very important. In many places, in Asia, Africa
and South America, the chance to learn English determines who will increase
their living standards, and who will remain in poverty.is essential to
understand IT, to work for international business and organization or
government. It is also very important requirement for all the major
multinational companies. It is very important for your leisure: it permits you
to travel around the world, being able to communicate and understand people
around you and to see movies and read the books in their original language.of
the businesses engaged in dealing with international clients and suppliers
prefer using English as the primary source of communication. While people have
their own native languages, English serves as the most common and user-friendly
language to interpret, translate and communicate with English-speaking
customers and professionals. Hence, to make the best out of the available
opportunities, one has to be highly fluent in English.differ from country to
country and from region to region. Thus, if you happen to travel to another
country, either for business or leisure purpose, you are sure to land yourself
into great trouble, in case you are not conversant with the native language. In
such circumstances, English comes to your rescue as it is a global language
spoken by more than 900 million people across the globe, either as native
language or second language. Familiarity to English can get you to communicate
with anyone and everyone where you travel, thereby easily handling the
situation.not only travel to places worldwide for business and pleasure, but
they leave their homeland and travel to another country for study purpose as
well. Travel to any country on this earth and you would find English as the
main medium of teaching, as it is practically impossible for a new person to
study in the local language of the country, in particular. Hence, education has,
by far, increased the importance of English to a great extent.residing in an
English-speaking country are bound to face difficulties in raising their
children, who mostly attend an English school nowadays, if they themselves
aren’t able to understand English. For instance, if the teacher of your kids
does not speak your native language, you will definitely have problems in
communicating with him/her. Furthermore, if your kids bring back homework to be
done in English, you will be of no help to them if you do not understand the
language.language teaching classes start at nursery schools, where children can
learn English easily. The teaching of English helps to get the final goal to
make children grow up and get a multicultural education.speaking, English is the
universal language on the internet, but it has no official status and it will
never have. The reason for the position of English are the imperialism and
economical and political importance of English speaking countries.position of
English can only be altered by major world-scale political and economical
changes, such as increasing importance of the European Union or a coalition
between Japan and China. Such powers might wish and be able to promote a
language other than English, possibly a constructed language, for international
communication.English is the concept of the English language as a global means
of communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an
international standard for the language. It is also referred to as Global English,
World English, Common English, Continental English or General English.
Sometimes these terms refer simply to the array of varieties of English spoken
throughout the world.“International English” and the related terms above refer
to a desired standardization, i.e. Standard English; however there is no
consensus on the path to this goal.Kachru divides the use of English into three
concentric circles.inner circle is the traditional base of English and includes
countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland and the Anglophone populations
of the former British colonies of the United States, Australia, New Zealand,
South Africa, Canada and various islands of the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and
Pacific Ocean.the outer circle are those countries where English has official
or historical importance. This includes most of the countries of the
Commonwealth of Nations, including populous countries such as India, Pakistan
and Nigeria; and others, such as the Philippines, under the sphere of influence
of English-speaking countries. Here English may serve as a useful lingua franca
between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and
judiciary, national commerce, and so on, maybe all be carried out predominantly
in English.expending circle refers to those countries where English has no
official role, but is nonetheless important for certain functions, notably
international business. This use of English as a lingua franca by now includes
most of the rest of the world not categorized above.in English as a lingua
franca in the sense of “English in the Expending Circle” is comparatively
recent. Linguists who have been active in this field are Jennifer Jenkins,
Barbara Seidlhofer, Christiane Meierkord and Joachim Grzega.is an additional
language (EAL) is usually based on the standards of either American English or
British English. English as an international language (EIL) is EAL with
emphasis on learning different major dialect forms; in particular, it aims to
equip students with the linguistic tools to communicate internationally. Roger
Nunn considers different types of competence in relation to the teaching of
English as an International language, arguing that linguistic competence has
yet to be adequately addressed in recent considerations of EIL.models of “simplified
English” have been suggested for teaching English as a foreign language: Basic
English, developed by Charles Kay Ogden ( and later also I. A. Richards) in the
1930s, a recent revival has initiated by Bill Templers.Level English, developed
by van Ek and Alexander, developed by Jean-Paul NerriereGlobal English,
developed by Joachim GrzegaEnglish sometimes refers to English as it is
actually being used and developed in the world; as a language owner not just by
native speakers, but by all those who come to use it., it covers the English
language at large, often (but not always or necessarily) implicitly seen as
standard. It is certainly also commonly used in connection with the
acquisition, use, and study of English as the world's lingua franca ('TEIL:
Teaching English as an International Language'), and especially when the
language is considered as a whole in contrast with British English, American
English, South African English, and the like.especially means English words and
phrases generally understood throughout the English-speaking world as opposed
to localisms. The importance of non-native English language skills can be
recognized behind the long-standing joke that the international language of
science and technology is broken English.
"What could be
better than a type of English that saves you from having to re-edit
publications for individual regional markets! Teachers and learners of English
as a second language also find it an attractive idea - both often concerned
that their English should be neutral, without American or British or Canadian
or Australian coloring. Any regional variety of English has a set of political,
social and cultural connotations attached to it, even the so-called 'standard'
forms."to this viewpoint, International English is a concept of English
that minimizes the aspects defined by either the colonial imperialism of
Victorian Britain or the so-called "cultural imperialism" of the 20th
century United States. While British colonialism laid the foundation for English
over much of the world, International English is a product of an emerging world
culture, very much attributable to the influence of the United States as well,
but conceptually based on a far greater degree of cross-talk and linguistic
trans cult ration, which tends to mitigate both U.S. influence and British
colonial influence.development of International English often centers on
academic and scientific communities, where formal English usage is prevalent,
and creative use of the language is at a minimum. This formal International
English allows entry into Western culture as a whole and Western cultural
values in general.continued growth of the English language itself is seen by
many as a kind of cultural imperialism, whether it is English in one form or
English in two slightly different forms.Phillipson argues against the
possibility of such neutrality in his Linguistic Imperialism (1992). Learners
who wish to use purportedly correct English are in fact faced with the dual
standard of American English and British English, and other less known standard
Englishes (including Australian, Scots and Canadian).Trimnell, author of Why
You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One (2005) argues that the
international version of English is only adequate for communicating basic
ideas. For complex discussions and business/technical situations, English is
not an adequate communication tool for non-native speakers of the language.
Trimnell also asserts that native English-speakers have become "dependent
on the language skills of others" by placing their faith in international
English.English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the
dominant language or in some instances even the required international language
of communications, science, information technology, business, aviation,
entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began
with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late 19th century its reach
was truly global. Following the British colonization of North America, it became
the dominant language in the United States and in Canada. The growing economic
and cultural influence of the US and its status as a global superpower since
World War II have significantly accelerated the language's spread across the
planet. English replaced German as the dominant language of science Nobel Prize
laureates during the second half of the 20th century (compare the Evolution of
Nobel Prizes by country).working knowledge of English has become a requirement
in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and
computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a
basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is one of six
official languages of the United Nations.impact of the growth of English has
been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, and its
influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Conversely
the natural internal variety of English along with creoles and pidgins have the
potential to produce new distinct languages from English over time.English is
not that difficult if you have taken admission in the right institution.
Believe me, it is fun learning and it can be learned easily. However, the time
frame for learning English depends on somebody’s current level. If somebody has
to start from the scratch then it might take 4-5 months if the classes are held
from Monday to Friday for 2 hours. People get really scared and become hopeless
after trying to learn English language by them or after taking admissions in
one or two institutions. However, the fact is that one should do an intelligent
search before joining any institution for learning English. There are major
difference in writing English and speaking English. It’s not necessary that a
person who can write fluent English can also speak English fluently. So, you
have to be very cautious while joining an institute and before that you need to
understand your requirement whether you’re going to learn how to write correct
English or how to speak English fluently, as many of the institute are able to
teach you how to write correct English and they fail when it comes to teach you
how to speak English fluently., writing, watching, listening and talking makes
100% and this is how you gain confidence and start speaking English fluently.
If we’re talking about importance of English language, how could we avoid
importance of personality development? If a person is fluent in English
language, but if he doesn’t have knowledge about body language and etiquettes,
he/she should not be able to demonstrate his/her abilities well. Hence,
personality development program is also an important part to learn and you
should have the proper knowledge about it. Some of the institutes offer it with
no charges or as a combo pack along with spoken English. They also teach you
interview techniques as a very minimal cost once you have enrolled yourself for
English language course.sum up, I would say you should not get scared or loose
confidence when it comes to English language. It is just that you should try
and find an institute who has the right techniques to teach English speaking
course to their students along with personality development program and
interview techniques.language is a systematic means of communication by the use
of sounds or conventional symbols. It is the code we all use to express
ourselves and communicate to others. It is a communication by word of mouth. It
is the mental faculty or power of vocal communication. It is a system for
communicating ideas and feelings using sounds, gestures, signs or marks. Any
means of communicating ideas, specifically, human speech, the expression of
ideas by the voice and sounds articulated by the organs of the throat and mouth
is a language. This is a system for communication. A language is the written
and spoken methods of combining words to create meaning used by a particular
group of people., so far as we know, is something specific to humans, that is
to say it is the basic capacity that distinguishes humans from all other living
beings. Language therefore remains potentially a communicative medium capable
of expressing ideas and concepts as well as moods, feelings and attitudes.set
of linguists who based their assumptions of language on psychology made claims
that language is nothing but ‘habit formation’. According to them, language is
learnt through use, through practice. In their view, ‘the more one is exposed
to the use of language, the better one learns’.languages use symbols
(characters) to build words. The entire set of words is the language’s
vocabulary. The ways in which the words can be meaningfully combined is defined
by the language’s syntax and grammar. The actual meaning of words and
combinations of words is defined by the language’s semantics.latest and the
most advanced discoveries and inventions in science and technology are being
made in the universities located in the United States of America where English
language is the means of scientific discourse.language comes to our aid in our
commercial transactions throughout the globe. English is the language of the
latest business management in the world and Indian proficiency in English has
brought laurels to many Indian business managers. English is a means not only
for international commerce; it has become increasingly essential for
inter-state commerce and communication.language attracts people because of the
wealth of literature and knowledge enshrined in it. English poses no danger to
Indian languages. The Indian languages are vibrant and are developing by the
contributions of great minds using them as their vehicle of expression. English
is available to us as a historical heritage in addition to our own language. We
must make the best use of English to develop ourselves culturally and
materially so that we can compete with the best in the world of mind and
matter. English language is our window to the world.language is one tool to
establish our viewpoint. We can learn from others experience. We can check the
theories of foreigners against our experience. We can reject the untenable and
accept the tenable. We can also propagate our theories among the international
audience and readers.can make use of English to promote our worldview and
spiritual heritage throughout the globe. Swami Vivekananda established the
greatness of Indian view of religion at the world conference of religions in
Chicago in 1893. He addressed the gathering in impressive English. Many
spiritual gurus have since converted thousands of English people to our
spirituality by expressing their thought and ideas in masterful English.
English has thus become an effective means of promoting Indian view of life,
and strengthening our cultural identity in the world., Standard English today
does not depend on accent but rather on shared educational experience, mainly
of the printed language. Present-day English is an immensely varied language,
having absorbed material from many other tongues. It is spoken by more than 300
million native speakers, and between 400 and 800 million foreign users. It is
the official language of air transport and shipping; the leading language of
science, technology, computers, and commerce; and a major medium of education,
publishing, and international negotiation. For this reason, scholars frequently
refer to its latest phase as World English., of course, is knowledge, and in
our world today knowledge is one of the key factors in competitiveness. Brains
and knowledge are what create the prosperity and growth we tend to take for
granted. In an advanced industrial society in an increasingly interdependent
world, the knowledge of other languages becomes indispensable. Just think of
how the advent of the Internet has changed our lives. For the last few years,
millions of people across the world, who share common interests, are able to
communicate with each other and exchange ideas. Not only are they able to do
this due to the various technological advances, but also because they share a
common language.speaking, it is highly essential to know the language for
communication. In general, the most popular language is English. In this
computer age, English is the only language that any one can understand. So to
say, it has become as an ideal language for expressing our feelings. First, we
have to learn the language and then we have to gain fluency in the language.
Unless we have the fluency in English language, it would not be possible to
work with the computer. If you do not know English, then you would be in need
of a translator to do the job.presentation is the most important factor in
communicating your feelings. So, naturally you must be sure while you are
presenting. what you really wish to say. At any point, do not try to write or
speak, beyond your capability. Even if it is a small and simple sentence, it
would reach the receiver perfectly. This is our basic idea. Slowly, you can
improve the standard of your language by practice. If you know to form the
sentences, it is more than enough to go deep into the subject. Though this only
an article about the importance of the English Language, we have to learn some
of the basic points in presenting the sentences.is the only language that the
German, the Chinese, the Japanese & Russians are keen to learn although
their mother languages are developed as English. Now almost all the universities
are conducting scientific studies through English medium.English language is
used all over the globe for transaction of international trade. To all in Sri
Lanka too a good knowledge of English is essential for the advancement of
knowledge & to further our studies. It is almost indispensable for higher
scientific and technological studies., endless options are available to take
courses on English as a second language, with a large number of reputable
teaching centers and programs to choose from. With the introduction of the
internet, there are superb alternatives to take ESL programs online.importance
of learning English cannot be overstated in an increasingly interconnected and
globalized world. For the millions of immigrants that come to the United States
from non-English-speaking countries every year, learning to communicate in
English is important to enter and ultimately succeed in mainstream America.
Working knowledge of the English language can create many opportunities in
international markets and regions.English opens job and employment
opportunities in many countries and markets. Multilateral institutions and
agencies in the four United Nation cities of New York, Vienna, The Hague and
Geneva recruit professionals with multilingual skills but also expect the
candidates to have good English-speaking skills. The Commonwealth of Nations,
made up of 50-plus countries that were former British colonies or dependencies,
also offers numerous employment opportunities to those who understand and communicate
in English.
1.2 The
historical background of the English language
The history of the
English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who
invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. The figure below shows the timeline
of the history of the English language. The earliest known residents of the
British Isles were the Celts, who spoke Celtic languages-a separate branch of
the Indo-European language family tree. Over the centuries the British Isles
were invaded and conquered by various peoples, who brought their languages and
customs with them as they settled in their new lives. There is now very little
Celtic influence left in English. The earliest time when we can say that
English was spoken was in the 5th century CE (Common Era-a politically correct
term used to replace AD). In case you hadn’t made the connection, “England”
<- “Engle Land” <- “Angle Land” (Land of the Angles, a people of northern
old Germany). Their name lives on in the district of England named East Anglia,
and also in the Anglican Church. In the present day there is still a region of
Germany known as Angeln, which is likely the same area from which the original
Angles came. Angeln lies in Schleswig-Holstein on the eastern side of the
Jutland peninsula near the cities of Flensburg and Schleswig.case you hadn’t
made the connection, “England” <- “Engle Land” <- “Angle Land” (Land of
the Angles, a people of northern old Germany). Their name lives on in the
district of England named East Anglia, and also in the Anglican Church. In the
present day there is still a region of Germany known as Angeln, which is likely
the same area from which the original Angles came. Angeln lies in
Schleswig-Holstein on the eastern side of the Jutland peninsula near the cities
of Flensburg and Schleswig.the 7th and 8th Centuries, Northumbria's culture and
language dominated Britain. The Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought
this domination to an end (along with the destruction of Mercia). Only Wessex
remained as an independent kingdom. By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect
became the official language of Britain. Written Old English is mainly known
from this period. It was written in an alphabet called Runic, derived from the
Scandinavian languages. The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by
Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English.tribes,
the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is
Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a
Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by
the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles
came from Ungallant and their language was called Englisch - from which the
words England and English are derived.invading Germanic tribes spoke similar
languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old
English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now
would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half
of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The
words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English
was spoken until around 1100.original Old English language was then influenced
by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian
branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of
Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the 11th
century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of
this called Anglo-Norman. These two invasions caused English to become
"mixed" to some degree.with the Scandinavians resulted in a
significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the
Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting
onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance
languages (Latin-based languages). This Norman influence entered English
largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a
"borrowing" language of great flexibility, resulting in an enormous
and varied vocabulary.languages of Germanic peoples gave rise to the English
language (the Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes and possibly the Franks, who
traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire in the centuries-long
process of the Germanic peoples' expansion into Western Europe during the
Migration Period). Some Latin words for common objects entered the vocabulary
of these Germanic peoples before their arrival in Britain and their subsequent
formation of England.main source of information for the culture of the Germanic
peoples (the ancestors of the English) in ancient times is Tacitus' Germania,
written around 100 AD. While remaining conversant with Roman civilization and
its economy, including serving in the Roman military, they retained political
independence. Some Germanic troops served in Britannia under the Romans. It is
unlikely that Germanic settlement in Britain was intensified (except for
Frisians) until the arrival of mercenaries in the 5th century as described by
Gildas. As it was, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived as Germanic pagans,
independent of Roman control.to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around the year 449,
Vortigern, King of the Britons, invited the "Angle kin" (Angles
allegedly led by the Germanic brothers Hengist and Horsa) to help him in
conflicts with the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the
southeast of Britain. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of
Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles and Jutes). The Chronicle
talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established seven
kingdoms, known as the heptarchy. However, modern scholars view the figures of
Hengist and Horsa as Euhemerized deities from Anglo-Saxon paganism, who
ultimately stem from the religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[1]1066 William
the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and
conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a
kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling
and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class
division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke
French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with
many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the
language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult
for native English speakers to understand today.invaders' Germanic language
displaced the indigenous Brythonic languages in most of the areas of Great
Britain that were later to become England. The original Celtic languages
remained in parts of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (where Cornish was spoken
into the 19th century). The Germanic dialects combined to form what is now
called Old English. The most famous surviving work from the Old English period
is the epic poem Beowulf composed by an unknown poet.English did not sound or
look like the Standard English of today. Any native English speaker of today
would find Old English unintelligible without studying it as a separate
language. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern
English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example,
derive from Old English; and many non-standard dialects such as Scots and
Northumbrian English have retained many features of Old English in vocabulary
and pronunciation.[2] Old English was spoken until sometime in the 12th or 13th
century., English was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Old
Norse, spoken by the Norsemen who invaded and settled mainly in the north-east
of England (see Jórvík
and Danelaw). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different
branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or
similar, although their grammars were more distinct.Germanic language of these
Old English-speaking inhabitants was influenced by contact with Norse invaders,
which might have been responsible for some of the morphological simplification
of Old English, including the loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked
case (with the notable exception of the pronouns). English words of Old Norse
origin include anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, and
many others, possibly even including the pronoun they.vocabulary of Old English
consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian
languages (Danish and Norse) and Latin. Latin gave English words like street,
kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle. The Vikings
added many Norse words: sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window (wind eye), husband,
fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they,
their, them. Celtic words also survived mainly in place and river names (Devon,
Dover, Kent, Trent, Severn, Avon, Thames).the end of Middle English, a sudden
and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with
vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British
had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance
of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language.
The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in
print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also
brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the
dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In
1604 the first English dictionary was published.after the decline of Norman,
French retained the status of a formal or prestige language and had (with
Norman) a significant influence on the language, which is visible in Modern
English today (see English language word origins and List of English words of
French origin). A tendency for Norman-derived words to have more formal
connotations has continued to the present day; most modern English speakers would
consider a "cordial reception" (from French) to be more formal than a
"hearty welcome" (Germanic). Another example is the very unusual
construction of the words for animals being separate from the words for their
meat: e.g., beef and pork (from the Norman bœuf
and porc) being the products of 'cows' and 'pigs', animals with Germanic
names.literature started to reappear around 1200, when a changing political
climate and the decline in Anglo-Norman made it more respectable. The
Provisions of Oxford, released in 1258, was the first English government
document to be published in the English language since the Conquest. In 1362,
Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English. By the end
of that century, even the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman
remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a
living language.English is often dated from the Great Vowel Shift, which took
place mainly during the 15th century. English was further transformed by the spread
of a standardized London-based dialect in government and administration and by
the standardizing effect of printing. By the time of William Shakespeare
(mid-late 16th century),[6] the language had become clearly recognizable as
Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published, the Table
Alphabetical.main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern
English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from
two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology
created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height
covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted
foreign words from many countries. Since the 16th Century, because of the
contact that the British had with many peoples from around the world, and the
Renaissance of Classical learning, many words have entered the language either
directly or indirectly. New words were created at an increasing rate.
Shakespeare coined over 1600 words. This process has grown exponentially in the
modern era.around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in
the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English
pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways,
American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British
English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are
in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while
lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb
instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was
re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had
an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words
like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that
entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words
(through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced
American English (and so, to an extent, British English)., American English is
particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television,
popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are
many other varieties of English around the world, including for example
Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African
English, Indian English and Caribbean English.
1.3 The main
periods of borrowings in the English language
are main periods of
French borrowed words in the English language. The first period began from
1066, lasted till 1250. In the first period there appeared only few words. Most
people used their native words and kept their mother tongue. The second period
began 1250 and lasted till 1400. In the second period the structure of the
English language changed, because the Norman-French language was considered as
the language of Aristocracy. The language of Government and Court had changes,
there the number of borrowed words was increased. The third period began from
1400. In the third period those borrowed words were used as native words,
because people used to speak in mixed language.
1.3.1 The
borrowed words in the Middle English language
Loanwords are words
adopted by the speakers of one language from a different language (the source
language). A loanword can also be called a borrowing. The abstract noun
borrowing refers to the process of speakers adopting words from a source
language into their native language. "Loan" and "borrowing"
are of course metaphors, because there is no literal lending process. There is
no transfer from one language to another, and no "returning" words to
the source language. The words simply come to be used by a speech community
that speaks a different language from the one these words originated in.is a
consequence of cultural contact between two language communities. Borrowing of
words can go in both directions between the two languages in contact, but often
there is an asymmetry, such that more words go from one side to the other. In
this case the source language community has some advantage of power, prestige
and/or wealth that makes the objects and ideas it brings desirable and useful
to the borrowing language community. For example, the Germanic tribes in the
first few centuries A.D. adopted numerous loanwords from Latin as they adopted
new products via trade with the Romans. Few Germanic words, on the other hand,
passed into Latin.actual process of borrowing is complex and involves many
usage events (i.e. instances of use of the new word). Generally, some speakers
of the borrowing language know the source language too, or at least enough of
it to utilize the relevant word. They (often consciously) adopt the new word
when speaking the borrowing language, because it most exactly fits the idea
they are trying to express. If they are bilingual in the source language, which
is often the case, they might pronounce the words the same or similar to the
way they are pronounced in the source language. For example, English speakers
adopted the word garage from French, at first with a pronunciation nearer to
the French pronunciation than is now usually found. Presumably the very first
speakers who used the word in English knew at least some French and heard the
word used by French speakers, in a French-speaking context.who first use the
new word might use it at first only with speakers of the source language who
know the word, but at some point they come to use the word with those to whom
the word was not previously known. To these speakers the word may sound
'foreign'. At this stage, when most speakers do not know the word and if they
hear it think it is from another language, the word can be called a foreign
word. There are many foreign words and phrases used in English such as bon
vivant (French), mutatis mutandis (Latin), and Fahrvergnuegen (German)., in
time more speakers can become familiar with a new foreign word or expression.
The community of users of this word can grow to the point where even people who
know little or nothing of the source language understand, and even use, the
novel word themselves. The new word becomes conventionalized: part of the
conventional ways of speaking in the borrowing language. At this point we call
it a borrowing or loanword.is a gradual process in which a word progressively
permeates a larger and larger speech community, becoming part of ever more
people's linguistic repertoire. As part of its becoming more familiar to more
people, a newly borrowed word gradually adopts sound and other characteristics
of the borrowing language as speakers who do not know the source language
accommodate it to their own linguistic systems. In time, people in the
borrowing community do not perceive the word as a loanword at all. Generally,
the longer a borrowed word has been in the language, and the more frequently it
is used, the more it resembles the native words of the language.has gone
through many periods in which large numbers of words from a particular language
were borrowed. These periods coincide with times of major cultural contact
between English speakers and those speaking other languages. The waves of
borrowing during periods of especially strong cultural contacts are not sharply
delimited, and can overlap. For example, the Norse influence on English began
already in the 8th century A.D. and continued strongly well after the Norman
Conquest brought a large influx of Norman French to the language.is part of the
cultural history of English speakers that they have always adopted loanwords
from the languages of whatever cultures they have come in contact with. There
have been few periods when borrowing became unfashionable, and there has never
been a national academy in Britain, the U.S., or other English-speaking
countries to attempt to restrict new loanwords, as there has been in many
continental European countries.following list is a small sampling of the
loanwords that came into English in different periods and from different
languages.borrowings are testimonials to our (“our” being humans) “physical
mobility and mental laziness” then the British would probably win the gold
medal. How could a country whose original inhabitants were Celts have ceded
that language to the one we currently know as English? It is because of the
many times that the British Isles were invaded, obviously by outsiders, who
brought their language, dialects and customs into the country. As the invaders
settled in, they transformed both the written and spoken words of the English
residents, who were able to adapt through the assimilation of borrowed
words.Jespersen1, in his book Growth and Structure of the English Language,
points out that the English language is a “chain of borrowings” that was a
result of the conquests of Britain by various invaders. The foreigners brought
their languages to England but were unable to completely impose their languages
on the British. Instead, the foreigners’ languages were intermixed as if being
thrown into a blender with the native speakers’ words. With that, these groups
succeeded, to varying degrees, in influencing the evolution of written and
spoken English as we now know it.came the Romans and with their occupation of
England, introduced Latin to some, but not all, its inhabitants. While the
Celts co-existed with the Romans and “continental Germans,” only a few hundred
borrowed Latin words are found in Old English, which was basically a
“self-sufficing” language, according to Jespersen. With the Teutonic/Germanic
invasions of 450 A.D., the Celtic language was relegated to the mists of its
Irish island. But the inhabitants of England needed to communicate with their
new neighbors and the borrowing of words began.Christianization of the country
in the 6th Century forced more inhabitants to adopt Latin words and phrases
through the Church. Still, these borrowed Latin words were used mainly in the
realm of the upper classes when “every educated Englishman spoke and wrote
Latin as easily as he spoke and wrote his mother tongue,” according to James
Bradstreet Greenough and George Lyman Kittredge2 in their book, Words and Their
Ways in English Speech. These “educated” men (and I would think women, too)
could use the borrowed words both in conversation and on the written page.the
Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in Britain, and with the Celts displaced, the
language literally began evolving as the new-arrivals began settling in. The
Celtic influence began rapidly diminishing as the so-called “superior” borrowed
words began to take hold. While at first speaking their own Teutonic languages,
upon establishing themselves with the native inhabitants their language
gradually drifted away from their home countries and began to mesh with one
another. Of course, the language from this period would be barely recognizable
to most, if not all, (except for etymologists) present-day readers. Yet, while
the Angles, Saxons and Jutes brought us the original English language, the
foundation of English as we know it today is Germanic with a massive French
influence.history of the English language, and its borrowings, is founded on
three invasions: Teutonic; Scandinavian (Vikings); and, most importantly, by
the Norman conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy in 1066. (Luckily, the
Nazis never made it across the Channel.) The Teutonic and Scandinavian
invasions obviously affected the native language. But it was the
French-speaking Normans, led by William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant),
who introduced the greatest, most extensive and most permanent collection of
borrowed or “loan” words, as Jespersen is fond of writing, to the English
language upon their successful 1066 invasion of the island.Norman occupation
lasted much longer than that of the Norse invasion and unlike the
Scandinavians, who co-existed with the invaded, the Normans overwhelmed the
English. The British status quo was tossed out as the Normans reconfigured the
structures of England, from its legal system to its religions, by becoming the
ruling masters of the island.the Normans brought their French to the British
Isles, they, too, were also operating in a sense with borrowed words. If, as
Greenough and Kittredge point out, French is simply Latin in a “corrupt form”
then the conquered British inhabitants would have had to absorb two borrowed
languages - French and Latin. And the question for them, if they chose to ask
it, is from which genesis the written or spoken words the Normans brought to
the shores came from - Latin or French.invading Normans also introduced a sort
of language class warfare to the Britons. If a foreign language is thrust upon
the conquered, one would think that it would spread from top to bottom through
all strata of the inhabitants. The “losing” language would thus disappear. Yet,
that did not happen after the Normans’ arrival. The conquered nobles adopted
the French model, but the peasants retained the Germanic tongue, setting up
both a class and a linguistic divide that would remain until their languages,
and borrowed words, blended into Middle English.morphing French words and
phrases into the English language does not mean there was a certain borrowing
snobbery. Writers, such as Chaucer, or diplomats, the royalty, high-ranking
members of the military and businessmen who were familiar with French culture
(and given the closeness of European borders, easily attainable), readily adopted
and adapted words borrowed from the French into the English language. In many
cases, the borrowing was not cavalier, but was a necessity to
communicate.Norman Conquest forced the creation of an entirely new way of
English life, influencing the language of its law, religion, medicine and arts.
Since the French/Latin-speakers were the dominant power, the Britons had to
borrow words in order to simply communicate with their new masters who “ousted”
some of the local vernacular. These “newcomers” may have rid some of the
centuries-old English synonyms, but they became ingrained because of their ties
to the originals. The Anglo-Saxon king and queen survived the French influence,
but with the Normans along came such titles as duke and duchess. Well, Britons
would have to be able to understand what either of these two terms meant and,
thus, they would assimilate these borrowed words into, if not every day use,
their sometime use.to Jespersen, many British adopted borrowed French words not
only to communicate, but because they felt it was the “fashion” to imitate
their “betters.” Again, while some might perceive this as a form of snobbery,
many of us do strive to improve our language skills. While saying someone tried
to overthrow a government is basic and to the point, using coup d’etat as the
phrase is instantly recognizable to many readers and, almost, puts more of a
sense of urgency to the event. You could say a woman is stylish, which I am
sure she would appreciate, but substituting the borrowed chic usually makes
more of an impact. Obviously, our knowledge of borrowed words not only expands
our vocabulary but enables us to converse with one another.it is understandable
that the Britons would borrow words that did not exist in their native
language, such as majesty and mayor, it is somewhat mystifying why they would
replace their swin with the French porc. That is unless you consider how the
English farmers and French aristocrats dealt with livestock. With these two
related words, the Germanic swin is more down-to-earth while the French porc
was considered more refined. Swin evolved into the present-day swine, which is
what English peasants would have been raising, while the porc or pork would
have been what the upper-class French would eat. It is “animal versus food”
and, again, the borrowings would elevate the perceived social standing of the
English man or woman who used the French word. And as Greenough and Kittredge
illustrate, sometimes the foreign word, such as divide, becomes more popular
than the inhabitants’ cleave. Also, one word can crowd out another, with the
native being the one shunted aside as in what happened to the local ey which
was replaced by the Scandinavian egg.French language-influence on the English
presented them with more abstract words than what the Britons might have
considered to be their clear and concrete definitions of their native words.
The English child as opposed to the borrowed French infant, or the English
freedom compared to the French liberty are examples.amazing thing about the
transformation and evolution of the English language is the extent to how
receptive the country’s inhabitants were to outside languages, particularly
French and Latin. It is almost as if an invader could plant a language seed and
the Britons would cultivate it. But unlike the French who most likely would
stay with that one language plant, the English (perhaps because of their love
of gardening) seemed intent on growing as many synonymous words as possible.
And, continuing with this somewhat silly gardening analogy, Jespersen points
out that many times “the English soil has proved more fertilizing than the
French soil” for transplanted words. Why offer one native word, as the French
seem to enjoy, when you can convert a multitude of borrowed words and multiply
them into synonymous bits of language as the English seem wont to do? Or, as
the University of Minnesota’s professor and author of Word Origins and How We
Know Them, Dr. Anatoly Liberman3 asks in his lecture, A Coat of Many Colors, is
it “better to have two nostrils or one?” With a multitude of similar words, the
English at least, seem to have embraced the “two nostrils” theory, sometimes
using both the native and the borrowed words side-by-side.borrowing has also
helped inflate the size of English dictionaries. The voluminous English
dictionaries, as compared to French, German or Dutch dictionaries for example,
can credit their size to the borrowings of foreign words the British adopted.
If the English were originally concerned that their native language was not up
to snuff with the French or Latin tongues, the Britons’ borrowings might give
new meaning to “size matters.”I have mainly focused on the Norman Conquest and
the seismic language shift 1066 created in the linguistic world, there were
others that might have been subsequently involved in English-word borrowings -
if they had arrived in time. Among them are Spanish and Italian, but as
Greenough and Kittredge point out, while their influence upon English
literature has “been very great, but upon (English) vocabulary these languages
have had no appreciable effect.” That is because the Normans made the goal
first and the English had basically borrowed all the words and phrases they
needed.’s emergence as a superpower brought it, in a sense, border expansion
because of colonialism. This also introduced its people to sights they had
never seen and for which they would need descriptive words. The Britons could
only borrow them as there was no native term to express what they
encountered.were no such things as boomerangs or kangaroos in England, so when
the Britons came upon them instead of creating entirely new words to define
them, the easier alternative was to borrow the Australian words. Elephants,
leopards and panthers also were not native to England and, again, these animal
names would have to be borrowed for Britons to describe them to one another.
Even the tomato, unknown in the country until its introduction from the New
World, would have to be named. Borrowing from the Spanish tomate, the British settled
on tomato.these examples were new words to the English and diversified their
vocabulary, they did not affect the “structure” of their speech. Instead, they
were “simply the adoption of names for particular things,” according to
Greenough and Kittredge.Renaissance brought a multitude of classical words,
particularly from France and Italy, increasing the Latin influence on language
in England. But Italy, along with Spain, contributed few borrowed words because
the English language was nearly completely formed by this age. The new words
and phrases enriched the British language, but Jespersen believes at somewhat
of a cost. Because of the various invasions, the English had, over time, begun
to “shrink from consciously coining new words out of native material.” That
concept brings us full circle back to the “physical mobility and mental
laziness” aspect of borrowing words., in a sense, exotic words now easily roll
off the tongues of English-speaking people. We all know what a kindergarten,
from the German, means. Most would know what a baguette or croissant, from the
French, also mean. And, staying with baked goods, the Yiddish bagel (originally
beygl) is certainly well known to many English-speaking people, particularly
New Yorkers.do all foreign or exotic words lend themselves to borrowing and
become ingrained in the English language? In The Lexicographer’s Dilemma,
author Jack Lynch4 brings up the Arabic jihad and questions whether it is an
English word yet. Before September 11, 2001, I doubt many English speakers had
heard of the word. By September 12, I believe that jihad was as familiar a
phrase to us as the word bread., in one of his lectures, illustrated the
borrowed words sputnik and perestroika. At various points in time these
borrowed words were all the rage. While I was too young to comprehend sputnik
when it was launched, throughout my early school years I learned its
significance. Yet, I doubt that any person in high school today would
understand the word or fathom how quickly it was borrowed into the English
language.same fate awaited perestroika. About six years after it was proposed
in the Soviet Union, the word filled inches of newspaper copy in the mid 1980s.
But I would be amazed to find any mention of Gorbachev’s initiative for today’s
English-speaking newspaper readers. If borrowed words are a “result of language
contact in a certain place at a certain time,” as Lieberman phrases it in Word
Origins, then these two Russian words fit the bill perfectly. But these etymons
probably have little “staying power,” particularly since neither really forms
ties with other words. So, like the many borrowed words from the past that
failed to live on, these two are also probably consigned to the linguistic junk
heap, at least for English readers.wrapping up, the borrowing of words
illustrates that when two languages compete for domination over one another,
adaptability and adoptability are key ingredients. The Celts did not understand
this and their language was marginalized. The Germanic-speakers faced the same
fate when confronted with the Norman Conquest, but many of the higher-educated
Britons saw the (Gallic) writing on the wall and chose to borrow the necessary
words and phrases to communicate in a changed environment. By, out of
necessity, opting to borrow from their foreign rulers, the English language
evolved into the most extensive and prolific on the planet.periodforms given in
this section are the Old English ones. The original Latin source word is given
in parentheses where significantly different. Some Latin words were themselves
originally borrowed from Greek. It can be deduced that these borrowings date
from the time before the Angles and Saxons left the continent for England,
because of very similar forms found in the other old Germanic languages (Old
High German, Old Saxon, etc.). The source words are generally attested in Latin
texts, in the large body of Latin writings that were preserved through the
ages.ancor'anchor''butter' (L < Gr. butyros)'chalk''cheese'
(caseum)'kettle''kitchen''church' (ecclesia < Gr. ecclesia)'dish'
(discus)'mile' (milia [passuum] 'a thousand paces')'pepper''pound' (pondo 'a
weight')'sack' (saccus)'sickle''street' ([via] strata 'straight way' or
stone-paved road)'wall' (vallum)'wine' (vinum < Gr. oinos). Old English Period
(600-1100)'apostle' (apostolus < Gr. apostolos)'caesar, emperor''city'
(castra 'camp')'chest' (cista 'box')'circle''comet' (cometa < Greek)'master'
(magister)'martyr''paper' (papyrus, from Gr.)'tile' (tegula)'badger''combe,
valley'
(few ordinary words,
but thousands of place and river names: London, Carlisle,, Dover, Cornwall,
Thames, Avon...)
Middle English
Period (1100-1500)of these first appeared in the written language in Middle
English; but many were no doubt borrowed earlier, during the period of the
Danelaw (9th-10th centuries)., blight, by-law, cake, call, clumsy, doze, egg,
fellow, gear, get, give, hale, hit, husband, kick, kill, kilt, kindle, law,
low, lump, rag, raise, root, scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, seat,
skill, skin, skirt, sky, sly, take, they, them, their, thrall, thrust, ugly,
want, window, wingname suffixes: -by, -Thorpe, -gateand government-attorney,
bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime, defendent, evidence,
government, jail, judge, jury, larceny, noble, parliament, plaintiff, plea,
prison, revenue, state, tax, verdictabbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar,
prayer, preach, priest, religion, sacrament, saint, sermonbaron, baroness;
count, countess; duke, duchess; marquis, marquess; prince, princess; viscount,
viscountess; noble, royal (contrast native words: king, queen, earl, lord,
lady, knight, kingly, queenly)army, artillery, battle, captain, company,
corporal, defense,enemy,marine, navy, sergeant, soldier, volunteerbeef, boil,
broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, poultry, roast, salmon, stew, vealand
luxury goods-art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur,
jewel, oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, sculptureadventure, change,
charge, chart, courage, devout, dignity, enamor, feign, fruit, letter,
literature, magic, male, female, mirror, pilgrimage, proud, question, regard,
specialMiddle English French loans: a huge number of words in age, -ance/-ence,
-ant/-ent, -ity, -ment, -tion, con-, de-, and pre-.it's hard to tell whether a
given word came from French or whether it was taken straight from Latin. Words
for which this difficulty occurs are those in which there were no special sound
and/or spelling changes of the sort that distinguished French from Latin. Early
Modern English Period (1500-1650)effects of the renaissance begin to be
seriously felt in England. We see the beginnings of a huge influx of Latin and
Greek words, many of them learned words imported by scholars well versed in
those languages. But many are borrowings from other languages, as words from
European high culture begin to make their presence felt and the first words
come in from the earliest period of colonial expansion., abdomen, anatomy,
area, capsule, compensate, dexterity, discus, disc/disk, excavate, expensive,
fictitious, gradual, habitual, insane, janitor, meditate, notorious, orbit,
peninsula, physician, superintendent, ultimate, vindicate(many of these via
Latin), atmosphere, autograph, catastrophe, climax, comedy, critic, data,
ectasy, history, ostracize, parasite, pneumonia, skeleton, tonic, tragedybound
morphemes: -ism, -izeSpanish-alcove, algebra, zenith, algorithm, almanac,
azimuth, alchemy, admiralother Romance languages-amber, cipher, orange,
saffron, sugar, zero, coffee.
1.3.2 The
borrowed words in the Modern English language
Early Modern
English Period (1500-1650). The effects of the renaissance begin to be
seriously felt in England. We see the beginnings of a huge influx of Latin and
Greek words, many of them learned words imported by scholars well versed in
those languages. But many are borrowings from other languages, as words from
European high culture begin to make their presence felt and the first words
come in from the earliest period of colonial expansion.continues to be the
largest single source of new words outside of very specialized vocabulary
domains (scientific/technical vocabulary, still dominated by classical
borrowings).culture-ballet, bouillabaise, cabernet, cachet, chaise longue,
champagne, chic, cognac, corsage, faux pas, nom de plume, quiche, rouge,
roulet, sachet, salon, saloon, sang froid, savoir faireand Military-bastion,
brigade, battalion, cavalry, grenade, infantry, pallisade, rebuff,
bayonetbigot, chassis, clique, denim, garage, grotesque, jean(s), niche,
shockCanadian-chowderFrench (Cajun)-jambalaya, adobe, alligator, alpaca,
armadillo, barricade, bravado, cannibal, canyon, coyote, desperado, embargo,
enchilada, guitar, marijuana, mesa, mosquito, mustang, ranch, taco, tornado,
tortilla, vigilante, arsenal, balcony, broccoli, cameo, casino, cupola, duo,
fresco, fugue, gazette (via French), ghetto, gondola, grotto, macaroni,
madrigal, motto, piano, opera, pantaloons, prima donna, regatta, sequin,
soprano, opera, stanza, stucco, studio, tempo, torso, umbrella, viola, violinItalian
American immigrants-cappuccino, espresso, linguini, mafioso, pasta, pizza,
ravioli, spaghetti, spumante, zabaglione, zucchini, Flemish, naval terms-avast,
boom, bow, bowsprit, buoy, commodore, cruise, dock, freight, keel, keelhaul,
leak, pump, reef, scoop, scour, skipper, sloop, smuggle, splice, tackle, yawl,
yachtindustry-bale, cambric, duck (fabric), fuller's earth, mart, nap (of
cloth), selvage, spool, stripeeasel, etching, landscape, sketchbeleaguer,
holster, freebooter, furlough, onslaughtand drink-booze, brandy(wine),
coleslaw, cookie, cranberry, crullers, gin, hops, stockfish, wafflebugger
(orig. French), crap, curl, dollar, scum, split (orig. nautical term), uproar,
dunk, feldspar, quartz, hex, lager, knackwurst, liverwurst, loafer, noodle, poodle,
dachshund, pretzel, pinochle, pumpernickel, sauerkraut, schnitzel, zwieback,
(beer)stein, lederhosen, dirndl
th century German
loanwords-blitzkrieg, zeppelin, strafe, U-boat, delicatessen, hamburger,
frankfurter, wiener, hausfrau, kindergarten, Oktoberfest, schuss, wunderkind,
bundt (cake), spritz (cookies), (apple) strudel(most are 20th century
borrowings), Chanukkah (Hanukkah), chutzpah, dreidel, kibbitzer, kosher, lox,
pastrami (orig. from Romanian), schlep, spiel, schlepp, schlemiel, schlimazel, gefilte
fish, goy, klutz, knish, matzoh, oy vey, schmuck, schnook,, maelstrom,
ombudsman, ski, slalom, smorgasbord, borscht, czar/tsar, glasnost, icon,
perestroika, vodkafrom other parts of the world
Sanskrit, karma,
mahatma, swastika, yoga
Hindi, bangle,
bungalow, chintz, cot, cummerbund, dungaree, juggernaut, jungle, loot,
maharaja, nabob, pajamas, punch (the drink), shampoo, thug, kedgeree, jamboree,
mango, teak, pariah(Farsi), checkmate, chess, emir, jakir, gazelle, giraffe,
harem, hashish, lute, minaret, Mosque, myrrh, salaam, sirocco, sultan, vizier,
bazaar, caravanlanguages(via Portuguese), banjo, boogie-woogie, chigger,
goober, gorilla, gumbo, jazz, jitterbug, jitters, juke(box), voodoo, yam,
zebra, zombieIndian languages, cacao, cannibal, canoe, chipmunk, chocolate,
chili, hammock, hominy, hurricane, maize, moccasin, moose, papoose, pecan,
possum, potato, skunk, squaw, succotash, squash, tamale (via Spanish), teepee,
terrapin, tobacco, toboggan, tomahawk, tomato, wigwam, woodchuck
(plus thousands of
place names, including Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatchewan and the names of more than
half theof the U.S., including Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, Illinois)suey, chow
mein, dim sum, ketchup, tea, ginseng, kowtow, litchee, hara kiri, judo,
jujitsu, kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai, soy, sumo, sushi, tsunamiIslands,
gingham, rattan, taboo, tattoo, ukulele, boondocks, budgerigar, didgeridoo,
kangaroo (and many more in Australian English)English began around the 16th
Century and, like all languages, is still changing. One change occurred when
the suffix of some verb forms became s (loveth, loves; hath, has). Auxiliary
verbs also changed (he is risen, he has risen).French is the 11th century
language of France and England. It is an Indo-European language.1066, the
Norman king, William the Conqueror, invaded England. Many Norman French words
entered the language after this. In general, the Normans were the nobility,
while the native English were their servants. The names of domestic animals and
their meats show this relationship. The animal name is English
("cow", "sheep", "pig") while the names of the
meats derived from these animals is French ("beef",
"mutton", "pork").belongs to each of us. Everyone uses
words. What is there in a language that makes people so curious? The answer is
that there is almost nothing in our life that is not touched by language. We
all speak and we all listen so we are all interested in the origin of words, in
how they appear and die. Nowadays 750 million people all over the world use English.
It has become the language of the planet.of words are the same, but there are
some differences. For example in Middle English ynogh is enough in modern
English; longe is long; agoon is ago and so on, but they are a little bit
similar in writing, so it is not very difficult to understand them.the number
of French loans in the modern period is relatively minor in comparison to
Middle English, the contribution is most important. The French Loans were
primarily borrowed to provide richness to the language. Whilst it was arguable
during the Restoration whether the loans were corrupting or enriching the
language, today there is no doubt or disputable grounds to argue that the loans
did nothing but enrich the English language.borrowing of vocabulary is rapprochement
of nations on the ground of economic, political and cultural connections. The
bright example of it can be numerous French borrowings to English language.to
continue borrowings in 20th century did not have special success because
language became more independent.my opinion we managed to study the problems of
French borrowings in the English language. We understood possible ways of
penetrating French words in the English language, we have seen difference ways
of difference types of borrowings.spite of arrival of the words from different
languages into the English vocabulary, the English Language did not suffer from
large flow of foreign elements.the contrary its vocabulary has been enriched
due to the taken foreign elements.Etymologically the vocabulary of the English
language is far from being homogenous. It consists of two layers - the native
stock of words and the borrowed stock of words In fact native words comprise
only 30% of the total number of words in the English vocabulary. The native words
have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valiancy, they are highly
polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and set expressions.the
term is used to denote the process of adopting words from other languages and
also the result of this process. Borrowed words or loanwords are words taken
from another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving
language. In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is
practically indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough
etymological analysis.of borrowings. - is appliede to the lang from which
particular words were taken into Engl. Original borrowings. - the term is
applied to the language the word may be traced to. Assimilation - the process
of the changing of the adopted words. A. of thr borrowings includes changes in:
sound form; morphological strct; grammar charact-s; usage.assimilated
borrowings - are the words which have undergone all types of Assimilation. They
are active in word formation. Partially assim-d b. - the words which lack one
of the types of A. They are subdivided into: borrow. not ass-d grammatically
(nouns borrowed from Latin or Greek); borrow. not ass-d phonetically (contain
peculiarities in stress, not standard for English); barbarisms - words from
other lang., used by English people in conversations or writing, but not
assimilated in any way.are words borrowed? Wars, conquests; trade,
international and cultural relations; to fill the gap in vocabulary; words,
which express some particular notion; enrichment of word groups (syn.,
ant…).fact that for many of the above words Germanic equivalents already
existed in English and continued to exist led to a stylistic splitting of the
vocabulary of English. Thus a word like work is a Germanic word and the normal
everyday word whereas labour is a Romance loanword which is regarded as being
on a higher level, cf. ‘I have some work to do now’, ‘The value of labour in
our society’. In other cases the Romance loanword has come to have a slightly
different meaning to the Germanic base word, cf. ask and demand where the
latter (Romance) word has the implication of insisting on something.the various
types of changes which took place in the period in which Middle English
borrowed from French through direct contact, are those which led to a mixing of
Germanic and Romance elements. Thus one has cases of assimilation in which an
English word was created on the basis of a similar sounding French word. Here
one has an instance of the French form complementing the English one. For
example, the English verb choose obtained a noun choice on the basis of a
borrowing of French choix.some cases one can no longer decide whether the
Germanic or the Romance form of a word has survived into Modern English. Thus
in the case of the adjective rich one cannot tell whether it is a continuation
of the Old English rice or the later French borrowing riche. However, one can
in many cases see a contamination of the morphology of words due to French
borrowing. With the previous adjective one can see the Romance suffix in the
noun formed from it: richess as opposed to Old English richdom with the Romance
ending -ess.form of a word may have been changed without its meaning having
been affected. With the Old English word iegland / iland (cf. German Eiland)
one arrives at the later spelling island under the influence of French isle.
Note that the s here is unetymological, i.e. was never pronounced in English.
Some French loanwords were influenced by changes later than Middle English.
This is for example the case with Old French viage which was borrowed into
Middle English but where the later French form voyage was borrowed into English
and adapted in its pronunciation. The same is true of the Middle English noun
flaute which was changed under the influence of later French flute.form of many
French loanwords can be used to date borrowing. As mentioned above there are
two strands of French influence, an early Anglo-Norman one and a later Central
French one. These can be identified phonologically as can be seen in the word
pairs catch and chase or cattle and chattels (from captiare and capitale in
Latin respectively). In the first word one sees Middle English cacchen which
was borrowed from North French cachier as the retention of the /k/ before /a/
was a feature of Norman French.1250 the influence of Central French was
predominant in England. In this variety of French the original /k/ retained in
Norman French was shifted to /tʃ/ which is reflected in the writing where
c was changed to ch. Thus we have the Central French verb chacier being
borrowed into Middle English as chacen, Modern English chase. Note that the
later borrowing did not replace the earlier one in keeping with the principle
that if two variant forms come to be distinguished semantically their
continuing existence in the language is as good as guaranteed. Not so with a
number of other Norman French borrowings which were replaced by the later
Central French ones: calice, carite, cancel; chalice, charite, chancel.Central
French /tʃ/ underwent the further change to /ʃ/ in the course of the
post-Middle English period and later loans reflect this. Thus we have change
and chief as Middle English loans from Central French with /tʃ/ but words
like chef and champagne with /ʃ/ are of a later origin.differences in
pronunciation can be used to date other loanwords from French. For example the
relationship of /dž/
and /ž/
shows the relative chronology of borrowing. The older loans such as siege,
judge, age show the affricate /dž/
whereas newer loans from the Early Modern English period have the simple
fricative typical of Modern French as in rouge /ru:ž/;
with the word garage there still exist two alternative pronunciations /ˡgærɪdʒ/
and /gəˡrɑ:ʒ/.can also recognise later borrowings by the
vowel quality when the stress is found on the final syllable: memoir (cf. the
earlier loan memory), liqueur (cf. the earlier form liquor).’s emergence as a
superpower brought it, in a sense, border expansion because of colonialism.
This also introduced its people to sights they had never seen and for which
they would need descriptive words. The Britons could only borrow them as there
was no native term to express what they encountered.were no such things as
boomerangs or kangaroos in England, so when the Britons came upon them instead
of creating entirely new words to define them, the easier alternative was to
borrow the Australian words. Elephants, leopards and panthers also were not
native to England and, again, these animal names would have to be borrowed for
Britons to describe them to one another. Even the tomato, unknown in the
country until its introduction from the New World, would have to be named.
Borrowing from the Spanish tomate, the British settled on tomato.these examples
were new words to the English and diversified their vocabulary, they did not
affect the “structure” of their speech. Instead, they were “simply the adoption
of names for particular things,” according to Greenough and
Kittredge.Renaissance brought a multitude of classical words, particularly from
France and Italy, increasing the Latin influence on language in England. But
Italy, along with Spain, contributed few borrowed words because the English
language was nearly completely formed by this age. The new words and phrases
enriched the British language, but Jespersen believes at somewhat of a cost.
Because of the various invasions, the English had, over time, begun to “shrink
from consciously coining new words out of native material.” That concept brings
us full circle back to the “physical mobility and mental laziness” aspect of
borrowing words., in a sense, exotic words now easily roll off the tongues of
English-speaking people. We all know what a kindergarten, from the German,
means. Most would know what a baguette or croissant, from the French, also
mean. And, staying with baked goods, the Yiddish bagel (originally beygl) is
certainly well known to many English-speaking people, particularly New
Yorkers.do all foreign or exotic words lend themselves to borrowing and become
ingrained in the English language? In The Lexicographer’s Dilemma, author Jack
Lynch brings up the Arabic jihad and questions whether it is an English word
yet. Before September 11, 2001, I doubt many English speakers had heard of the
word. By September 12, I believe that jihad was as familiar a phrase to us as
the word bread., in one of his lectures, illustrated the borrowed words sputnik
and perestroika. At various points in time these borrowed words were all the
rage. While I was too young to comprehend sputnik when it was launched,
throughout my early school years I learned its significance. Yet, I doubt that
any person in high school today would understand the word or fathom how quickly
it was borrowed into the English language.same fate awaited perestroika. About
six years after it was proposed in the Soviet Union, the word filled inches of
newspaper copy in the mid 1980s. But I would be amazed to find any mention of
Gorbachev’s initiative for today’s English-speaking newspaper readers. If
borrowed words are a “result of language contact in a certain place at a
certain time,” as Liberman phrases it in Word Origins, then these two Russian
words fit the bill perfectly. But these etymons probably have little “staying
power,” particularly since neither really forms ties with other words. So, like
the many borrowed words from the past that failed to live on, these two are
also probably consigned to the linguistic junk heap, at least for English
readers.wrapping up, the borrowing of words illustrates that when two languages
compete for domination over one another, adaptability and adoptability are key
ingredients. The Celts did not understand this and their language was
marginalized. The Germanic-speakers faced the same fate when confronted with
the Norman Conquest, but many of the higher-educated Britons saw the (Gallic)
writing on the wall and chose to borrow the necessary words and phrases to
communicate in a changed environment. By, out of necessity, opting to borrow
from their foreign rulers, the English language evolved into the most extensive
and prolific on the planet.borrowings 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. Those who remained in other parts of Britain must
have merged in with the Anglo-Saxons. The end result is a surprising small
number - only a handful - 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.recently, though, Celtic words
were also introduced into English from Irish Gaelic - bog, brogue, blarney, clan,
slogan, whisky.borrowings.Scandinavian influence on Britain can be thought of
in terms of three episodes., we can think of the period 750-1016 when the
Vikings (Scandinavians) began attacking the northern and eastern shores of
Britain and settling in those parts of Britain. There was a state of enmity
between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings, so unsurprisingly, not many
Scandinavian borrowings took place; these include husbonda (husband) and lagu
(law)., we can consider the period 1016-1050, where the conditions were more or
less similar to the earlier period, only that King Alfred the Great had
succeeded in uniting the Anglo-Saxons through actively promoting the English
language (among other things). There were more borrowings, including cnif
(knife) and diegan (die)., we have the period 1050-1480. The French-speaking
Normans took over Britain in 1066, and both the English and Scandinavians were
given the same fate and were subdued by the Normans. Naturally, the English and
the Scandinavians come together and interact with each other more closely.
Therefore, a massive influence of the Scandinavian languages on English, in
both grammar and vocabulary.you are a specialist, it is very difficult to pick
out Scandinavian 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). Scandinavian loan-words are
therefore more usefully considered as core items. Why is this so?
The
English and Scandinavian belong to the same Germanic racial, cultural and
linguistic stock originally and their language, therefore, shared common grammatical
features and words. But changes had occurred in the languages during the couple
of centuries of separation of the two sets of people.
The
Scandinavians came to settle, rather than conquer or pillage. They lived
alongside the Anglo-Saxons on more or less equal terms.
Under the
Norman French, particularly, the two different groups fashioned a common life
together as subjects.these conditions:
(a) the English
word sometimes displaced the cognate Scandinavian word: fish instead of fisk;
goat instead of gayte;
(b) the
Scandinavian word sometimes displaces the cognate English word: egg instead of
ey, sister instead of sweoster;
(c) both might
remain, but with somewhat different meanings: dike-ditch, hale-whole,
raise-rise, sick-ill, skill-craft, skirt-shirt;
(d) the English
word might remain, but takes on the Scandinavian meaning dream (originally
‘joy’, ‘mirth’, ‘music’, ‘revelry’); and
(e) the English
words that were becoming obsolete might be given a new lease of life, eg dale
and barn.
Latin
borrowings
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.native Celts had
also learnt some Latin, and some of these were borrowed by the Anglo-Saxons in Britain:
sign, pearl, anchor, oil, chest, pear, lettuce.was also the language of
Christianity, and St Augustine arrived in Britain in AD 597 to christianise the
nation. Terms in religion were borrowed: pope, bishop, monk, nun, cleric,
demon, disciple, mass, priest, shrine. Christianity also brought with it
learning: circul, not (note), paper, scol (school), epistol.Latin borrowings
came in in the early MnE period. Sometimes, it is difficult to say whether the
loan-words were direct borrowings from Latin or had come in through French
(because, after all, Latin was also the language of learning among the French).
One great motivation for the borrowings was the change in social order, where
scientific and philosophical empiricism was beginning to be valued. Many of the
new words are academic in nature therefore: affidavit, apparatus, caveat,
corpuscle, compendium, equilibrium, equinox, formula, inertia, incubate,
momentum, molecule, pendulum, premium, stimulus, subtract, vaccinate, vacuum.
This resulted in the distinction between learned and popular vocabulary in
English.borrowingswas also a language of learning, and Latin itself borrowed
words from Greek. Indeed the Latin alphabet is an adaptation of the Greek
alphabet.of the Greek loan-words were through other languages: through French -
agony, aristocracy, enthusiasm, metaphor; through Latin - ambrosia, nectar,
phenomenon, rhapsody. There were some general vocabulary items like fantasy,
cathedral, charismatic, idiosyncrasy as well as more technical vocabulary like
anatomy, barometer, microscope, homoeopathy.the Renaissance and after, there
were modern coinages from Greek elements (rather than borrowings). For example,
photo- yielded photograph, photogenic, photolysis and photokinesis; bio-
yielded biology, biogenesis, biometry, bioscope; tele- yielded telephone,
telepathy, telegraphic, telescopic. Other Greek elements used to coin new words
include crypto-, hydro-, hyper-, hypo-, neo- and stereo-.borrowingsa 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, curry, bangle, chop, catamaran,
mandarin, ketchup, kowtowusers of English in England, America, the rest of
Europe, etc., these settle around periphery, not as learned words but as
exotica.
CHAPTER 2.
THE FUNCTIONING OF FRENCH BORROWINGS IN THE FIELD OF FASHION, FOOD, CLOTHES
.1
Functioning of French borrowings in Middle English
Borrowing as means
of replenishing the vocabulary of present-day English is of much greater
importance and is comparatively active only in the field of scientific
terminology and social-political terminology as many terms are often made up of
borrowed morphemes, mostly morphemes from classical languages.influence which
English exerted on our language is seen in all aspects of life, social,
political and hardly any walk of live was unaffected by it. The first point to
be emphasized is that here we are not dealing with completely new ideas
introduced from a different type of civilization and culture, but rather the
imposing by a dominant race of their own terms for ideas which were already
familiar to the subject race. Such a state of affairs obviously means that
there will arise pairs of words the native and the foreign term for the same
idea and a struggle for survival between the two, so that one of the words was
eventually lost from the language, or survived only with some differentiation
of meaning.words have been called «The milestones of philology» - said O.
Jespersen - because they permit us (show us) to fix appreciatively the dates of
linguistic changes. They show us the course of civilization and give us
information of the nations». The well-known linguist Shuchard said «No language
is entirely pure», that all the languages are mixed. Borrowed words enter the
language as a result of influence of two main causes of factors; linguistic and
extra-linguistic.native word is a word which belongs to the original stock. An
English native word is a word which belongs to Anglo-Saxon origin. To the
native words we include words from Common Germanic language and from
Indo-European stock.borrowed word, a loan word or borrowing is a word taken
over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm
or meaning according to the standards of the language.example, in its 15
century long history recorded in written manuscripts the English language
happened to come in long and close contact with several other languages mainly
Latin, French and Old Norse. The great influx of borrowings from these sources
can be accounted for by a number of historical causes. Due to the great
influence of the Roman civilization Latin was for a long time used in England
as the language of learning and religion. Old Norse was the language of the
conquerors who were on the same level of social and cultural development and
who nudged rather easily with the local population in the 9th, 10th and the
first half of the 11th century. French (Norman dialect) was the language of the
other conquerors. Who brought with them a lot of new nations of a higher social
system developed feudalism it was the language of upper classes, of official
documents and school instruction from the middle of the 11th century to the end
of the 14th century.must be pointed out that while the general historical
reasons for borrowing from different languages have been studied with a
considerable degree of through the purely linguistic reasons for borrowings are
still open to investigation. The number and character of borrowings do not only
depend on the historical conditions, on the nature and length of the contacts,
but also on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of languages
concerned. The closer the languages the deeper and more versatile is the
influence.words enter the language as a result of influence of two main causes
or factors: linguistic and extra-linguistic. Economic, cultural, industrial,
political relations of speakers of the language with other countries refer to
extra-linguistic factors.example, due to the great influence of the Roman
civilization Latin was for a long time used in England as the language of
learning and religion. Old Norse of the Scandinavian tribes was the language of
the conquerors. French (Norman dialect) was the language of the other
conquerors who brought with them a lot of new notions of a higher social
system, developed feudalism. It was the language of upper classes, of official
documents and school. The same is in Uzbek language. Due to the expansion of
Islam religion, Arabic was used for centuries in Central Asia as the language
of science and religion1. For about two centuries Russian language hold a
dominant position in the nations of former Soviet Union. It was priority to
know Russian and it was a language of communication and friendship. These
factors are extra-linguistic ones.absence of equivalent words in the language
to express new subjects or a phenomena makes people to borrow words. E.g. the
words football, volleyball, pitchman in Uzbek; to economize the linguistic
means, i.e. to use a foreign word instead of a long native expressions and
others are called linguistic causes.enter the language in two ways through oral
speech (by immediate contact between the people) and through written speech by
indirect contact through books) Words borrowed orally are usually short and
they undergo more changes in the act of adopter. Written borrowings are often
rather long and they are unknown to many people, speaking the language.number
of borrowings on Old English was meager. In the Middle English period there was
an influx of loans. It is often contended, that since the Norman conquest
borrowing has been the chief factor in the enrichment of the English vocabulary
and as a result there was a sharp decline in the productivity and role of
word-formation. Historical evidence, however, testifies to the fact that
throughout its entire history, even in the periods of the mightiest influxes of
borrowings, other processes no less intense, were in operation - word -
formation and semantic development, which involved both native and borrowed
elements. If the estimation of the role of borrowings is based on the study of
words recorded in the dictionary, it is easy to overestimate the effect of the
foreign words, as the number of native words is extremely small compared with the
number of borrowings recorded. The only true way to estimate the relation of
the native to the borrowed element is to consider the two as actually used in
speech. If one counts every word used, including repetitions, in some reading
matter, the proportion of native to borrowed words will be quite different. On
such a count, every writer uses considerable more native words than borrowings.
Shakespeare, for example has 90%, Milton 81%, Tennyson 88%. This shows how
important is the comparatively small nucleus of native words. Different
borrowing are marked by different frequency value. Those well established in
the vocabulary may be as frequent in speech as native words, whereas other
occur very rarely. The great number of borrowings in English left some imprint
upon the language. The first effect of foreign influence is observed in the
volume of its vocabulary. Due to its history the English language, more than
any other modern language, has absorbed foreign elements in its vocabulary. But
the adoption of foreign words must not be understood as were quantities change.
Any importation into the lexical system brings about semantic and stylistic
changes in the words of this language and changes in its synonymic groups.has
been mentioned that when borrowed words were identical in meaning with those
already in English the adopted word very often displaced the native word. In
most cases, however, the borrowed words and synonymous native words (or words
borrowed earlier) remained in the language, becoming more or less differentiated
in meaning and use. As a result the number of synonymic groups in English
greatly increased. The synonymic groups became voluminous and acquired many
words rarely used. This brought about a rise in the percentage of stylistic
synonyms.borrowing intensified the difference between the word stock of the
literary national language and dialects as well as between British English and
American English. On the one hand a number of words were borrowed into the
literary national language which are not to be found in the dialects. In a
number of cases the dialects have preserved some Anglo-Saxon words which were
replaced by borrowings in the literary language. On the other hand, a number of
words were borrowed into dialects are not used throughout the country.spite of
the numerous outside linguistic influences and the etymological heterogeneity
of its vocabulary the English language is still, in essential characteristics a
Germanic language. It has retained a ground work of Germanic words and grammar.
A comparative study of the nature and role of native and borrowed words show
that borrowing has never been the chief means of replenishing the English
vocabulary. Word-formation and semantic development were throughout the entire
history of the English language much more productive than borrowing. Besides
most native words are marked by a higher frequency value. The great number of
borrowings bringing with them new phonon-morphological types, new phonetic
morphological and semantic features left its imprint upon the English language.
On the other hand under the influence of the borrowed element words already
existing in the English changed to some extent their semantic structure,
collectability, frequency and word forming ability. Borrowing also considerably
enlarged the English vocabulary and brought about some changes in English
synonymic groups, in the distribution of the English vocabulary through sphere
of application and in the lexical divergence between the two variants of the
literary national language and its dialects.has gone through many periods in
which large numbers of words from a particular language were borrowed. These
periods coincide with times of major cultural contact between English speakers
and those speaking other languages. The waves of borrowing during periods of
especially strong cultural contacts are not sharply delimited, and can overlap.
For example, the Norse influence on English began already in the 8th century
A.D. and continued strongly well after the Norman Conquest brought a large
influx of Norman French to the language.important imprint that the Normans left
in England is their language. The language they brought with them when they
disembarked on the English shore was Anglo-Norman, a dialect of French. Thanks
to the exclusively Norman aristocracy that spread on the British Isle,
Anglo-Norman was spoken and preserved for four centuries.the first decades of
the settlement of the Normans in England, Anglo-Norman and English coexisted
nearly without influencing each other. As Anglo-Norman had been introduced and
was spoken by the nobility, it had a much higher prestige than English, which
was only spoken by members of the lower classes. This difference of prestige
determined the use of both languages: Anglo-Norman as a highly esteemed
language was used in all written documents (alongside with Latin) and had the
status of a language of court and administration. By contrast, English was
mainly used in oral communication, and only by the lower classes.the
Anglo-Norman nobility and the English population rarely mixed, language contact
was at first too weak to initiate a real language change. But within fifty
years, both ethnic groups began to intermingle. Norman soldiers who had been
brought to England stayed there and married English women, and the English got
accustomed to their rulers and reluctance to accept them faded. In this
context, bilingualism became increasingly common. English servants had to speak
the language of their Norman lords, children of bicultural marriages naturally
spoke both languages.established a close contact between both languages, a
condition under which language change could take place. This language change
consisted mainly of English achieving a mixed vocabulary through borrowing
Anglo-Norman words. In the period from 1066 to approximately 1120, when
language contact was not intense yet, only 900 Anglo-Norman words entered the
English vocabulary. When the English population began to intermingle with the
Normans, a lot more loan words were borrowed into the English language: About
10,000 Anglo-Norman and Central-French words were taken over into the English
language before the 15th century.areas covered by these loan words were those
in which the Anglo-Normans exerted influence, such as religion, government,
law, army, fashion, learning, culture, social life, art, cuisine and medicine.
Some examples of former loan-words that are still in use today are religion,
abbey, government, crown, duke, army, peace, battle, justice, crime, dress,
fur, dinner, feast, taste, pain, stomach, pulse, painting, music, palace,
mansion, poet, title, paper, pen, study, etc. In addition to isolated loan
words, whole Anglo-Norman expressions were introduced into the English
language. Some of those can still be found today: plenty of, because of, in
vain etc.already said, Anglo-Norman and Central-French words penetrated the
English language up to the 15th century. Considering that the Anglo-Norman
language was only spoken by a minimal fraction of the English population, this
may seem a very long time, and one may wonder how the Normans managed to
protect and preserve their language in an all-English environment for several
centuries. The prestige of this language is mainly responsible for this
situation.members of the aristocracy simply did not want to learn English. Even
the English kings did not speak English, the language of their subjects,
fluently until the 13th century. Another reason were frequent immigration waves
from France. Travelling from Britain to the continent and back was also common,
as much among the nobility that often owned lands in Normandy, as among
merchants who bought goods on the continent.the English crown lost Normandy in
the 13th century, a decline of the Anglo-Norman language was, however,
inevitable. In families of Norman origin, and even in the aristocracy,
Anglo-Norman was not always the children’s mother tongue any more. It had to be
taught to them as a foreign language. Some manuals for teaching French from
this time are still preserved and serve as a proof of this development.
Furthermore, in the course of the 13th century, Central-French was increasingly
regarded as the language of education and of culture. Anglo-Norman in contrast
was merely considered a funny French dialect. As the former maintenance of Anglo-Norman
had been due to its high prestige, its decline must have been very rapid when
it lost it. Some Anglo-Norman loan words were replaced by more prestigious
Central French ones. As shown in the following table, the Anglo-Norman and
Central French words were quite similar:history of the English language, and
its borrowings, is founded on three invasions: Teutonic; Scandinavian
(Vikings); and, most importantly, by the Norman conquest of England by the Duke
of Normandy in 1066. (Luckily, the Nazis never made it across the Channel.) The
Teutonic and Scandinavian invasions obviously affected the native language. But
it was the French-speaking Normans, led by William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant),
who introduced the greatest, most extensive and most permanent collection of
borrowed or “loan” words, as Jespersen is fond of writing, to the English
language upon their successful 1066 invasion of the island.Norman occupation
lasted much longer than that of the Norse invasion and unlike the Scandinavians,
who co-existed with the invaded, the Normans overwhelmed the English. The
British status quo was tossed out as the Normans reconfigured the structures of
England, from its legal system to its religions, by becoming the ruling masters
of the island.the Normans brought their French to the British Isles, they, too,
were also operating in a sense with borrowed words. If, as Greenough and
Kittredge point out, French is simply Latin in a “corrupt form” then the
conquered British inhabitants would have had to absorb two borrowed languages -
French and Latin. And the question for them, if they chose to ask it, is from
which genesis the written or spoken words the Normans brought to the shores
came from - Latin or French.invading Normans also introduced a sort of language
class warfare to the Britons. If a foreign language is thrust upon the
conquered, one would think that it would spread from top to bottom through all
strata of the inhabitants. The “losing” language would thus disappear. Yet,
that did not happen after the Normans’ arrival. The conquered nobles adopted
the French model, but the peasants retained the Germanic tongue, setting up
both a class and a linguistic divide that would remain until their languages,
and borrowed words, blended into Middle English.morphing French words and
phrases into the English language does not mean there was a certain borrowing
snobbery. Writers, such as Chaucer, or diplomats, the royalty, high-ranking
members of the military and businessmen who were familiar with French culture
(and given the closeness of European borders, easily attainable), readily
adopted and adapted words borrowed from the French into the English language.
In many cases, the borrowing was not cavalier, but was a necessity to
communicate.Norman Conquest forced the creation of an entirely new way of
English life, influencing the language of its law, religion, medicine and arts.
Since the French/Latin-speakers were the dominant power, the Britons had to
borrow words in order to simply communicate with their new masters who “ousted”
some of the local vernacular. These “newcomers” may have rid some of the
centuries-old English synonyms, but they became ingrained because of their ties
to the originals. The Anglo-Saxon king and queen survived the French influence,
but with the Normans along came such titles as duke and duchess. Well, Britons
would have to be able to understand what either of these two terms meant and,
thus, they would assimilate these borrowed words into, if not every day use,
their sometime use.to Jespersen, many British adopted borrowed French words not
only to communicate, but because they felt it was the “fashion” to imitate
their “betters.” Again, while some might perceive this as a form of snobbery,
many of us do strive to improve our language skills. While saying someone tried
to overthrow a government is basic and to the point, using coup d’etat as the
phrase is instantly recognizable to many readers and, almost, puts more of a
sense of urgency to the event. You could say a woman is stylish, which I am
sure she would appreciate, but substituting the borrowed chic usually makes
more of an impact. Obviously, our knowledge of borrowed words not only expands
our vocabulary but enables us to converse with one another.it is understandable
that the Britons would borrow words that did not exist in their native
language, such as majesty and mayor, it is somewhat mystifying why they would
replace their swin with the French porc. That is unless you consider how the
English farmers and French aristocrats dealt with livestock. With these two
related words, the Germanic swin is more down-to-earth while the French porc
was considered more refined. Swin evolved into the present-day swine, which is
what English peasants would have been raising, while the porc or pork would
have been what the upper-class French would eat. It is “animal versus food”
and, again, the borrowings would elevate the perceived social standing of the
English man or woman who used the French word. And as Greenough and Kittredge
illustrate, sometimes the foreign word, such as divide, becomes more popular
than the inhabitants’ cleave. Also, one word can crowd out another, with the
native being the one shunted aside as in what happened to the local ey which
was replaced by the Scandinavian egg.French language-influence on the English
presented them with more abstract words than what the Britons might have
considered to be their clear and concrete definitions of their native words.
The English child as opposed to the borrowed French infant, or the English
freedom compared to the French liberty are examples.amazing thing about the
transformation and evolution of the English language is the extent to how
receptive the country’s inhabitants were to outside languages, particularly
French and Latin. It is almost as if an invader could plant a language seed and
the Britons would cultivate it. But unlike the French who most likely would
stay with that one language plant, the English (perhaps because of their love
of gardening) seemed intent on growing as many synonymous words as possible.
And, continuing with this somewhat silly gardening analogy, Jespersen points
out that many times “the English soil has proved more fertilizing than the
French soil” for transplanted words. Why offer one native word, as the French
seem to enjoy, when you can convert a multitude of borrowed words and multiply
them into synonymous bits of language as the English seem wont to do? Or, as
the University of Minnesota’s professor and author of Word Origins and How We
Know Them, Dr. Anatoly Liberman3 asks in his lecture, A Coat of Many
Colors, is it “better to have two nostrils or one?” With a multitude of similar
words, the English at least, seem to have embraced the “two nostrils” theory,
sometimes using both the native and the borrowed words side-by-sideborrowing
has also helped inflate the size of English dictionaries. The voluminous
English dictionaries, as compared to French, German or Dutch dictionaries for
example, can credit their size to the borrowings of foreign words the British
adopted. If the English were originally concerned that their native language
was not up to snuff with the French or Latin tongues, the Britons’ borrowings
might give new meaning to “size matters.”I have mainly focused on the Norman
Conquest and the seismic language shift 1066 created in the linguistic world,
there were others that might have been subsequently involved in English-word
borrowings - if they had arrived in time. Among them are Spanish and Italian,
but as Greenough and Kittredge point out, while their influence upon English
literature has “been very great, but upon (English) vocabulary these languages
have had no appreciable effect.” That is because the Normans made the goal
first and the English had basically borrowed all the words and phrases they
needed.’s emergence as a superpower brought it, in a sense, border expansion
because of colonialism. This also introduced its people to sights they had
never seen and for which they would need descriptive words. The Britons could
only borrow them as there was no native term to express what they
encountered.were no such things as boomerangs or kangaroos in England, so when
the Britons came upon them instead of creating entirely new words to define
them, the easier alternative was to borrow the Australian words. Elephants,
leopards and panthers also were not native to England and, again, these animal
names would have to be borrowed for Britons to describe them to one another.
Even the tomato, unknown in the country until its introduction from the New World,
would have to be named. Borrowing from the Spanish tomate, the British settled
on tomato.borrowing from French occurred in two phases:
-1250. About 900
words were borrowed during this phase, with most of them showing the effects of
Anglo-Norman phonology. Examples from this source are:: baron, noble, dame,
servant, messenger, feast, minstrel, juggler, largess.: story, rime, lay,
douzepers.: The largest number of words were borrowed for use in religious
services since the French-speaking Normans took control of the church in
England.
-1400. The heaviest
borrowing from French occurred in this period because after about 1250 there
were more French speakers who began speaking English--remember the loss of
Normandy in 1204. The words borrowed during this phase are found in many
areas.and Administrative: govern, government, administer, crown, state, empire,
royal, majesty, treaty, statute, parliament, tax, rebel, traitor, treason,
exile, chancellor, treasurer, major, noble, peer, prince, princess, duke, squire,
page (but not king, queen, lord, lady, earl), peasant, slave, servant, vassal.:
religion, theology, sermon, confession, clergy, clergy, cardinal, friar,
crucifix, miter, censer lectern, abbey, convent, creator, savior, virgin,
faith, heresy, schism, solemn, divine, devout, preach, pray, adore, confess.:
justice, equity, plaintiff, judge, advacate, attorney, petition, inquest,
felon, evidence, sue, accuse arrest, blame, libel, slander, felony, adultery,
property, estate, heir, executor.-Army and Navy: (Much of the fighting during
this time was done in France. Many now-obsolete words for pieces of armor,
etc., were borrowed at this time.) army, navy, peace, enemy, arms, battle, spy,
combat, siege, defence, ambush, soldier, guard, mail, buckler, banner, lance,
besiege, defend, array.: habit, gown, robe, garment, attire, cape, coat,
collar, petticoat, train, lace, embroidery, pleat, buckle, button, tassel,
plume, satin, taffeta, fur, sable, blue, brown, vermilion, russet, tawny,
jewel, ornament, broach, ivory, turquoise, topaz, garnet, ruby, pearl,
diamond.: feast, repast, collation, mess, appetite, tart, sole, perch,
sturgeon, sardine, venison, beef, veal, mutton, port, bacon, toast, cream,
sugar, salad, raisin, jelly, spice, clove, thyme.: curtain, couch, lamp,
wardrobe, screen, closet, leisure, dance, carol, lute, melody.: rein, curry,
trot, stable, harness, mastiff, spaniel, stallion, pheasant, quail, heron,
joust, tournament, pavilion., Learning, Medicine: painting, sculpture, music,
beauty, color, image, cathedral, palace, mansion, chamber, ceiling, porch,
column, poet, prose, romance, paper, pen, volume, chapter, study, logic,
geometry, grammar, noun, gender, physician, malady, pain, gout, plague, pulse,
remedy, poison.words and expressions include nouns--age, air, city, cheer,
honor, joy; adjectives--chaste, courageous, coy, cruel, poor, nice, pure;
verbs--advance, advise, carry, cry, desire; phrases--draw near, make believe,
hand to hand, by heart, without fail (These are loan-translations).of the above
words differ from Modern French in form and pronunciation because of
phonological changes such as the following:/s/ was lost before other consonants
in the 12th century, so OF feste became MF fête
(MnE feast). Cf. forest--forêt,
hostel--hôtel,
beast--bête.
In the 13th century
the French `j' came to be pronounced `zh', and `ch' became `sh'. Early
borrowings (i.e., before the 13th century) thus have the `ch' and `j'
pronunciations: charge, change, chamber, chase, chair, chimney; just, jewel,
journey, majesty, gentle. Later borrowings (i.e., after the 13th century) have
the `zh' and `sh' pronunciations: chamois, chaperon, chiffon, chevron, jabot
(last trim on the front of a dress), rouge.Anglo-Norman dialect was also
different from the dialect of Paris, which was Central French: AN retained the
initial ca-, which became cha-, chie- in CF, e.g.: MnE caitiff, not CF chaitif.
English contains words borrowed from both dialects at different times,
e.g.:< AN catel catch < AN cachier< CF chatel chase < CF chacier
(MF chasser)also showed an early dislike of w-, but the northern dialects did
not, e.g.: warden from AN and guardian from CF. CF also dropped the /w/ in qu-
(i.e., AN /kw/, CF /k/), so MnE has quarter, quality, question, etc.,
pronounced /kw-/. (cf. MF qualité,
etc.)also show some differences. For example, AN retained the ei diphthong, but
in the 12th century it became oi in CF, so:leal < AN leial MnE loyal <
CFreal < AN reial MnE royal < CF10,000 French words were borrowed into
Middle English, and about 75% (7500) of these words are still in use. These
words were quickly assimilated into English; i.e., English suffixes, etc., were
freely added to the borrowed French words; e.g., gentle, borrowed in 1225, is
found compounded with an English word, gentlewoman, in 1230.heavy borrowing
from French had several effects on English:words were replaced:aeðele
-- F. nobleaeðeling
-- F. noblemanhere -- F. armycampa -- F. warriorsibb -- F. peace
English and French
words were retained with a differentiation in meaning:-cordial-beef-mutton-pork-vealmansion
The Old English
word-forming powers were reduced, with less use of prefixes and suffixes and
fewer compounds.Borrowings. In a sense the French words were Latin borrowings
since French developed from Vulgar Latin--as did all the Romance languages. The
borrowings that came directly from Latin tended to be more learned in
character--e.g., allegory, index, magnify, mechanical, private, secular,
zenith. Aureate terms--direct borrowings from Latin--were a stylistic affectation
of the 15th century Scottish Chaucerians such as James I, Henryson, and Dunbar.
Some of these words have been dropped from English (or never really made it in)
while others have survived, e.g., diurnal (daily or daytime), tenebrous (dark),
laureate, mediation, oriental, prolixity.has been pointed out that as a result
of Middle English borrowing from French and Latin, Modern English has synonyms
on three levels: popular (English), literary (French), and learned (Latin), as
in rise--mount--ascend; ask--question--interrogate; fire--flame--conflagration;
holy--sacred--consecrated.this there is little or no direct influence of French
on English but the language remained fashionable and the practice of borrowing
words from the continental language continued well into the 15th century. The
Central French period (during which influence from the region around Paris
dominated) can be taken to cease gradually with the introduction of printing at
the end of the 15th century and the general resurgence in interest and status
of English.
Map №1
difference between
Anglo-Norman and Central French loans in English is to be seen in famous pairs
of words like catch and chase, both of which go back originally to Latin
captiare, which itself furnished English with the later loan ‘capture’. The
main differences between Anglo-Norman and Central French are outline in the
tables below.
Central French
|
/k/
|
/tʃ/
|
cattle /k-/
|
chattels /tʃ/
|
pocket /-k-/
|
poach /tʃ/
|
/tʃ/
|
/s/
|
catch /-tʃ/
|
chase /-s/
|
launch /-ntʃ/
|
lance /-ns/
|
pinch /-ntʃ/
|
pincers /-ns-/
|
The borrowing of
words in the Middle English period is related to changes with French itself.
For instance an /s/ before /t/ was lost in French but many loans in English
were made before this took place, hence one has estate but état,
forest but forêt
in Modern French. In the case of hostel and hotel, the /s/ in the first word
shows that it is an older borrowing from the same root, cf. Modern French hôtel
(the accented vowel in the French examples here indicates that previously an
/s/ followed the vowel).the course of time the difference between the two
strands of French - Norman and Central - became more and more diffuse.
Certainly there is no question nowadays of speakers being able intuitively to
distinguish between the two.a generalization one can say that the French loans
are to be found on higher stylistic levels in English. With the later Central
French borrowings this is obvious given the sectors of society where the loans
occurred (see next section). The general split is between colloquial native words
and more formal Romance terms and can be seen clearly in word pairs like
forgive and pardon. Other examples are begin : commence; hearty : cordial;
happiness : felicity; help : aid; hide : conceal; meal : repast (only literary
nowadays).for later English the etymological source of words is irrelevant and
any two words can form a pair distinguished on a colloquial - formal axis as
one can see in notice : perceive, both of Romance origin or even in the pair
present : gift where in fact the Romance term is by far and away the more
common in spoken English.differentiation has frequently developed which may
have neutralized any previous distinction in register: wedding : marriage, ask
: demand.areas of the English lexicon in which the influence of French was to
be felt reflect the spheres of life in which the French predominated in the
early Middle English period. The following lists are intended to give a brief
impression of the richness of the this Romance influence on the Germanic stock
of English vocabulary.: country; coast; river; valley; lake; mountain;
frontier; border; city; hamlet; village; estate Noble titles: emperor; duke;
duchess; duchy; prince; count; countess; baron; squire; noble(man/woman);
gentle(man/woman); dame; damselreferring to sections of the community:
peasantry; people; subjects; burgesses; nobility; gentry; knighthood;
chivalry;for administration and administrators: sovereign; crown; sceptre;
ruler; power; policy; government; administration; court; office; chancery;
treasury; parliament; counsel; administrator; governor; ambassador; wardon;
mayor; charter; seal; accord; agreement; covenant; treaty; alliance; curfew;
duty; reign; civil; empire; nation; tyrant; oppressionterms: justice;
privilege; statute; ordinance; judge; chief; crime; fraud; trespass;
transgression; accusation; coroner; plaintif; defendant; client; claimant;
executor; notary; process; appeal; bail; evidence; decree; divorce; exile;
heir; heritage; prison; jail; dungeon; arrest; plead; punish; banish; treason;
releaseterms: peace; war; armour; artillery; fortress; host; army; warrior;
archer; soldier; chief; captain; admiral; enemy; conqueror; victor; robber;
expedition; resistance; banner; battle; besiege; destroyterms: charity;
chastity; chaplain; abbot; abbess; dean; friar; confessor; person/parson;
preacher; evangelist; saint; fraternity; chapel; Closter; abbey; faith; bible;
chapter; commandment; divine; service; prayer; sermon; absolution; procession;
parish; baptize; praise; glorifyfor emotional states: ease; disease; joy;
delight; felicity; grief; despair; distress; courage; folly; passion; desire;
jealousy; ambition; arrogance; despite; disdain; malice; envy; avarice;
certainty; doubt; enjoy; despise; furiousand crafts: barber; butcher;
carpenter; carrier; draper; forester; fruiterer; grocer; mason; mercer;
merchant; Spicer; painter; tailor; victualler; apprentice; surgeon; physician;
bargain; fair; merchandise; price; money; coin; dozen; double; measure; gallon;
bushel; purchase; profit; pay; usury; debt; prosperity; barrel; bottle; basket;
vesseland ornamentation: blouse; chemise; cloak; coat; frock; garment; gown;
robe; veil; cotton; fur; boot; ornament; brooch; jewel; pearl; button;
scissors; brush; mirror; towel; carpet; curtain; blanket; couch; cushion;
table; chair; fashionand cooking: boil; fry; roast; mince; dine; dinner;
supper; appetite; flour; grease; sugar; spice; vinegar; bacon; victuals; lard,
pork; beef; mutton; veal; venison; sausage; sauce; gravy; jelly; salad; juice;
cabbage; cream; biscuit; fritter; cider; cucumber; onionloanwords: age; aid;
affair; action; air; baggage; beauty; branch; cage; cable; cattle; chance;
change; choice; company; consent; coward; couple; cry; cure; damage; danger;
delay; demand; departure; difference; difficulty; error; example; exception;
exercise; experience; face; fate; favour; fence; fool; force; foreign;
fountain; guide; honour; labour; leisure; marriage; piece; pencil; possession;
question; language; wages able; ancient; brief; certain; clear; considerable;
cruel; different; difficult; easy; familiar; famous; favourable; feeble; faint;
fine; general; gentle; glorious; poor; safe; sure achieve; arrive; appear;
approve; approach; assemble; assist; attend; advertise; affirm; await; blame;
catch; cancel; carry; cease; chase; cry; change; consent; consider; count;
cover; demand; deny; depart; deserve; discover; disturb; finish; employ;
encourage; enjoy; enter; excuse; escape; increase; examine; force; fail; form;
grieve; marry; refuse; perish; suffer; paint; perform; propose; save; touch;
travel; tremblefact that for many of the above words Germanic equivalents
already existed in English and continued to exist led to a stylistic splitting
of the vocabulary of English. Thus a word like work is a Germanic word and the
normal everyday word whereas labour is a Romance loanword which is regarded as
being on a higher level, cf. ‘I have some work to do now’, ‘The value of labour
in our society’. In other cases the Romance loanword has come to have a
slightly different meaning to the Germanic base word, cf. ask and demand where
the latter (Romance) word has the implication of insisting on something.the
various types of changes which took place in the period in which Middle English
borrowed from French through direct contact, are those which led to a mixing of
Germanic and Romance elements. Thus one has cases of assimilation in which an
English word was created on the basis of a similar sounding French word. Here
one has an instance of the French form complementing the English one. For example,
the English verb choose obtained a noun choice on the basis of a borrowing of
French choix.some cases one can no longer decide whether the Germanic or the
Romance form of a word has survived into Modern English. Thus in the case of
the adjective rich one cannot tell whether it is a continuation of the Old
English rice or the later French borrowing riche. However, one can in many
cases see a contamination of the morphology of words due to French borrowing.
With the previous adjective one can see the Romance suffix in the noun formed
from it: richess as opposed to Old English richdom with the Romance ending
-ess.form of a word may have been changed without its meaning having been
affected. With the Old English word iegland / iland (cf. German Eiland) one
arrives at the later spelling island under the influence of French isle. Note
that the s here is unetymological, i.e. was never pronounced in English. Some
French loanwords were influenced by changes later than Middle English. This is
for example the case with Old French viage which was borrowed into Middle
English but where the later French form voyage was borrowed into English and
adapted in its pronunciation. The same is true of the Middle English noun
flaute which was changed under the influence of later French flute.form of many
French loanwords can be used to date borrowing. As mentioned above there are
two strands of French influence, an early Anglo-Norman one and a later Central
French one. These can be identified phonologically as can be seen in the word
pairs catch and chase or cattle and chattels (from captiare and capital in
Latin respectively). In the first word one sees Middle English cacchen which
was borrowed from North French cachier as the retention of the /k/ before /a/
was a feature of Norman French.1250 the influence of Central French was
predominant in England. In this variety of French the original /k/ retained in
Norman French was shifted to /tʃ/ which is reflected in the writing where
c was changed to ch. Thus we have the Central French verb chacier being
borrowed into Middle English as chacen, Modern English chase. Note that the
later borrowing did not replace the earlier one in keeping with the principle
that if two variant forms come to be distinguished semantically their continuing
existence in the language is as good as guaranteed. Not so with a number of
other Norman French borrowings which were replaced by the later Central French
ones: calice, carite, cancel; chalice, charite, chancel.Central French /tʃ/
underwent the further change to /ʃ/ in the course of the post-Middle
English period and later loans reflect this. Thus we have change and chief as
Middle English loans from Central French with /tʃ/ but words like chef and
champagne with /ʃ/ are of a later origin.differences in pronunciation can
be used to date other loanwords from French. For example the relationship of /dž/
and /ž/
shows the relative chronology of borrowing. The older loans such as siege,
judge, age show the affricate /dž/
whereas newer loans from the Early Modern English period have the simple
fricative typical of Modern French as in rouge /ru:ž/;
with the word garage there still exist two alternative pronunciations /ˡgærɪdʒ/
and /gəˡrɑ:ʒ/.can also recognize later borrowings by the
vowel quality when the stress is found on the final syllable: memoir (cf. the
earlier loan memory), liqueur (cf. the earlier form liquor).orthography of
Modern English reflects in a fairly exact manner the pronunciation of Late
Middle English. In some respects it can be seen to have adopted practices of
French spelling which, while justified in the latter language, were superfluous
in English. A case in point is the orthographic treatment of Middle English
/u:/. In Old English this vowel was represented simply as u as in OE hus ‘house’.
In the course of the Middle English period it came to be written as ‘house’.
This spelling is based on the use of the digraph ou to represent the vowel /u/
in French. In the latter language the simple u grapheme stood for a phonetic
/y/, cf. Modern French vu /vy/ ‘seen’ and fou /fu/ ‘mad’. In English, however,
the digraph ou was not necessary because /y/ had been unrounded in the Early
Middle English period (with the exception of the West Midlands area), cf. OE þymel
(ME thimble) ‘thimble’. It was nonetheless used so that by Late Middle English
the /u:/ of Old English had come to be written with ou (OE /y/ being written
simply as i), cf. out, now (the latter with the variant ow at the end of a
word). Later loanwords in English do not have the spelling ou for the /u:/
vowel, irrespective of their origin. Thus one has, for example, chute from
later French and acute from Latin, both with u for /u:/.instances of Frence
influence on English spelling are: h > gh, þ,
ð > th, æ
> a, cw > qu, i > j (partly), u > v at the beginning, u in the
middle of a word, sc > sh [ʃ], c > ch [tʃ], cg, gg > dg [dʒ].scribal
practice is behind the spelling -ough which in Middle English indicated the
pronunciation /-u:x/ or /-oux/. Because of later phonetic developments this
spelling came to be one of the most notorious cases of incongruence between
pronunciation and orthography in Modern English as it can represent at least
seven different sound sequences as seen from the following random set: plough
/-au/, cough /-ɒf/, although /-əʊ/, hiccough /-ʌp/,
thorough /-ə/ (unstressed), through /-u:/, rough /-ʌf/.feature of
French spelling which affected Old English words was the use of final -e. This
was added to English words to show that the vowel of the previous syllable was
long, as in ice (from OE is). This ‘discontinuous sequence’ is used very much
in Modern English to keep original short and long vowels apart graphically,
e.g. pan and pane, ban and bane. Note that due to the Great Vowel Shift (which
only affected long vowels) the difference is nowadays one of vowel quality and
not just quantity. The major changes involved in this shift are given in the
following table.
2.2
Functioning of French borrowings in Modern English
English began
around the 16th Century and, like all languages, is still changing. One change
occurred when the suffix of some verb forms became s (loveth, loves; hath,
has). Auxiliary verbs also changed (he is risen, he has risen).French is the
11th century language of France and England. It is an Indo-European language.1066,
the Norman king, William the Conqueror, invaded England. Many Norman French
words entered the language after this. In general, the Normans were the
nobility, while the native English were their servants. The names of domestic
animals and their meats show this relationship. The animal name is English
("cow", "sheep", "pig") while the names of the
meats derived from these animals is French ("beef",
"mutton", "pork").words have been borrowed from Norman
French. These can be grouped into several types:terms ("adultery",
"slander"),words ("surrender", "occupy"),of meats
("bacon", "venison"),from the royal court
("chivalry", "majesty").non-metric unit of volume (the
"gallon") is Norman French.are many other words.The Normans
introduced the QU spelling for words containing KW ("question").are
the following semantic groups of French borrowings:) words relating to
government : administer, empire, state, government;) words relating to military
affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle;) words relating to jury: advocate,
petition, inquest, sentence, barrister;) words relating to fashion: luxury,
coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery;) words relating to jewelry: topaz,
emerald, ruby, pearl;) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner,
appetite, to roast, to stew.were borrowed from French into English after 1650,
mainly through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of
them are not completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of
these borrowings:) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres,
conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville;) words relating to
military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre;
c) words relating to buildings and
furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;) words relating to food and cooking:
ragout, cuisine.reasons for the reassertion of English are:Normans in England
belonged to the Capetian dynasty spoke Norman French; this became
non-prestigious in France as the variety spoken by the Angevian dynasty in
France, Parisian French, became the prestige variety; because Norman French was
seen as socially inferior, it was less difficult to abandon it in favour of
English;, England became at war with France in the Hundred Years War
(1337-1453).
borrowings
Word
|
Meaning
|
Notes
|
accuse
|
|
One of many legal words from
Norman French.
|
adultery
|
|
|
archer
|
|
One of several military words from
Norman French.
|
arson
|
|
Crime of deliberate burning.
|
assault
|
|
|
asset
|
enough
|
|
bacon
|
|
Cured pig's meat. One of many
names for meats from Norman French.
|
bail
|
to take charge
|
Security for a prisoner's
appearance.
|
bailiff
|
carrier
|
Officer who executes writs.
|
beef
|
|
Meat of ox or cow.
|
butcher
|
seller of goat flesh
|
A dealer in meat.
|
button
|
|
|
chivalry
|
horseman
|
One of many words used in royal
life from Norman French.
|
comfort
|
strengthen
|
|
courtesy
|
|
|
cricket
|
|
A ball game played in the UK,
Caribbean, parts of Africa and Asia, Australia, New Zealand.
|
crime
|
judgment
|
|
curfew
|
cover fire
|
Period to be off the streets.
|
custard
|
|
Baked mixture of eggs and milk.
|
defeat
|
|
|
dungeon
|
|
Underground prison.
|
duty
|
|
|
eagle
|
|
Large bird of divy.
|
elope
|
run away
|
ravage
|
|
enemy
|
non friend
|
|
error
|
|
|
evidence
|
|
|
exchequer
|
|
A national treasury.
|
fashion
|
make
|
|
felony
|
|
A serious crime.
|
fraud
|
|
|
gallon
|
jug
|
A unit of liquid volume (= 4.546 Ч
10-3 m3 in UK; = 3.785 Ч 10-3
m3 in USA)
|
goblin
|
|
|
gourd
|
|
|
grammar
|
art of letters
|
|
grease
|
fat
|
|
grief
|
|
|
grocer
|
|
Food dealer. Originally "one
who deals in the gross".
|
gutter
|
drop
|
Track for water.
|
haddock
|
|
A type of fish.
|
havoc
|
|
|
hogmanay
|
|
Now a Scottish festival at New
Year.
|
honour
|
|
|
injury
|
wrong
|
Wrongful action or damage.
|
jettison
|
throw overboard
|
|
joy
|
|
|
judge
|
right speaking
|
|
jury
|
swear
|
|
justice
|
|
|
larceny
|
|
The crime of theft.
|
lavender
|
|
Perfumed shrub.
|
launch
|
hurl
|
|
lease
|
leave
|
|
leisure
|
allowed
|
Free time.
|
lever
|
to raise
|
|
liable
|
may be bound
|
|
libel
|
little book
|
|
liberty
|
free
|
|
liquorices
|
sweet root
|
Originally from a Greek root,
"glico riza".
|
mackerel
|
|
A type of fish.
|
majesty
|
|
|
mangle
|
remain
|
|
marriage
|
|
|
matrimony
|
|
From the same root as
"matriarch" (mother).
|
mayhem
|
|
|
mutton
|
|
Meat of sheep.
|
noble
|
|
|
noun
|
name
|
|
nurse
|
nourish
|
|
occupy
|
seize
|
|
odour
|
smell
|
|
parliament
|
speaking
|
Ruling council in countries like
UK.
|
pedigree
|
crane's foot
|
From "pe de gru".
Because bird's feet marks resemble a family tree.
|
penthouse
|
|
|
perjury
|
|
False statement under oath.
|
pinch
|
|
As in "grip tightly".
|
platter
|
big plate
|
|
pleasure
|
|
|
pocket
|
small bag
|
|
pork
|
|
The meat of the pig.
|
prison
|
lay hold of
|
|
profound
|
deep
|
|
purloin
|
put away
|
|
purveyor
|
|
Supplier of food.
|
push
|
|
|
quarter
|
|
The Normans introduced the QU
spelling for the KW sound.
|
question
|
|
|
quiet
|
|
|
quiver
|
|
The arrow case.
|
rape
|
take by force
|
|
reason
|
|
|
rebuke
|
|
Originally "to cut down
wood".
|
rebut
|
|
|
recover
|
|
|
remedy
|
to heal
|
|
renown
|
to make famous
|
|
rent
|
|
The same root as
"render".
|
repeal
|
|
|
reprieve
|
send back
|
|
reprisal
|
|
|
retail
|
piece cut off
|
|
reward
|
|
|
river
|
|
|
royal
|
|
|
rummage
|
|
|
salary
|
salt
|
Soldiers used to be paid with
salt.
|
salmon
|
|
A type of fish.
|
scavenger
|
tax collector
|
|
scullery
|
maker of dishes
|
|
search
|
|
|
sermon
|
|
|
sewer
|
|
Originally a channel to carry off
overflow from a fishpond.
|
share
|
|
|
shop
|
cobbler's stall
|
|
sir
|
|
From "sire".
|
slander
|
|
|
soil
|
|
|
sovereign
|
|
|
spawn
|
|
|
spy
|
|
|
squirrel
|
little shadow tail
|
|
stubble
|
grain stalks
|
|
subsidy
|
support
|
|
suitor
|
|
|
surname
|
|
Family name.
|
surplus
|
|
|
surrender
|
|
|
survey
|
|
|
survive
|
over live
|
|
syllable
|
|
|
tally
|
mark on a stick
|
Tally sticks were used to record
financial transactions.
|
tax
|
to charge
|
|
toil
|
stir
|
|
treason
|
|
|
treaty
|
|
|
uncle
|
|
|
usher
|
door keeper
|
|
valley
|
|
|
veal
|
|
|
veil
|
|
|
venison
|
to hunt
|
Deer meat
|
vicar
|
assistant
|
|
vice
|
|
|
view
|
|
|
virgin
|
|
|
vulture
|
|
Large bird of divy.
|
wafer
|
|
|
waive
|
|
|
warden
|
|
Same root as "guardian".
|
wicket
|
Wooden sticks used in the game of
cricket.
|
wreck
|
|
|
Norman French is
the native language of the nobility.not a great deal of bilingualismnumbers of
French loans enter English: legal, administrative and military terms.is the
cultivated, divstige language.is a diagnostic situation, with French the
high-divstige, English the low-divstige variety.French has lost its status, and
Parisian French as the divferred norm.numbers of French loans enter
English.becomes the dominant language, but French remains dominant in
literature and at the court.evidence of imperfect knowledge of French.
Norman French
chronology
-1453 The Hundred
Years' War with France.
-9 The Black
Death.30% mortality. Labour shortage, wage rises, increasing importance of the
English-speaking classes
English accepted in
the courts ('Statute of Pleading')major English poets at the end of the 14th
century:writes mostly in French (but composes one long work Confessio amantis,
in English)writes almost entirely in English.of private letters:
: French is the
rule.1400: English becomes common.1450: English is the rule.of English in
schools.influence of French on English in the early modern periodon English
phrasingfrom borrowing and word formation, French considerably influenced
English phrasing. The loan translations range from polite turns of speech, such
as at your service, do me the favour, to engage somebody in a quarrel, to make
(later: pay) a visit, to idiomatic phrases like by occasion, in detail, in
favour of, in the last resort, in particular, to the
contrary.pronounciationEnglish language of the middle ages is different from
the modern one. Here are two extracts from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
to compare:the General Prologue Whan that April with his showres soote The
droughte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veine in swich
licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flowr;Zephyrus eek with his sweete
breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge
sonne Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne, And smale fowles maken melodye
That sleepen al the night with open yл
- (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages) - Thanne longen folk to goon on
pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes To ferne halwes,
couthe in sondry londes;specially from every shires ende Of Engelond to
Canterbury they wende, The holy blisful martyr for to seeke, That hem hath
holpen whan that they were seke.
The Wife of Baths
Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, performed by
Elizabeth Salter, from Geoffrey Chaucer: The Wife of Prologue and Tale
(Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521635306) (p) 1976, 1998 Cambridge
University Press. All Rights Reserved. /© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights
Reserved.domains that became enriched with French loanwords include::
parliament, chancellor, government, country, crown: treasure, wage, poverty:
attorney, plaintiff, larceny, fraud, jury, verdict: battle, army, castle,
tower, siege, banner: miracle, charity, saint, pardon: virtue, vice, gentle,
patience, courage, mercy, courtesy, pity: falcon, covert, scent, chase, quarry,
fashion, etc.: apparel, costume, gown, art, beauty, colour, image, design,
cushion, tapestry: stew, grill, roast,... (compare these with AS-based terms
like bake), bacon, mutton, pork, veal, venison (compare these with AS-based
terms like boar, calf, cow, deer, ox, sheep, swine)Relationships: uncle, aunt,
nephew, cousin (form from OE: father, mother, brother and from Scandinavian
sister)domination of the French language in England came to an end in the
source of the 14th c. The victory of English was predetermined and
prepared for by previous events and historical conditions. Little by little the
Normans and English drew together and intermingled. In the 14th c.
Anglo-Norman was a dead language; it appeared as corrupt French to those who
had access to the French of Paris through books, education or direct contacts.
The number of people who Knew French had fallen; Anglo-Norman and French
literary compositions had lost their audience and had to be translated into
English.the end of the 14th c. the English language had taken the
place of French as the language of literature and administration. English was
once more the dominant speech of all social classes in all regions. It had
ousted French since it had always remained the mother tongue and the only
spoken language of the bulk of the population.may be interesting to mention
some facts showing how the transition came about. In 1362 Edward 3 gave his
consent to an act of Parliament ordaining that English be used in the law
courts, sine ‘French has become much unknown in the realm’. This reform,
however, was not carried out for years to come: French, as well as Latin,
continued to be used by lawyers alongside English until the 16th c.
Yet many legal documents which have survived from the late 14th and
15th c. are written in English: wills, municipal acts, petitions. In
1363, for the first tome in history, Parliament was opened by the King’s
chancellor with an address in English. In 1399 King Henry 4 used English in his
official speech when accepting the throne. In 1404 English diplomats refused to
conduct negotiations with France in French, claiming that the language was
unknown to them. All these events testify to the recognition of English as the
state language.and inevitably English regained supremey in the field of
education. As early as 1349 it was ruled that English should be used at school
in teaching Latin, but it was not until 1385 that the practice became general,
and even the universities began to conduct their curricula in English. By the
15th c. the ability to speak French had come to be regarded as a
special accomplishment, and French like Latin, was learnt as a foreign
language. At the end of the 15th c. William Caxton, the first
English printer, observed: ‘the most quantity of the people understand not
Latin nor French here in this noble realm of England’.might have expected that
the triumph of English would lead to weakening of the French influence upon
English. In reality, however, the impact of French became more apparent. As
seen from the surviving written texts, French loan-words multiplied at the very
time when English became a medium of general communication. The large-scale
influx of French loads can be attributed to several causes. It is probably that
many French words had been in current use for quite a long time before they
were first recorded. As it was aforementioned records in Early M.E. were scare
and came mostly from the Northern and Western regions, which were least
affected by French influence. Later M.N. texts were produced in London and in
the neighboring areas, with a mixed and largely bilingual population. In
numerous translation from French - which became necessary when the French
language was going out of use-many loan-words were employed for the sake of
greater precision, for want of a suitable native equivalent or due to the
translator’s inefficiency. It is also important that in the course of the 14th
c. the local dialects were brought into closer contact; they intermixed and
influenced one another: therefore the infiltration of French borrowings into
all the local and social varieties of English progressed more rapidly.with
other foreign influences, the impact of French is to be found, first and
foremost, in the vocabulary. The layers and the semantic spheres of the French
borrowings reflect the relations between the Norman rulers and the English
population, the dominance of the French language in literature and the contacts
with French culture. The prevalence of French as the language of writing led to
numerous changes in English spelling.dialect division which evolved in Early
M.E. was on the whole preserved in later periods. In the 14th and 15th
c. the same grouping of dialects was present: the Southern group. Including
Kentish and the South-Western dialects, the Midland group with its minute
subdivision and the Northern group. And yet the relations among them were
changing. The extension of trade beyond the conjines of local boundaries, the
growth of towns with a mixed population favored the intermixture and
amalgamation of the regional dialects. More intensive inter-influence of the
dialects, among other facts is attested by the penetration of Scandinavian
loan-words into the West-Midland and Southern dialects from the North and by
the spread of French borrowings in the reverse direction. The most important
went in changing linguistic situation was the rise of the London dialect as the
prevalent written form of language.history of the London dialect reveals the
sources of the literary language in Late M.E. and also the main source and
basis of the Literary Standard, both in its written and spoken forms.Early M.E.
records made in London-beginning with the Proclamation of 1258 - show that the
dialect of London was fundamentally East Saxon; in terms of the M.E. division,
it belonged to the South-Western dialect group. Later records indicate that the
speech of London was becoming more mixed, with East Midland features gradually
prevailing over the Southern features. The most likely explanation for the
change if the dialect type and for the mixed character of London English lies
in the history of the London population.the 12th and 13th
c. the inhabitants of London came from the south-western district. In the
middle of the 14th c. London was practically depopulated during the
‘Black Death’ (1348) and later outbreaks of bubonic plague. It has bun
estimated that about one third of the population of Britain died in the
epidemies, the highest proportion of deaths occurring in London. The
depopulation was speedily made good and in 1377 London had over 35.000
inhabitants.of the new arrivals came from the East Midlands: Norfolk, Suffolk,
and other populous and wealthy counties of Malieval England, although not
bordering immediately on the capital. As a result the speech of Londoners was
brought much closer to the East Midland dialect. The official and literary
papers produced in London in the late 14th c. display obvious East
Midland in features. The London dialect became more Anglian than Saxon in
character.mixed dialect of London, which had extended to the two universities
(in Oxford and Cambridge) ousted French from official spheres and from the
sphere of writing.flourishing of literature, which marks the seconds half of
the 14th c., apart from its cultural significance, testifies, to the
complete rustablishment of English as the language of writing. Some authors
wrote in their local dialect from outside London, but most of them used the
London dialect or forms of the language combining London and provincial traits.
Towards the end of the century the London dialect had become the principal type
of language used in literature a sort of literary ‘pattern’ to be imitated by
provincial authors.literary text of the late 14th c. preserved in
numerous manuscripts, belong to a variety of genres. Translation continued, but
original composition were produced in abundance; party was more prolific than
prose. This period of literary florescence is known as the ‘age of Chaucer’;
the greatest name in English literature before Shakespeare other writers are
referred to as ‘Chaucer’s contemporaries’).of the prominent authors of the time
was John de Trevisa of Cornwall. In 1387 he completed the translation of seven
books on world history - ‘Polychronicon’ by R. Higden - from Latin into the
South-Western dialect of English. Among other information it contains some
curious remarks about languages used in English: ‘ Trevisa:…gentle men have now
left to teach (i.e. ‘stopped teaching’) their children French. …Higden: It sums
a great wonder how Englishmen and their own language and tongue is so diverse
in sound in this one island and the language of Normandy coming from another
land has one manner of sound among all men that speak it right in England…men
of the East with men of the West, as it were under the same pared of heaven,
award more in the sound of their speech than men if the North with men of the
South.Greatest linguistic consequence was the activity of John Wyclif
(1324-1384), the forerunner of the English Reformation. His most important
contribution to English prose was his (and his pupils’) translation of the
Bible completed in 1384. He also wrote pamphlet protesting against the
corruption of the Church. Wyelif’s Bible was copied in manuscript and read by
many people all over the country. Written in the London dialect, it played an
important role in spreading this form of English.chief poets of the time,
besides Chaucer, were John Gower, William Langland and, probably, the unknown
author of ‘Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight’).remarkable poem of William
Langland ‘The Vision Coneerning Piers the Plowman’ was written in a dialect
combining West Midland and London features; it has survived in three versions,
from 1362 to 1390; it is an allegory and a satire attacking the vises and
weaknesses of various social classes and sympathizing with the wretchedness of
the poor. It is presented as a series of visions appearing to the poet in his
dreams. He susdiverse people and personifications of vices and virtues and
explains the way to salvation, which is to serve Truth by work and love. The
poem is written in the old alliterative verse and shows no touch of
Anglo-Norman influence.Gover, Chaucer’s friend and an outstanding poet of the
time, was born in Kent, but there are not many Kentisins in his London dialect.
His first poems were written in Anglo-Norman and in Latin. His longest poem
‘Vox Clamantis’ (’the Voice of the Crying in the Wilderness’) is in Latin; it
deals with Watiyler’s rebellion and condemns all roans of Society for the sins
which brought about the terrible revolt. His last long poem I is in English:
Confession Amantis (‘The Lover’s Confession), a composition of 40000
acto-syllabis. It contains a vast collection of stories drawn from various
sources and arranged to illustrate the seven deadly sins. John Gower told his
tales easily and vividly and for long was almost as popular as Chaucer.was one
more poet whose name is unknown. Four poems found in a single manuscript of the
14th c. - ‘Peasl’, ‘Patience’, ‘Cleanness’, and ‘Sir Gawaineand the
Green Knight’ - have been attributed to the same author. Incidentally, the
latter poet belongs to the popular Arthurian cycle of Knightly romances, though
the episodes narrated as well as the form are entirely original. The poems are
a blending of collaborate alliteration, in line with the OE tradition, and new
rhymed verse, with a variety of difficult rhyme schemes.Chaucer (1340-1400) was
by far the most outstanding figure of the time. A hundred years later William
Caxon, the first English printer, called him ‘the worshipful father and fist
founder and embellisher of ornate eloquence in our language. ‘In many books on
the history of English literature and the history of English Chaucer is
described as the founder of the literary language.carried works more of less
imitative if other authors - Latin, French or Italian - though they bear
abundant evidence of his skill. He never wrote in any other language than
English. The culmination of Chaucer ‘s work as a poet ; his great unfinished
collection of stories ‘The Canterbury Tales’.wrote in a dialect which in the
main coincided with that used in documents produced in London shortly before
his time and for a long time after. Although he did not really create the
literary language, as a poet of outstanding talent he made better use if it than
contemporaries and set up 2 pattern to be followed in the 15th c.
His poems were copied so many times that over sixty manuscripts of ‘The
Cantervary Tales’ have survived to this day. No books were among the first to
be printed, a hundred years after their Compositon.’s literary language, based
in the mixed (lavgely East Midland) London dialect is known as classical M.E.
In the 15th and 16th c. it became the basis of the
national literary English language.15th c. could produce nothing
worthy to rank with Chaucer. The two prominent poets, Thomas Hoccleve and John
Lydgate, were chicfly translators and imitators. The style of Caucer’s
successors is believed to have drawn farther away from everyday speech; it was
highly effected in character, abounding in abstact words and strongly
influenced by Latin rhetoric (it is termed ‘aureate language’).in English
literature the decline after Chaucer is apparent, the literature of Scotland
forms a Northern dialect of English flourished from the 13th until
the 16th c. ‘The Bruce’, written by John Barbour between 1373 and
1378 is a national epic, which describes the real history of Rolert Bruce a
hero and military chief who defeated the army of Edward 2 at Bannockburn in
1314 and secured the independence of Scotland. This poem was followed by
others, composed by prominent 15th c. poets: e.g. ‘Wallace’
attributed to Henry the Minstel; ‘ Kind’s Quhair’ (King’s Book’) by King James
of Scotland.
CONCLUSION
belongs to each of
us. Everyone uses words. What is there in a language that makes people so
curious? The answer is that there is almost nothing in our life that is not
touched by language. We all speak and we all listen so we are all interested in
the origin of words, in how they appear and die. Nowadays 750 million people all
over the world use English. 300 million people are native speakers, 300 million
people use English as the second language, another speakers learn English as
foreign language. It has become the language of the planet. People use English
everywhere, it is the first wide spread language in the world after
Chinese.origin of the English language began from old times. The Germanic
tribes took the language to the country. It was considered as Anglo-Frisian
dialect, and depended on the West Germanic languages family. The first English
speakers were Anglo-Saxons. But their language was in another way, and it was
called the Old English language. One of the dialects of Old English was Late
West Saxon, which dominated and similar with today`s one. When we read extract
of the work which was written in Old English we understand the main idea of the
work. We also meet words which we can`t understand. During the development of
the English language we note loan words from foreign languages, they are
borrowed words. We meet words of every time, because the language was
influenced by several people in the periods of its development. The process of
its development divided into three periods: Old English, Middle English and
Modern English. And also borrowed words completed in periods.of words are the
same, but there are some differences. For example in Middle English ynogh is
enough in modern English; longe is long; agoon is ago and so on, but they are a
little bit similar in writing, so it is not very difficult to understand them.also
the language is full of borrowed words from other languages. These loan words
take the main role in each language. Like this, English is completed with loan
words from French, Latin, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, from other
Asian and African languages. French borrowed words are the main of
them.beginning of the borrowed words from French began after the influence of
Normans. After the death of William the Conqueror people needed a new head from
abroad. Norman inhabitants settled to the country and slowly influenced to the
language. During the reign of Normans there appeared a mass of French borrowed
words.borrowing consist of three main periods: the first period lasted
1066-1250, the second period lasted 1250-1400, the last period contained from
1400. In the first period there appeared only few words, because the Conqueror
allowed common people to use their native language. There were three languages
spoken in the country. French was used in the Court and Government. Latin was
learned in churches, people who wanted to learn science learned Latin. Only
common people used English. But later they began to speak in the mixed
language, because the Norman language was considered as the language of
Aristocracy, and people who didn`t know the language was considered as
non-educated man.the number of French loans in the modern period is relatively
minor in comparison to Middle English, the contribution is most important. The
French Loans were primarily borrowed to provide richness to the language. Whilst
it was arguable during the Restoration whether the loans were corrupting or
enriching the language, today there is no doubt or disputable grounds to argue
that the loans did nothing but enrich the English language.also divided into
periods by their entrance. These periods are the same with the periods of own
the English language.borrowing of vocabulary is rapprochement of nations on the
ground of economic, political and cultural connections. The bright example of
it can be numerous French borrowings to English language. They play important
role in the English language. Nowadays people use English to communicate with
foreigners, to learn science, to visit another countries, to make career, to
develop own business, to do international relationship, etc.to continue
borrowings in 20th century did not have special success because
language became more independent.my opinion we managed to study the problems of
French borrowings in the English language. We understood possible ways of
penetrating French words in the English language, we have seen different ways
of difference types of borrowings.spite of arrival of the words from different
languages into the English vocabulary, the English Language did not suffer from
large flow of foreign elements.the contrary its vocabulary has been enriched
due to the taken foreign elements.
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