Development of the English Vocabulary from the 12 th to 19 th c

the English language development

Old English borrowings.
1.1.1. Latin borrowings.
1.1.2. Celtic borrowings.
2. External means of

enriching vocabulary in Middle English.
2.1. Scandinavian borrowings.
2.2. French borrowings.
3. External means of enriching vocabulary in New English.
3.1. Early New English borrowings.
3.2. Late New English borrowings.

semantic changes
Internal ways of developing the vocabulary were productive

in all historical periods and were equally prolific in the creation of new words and new meanings
they were exceptionally productive in the periods of rapid vocabulary growth, such as the Renaissance period.

almost entirely Germanic and was highly resistant to borrowing
the

language of later periods absorbed foreign words by the hundred and even made use of foreign word components in word formation.
the proportion of Germanic words in the English language has fallen: according to modern estimates the native Germanic element constitutes from 30 to 50% of the vocabulary; the other two thirds (or half) come from foreign sources, mainly Romance.

contacts of English with other tongues resulting from diverse political,

economic, social and cultural events in the early periods of British history.
OE borrowings come from two sources: Celtic and Latin.

Bernicia - from the names of Celtic tribes.
- The

name of York, the Downs and perhaps London have been traced to Celtic sources (Celtic dūn meant 'hill').
- Celtic designations of 'river' and 'water' were understood by the Germanic invaders as proper names: Ouse, Exe, Esk, Usk, Avon, Evan go back to Celtic amhuin 'river', uisge 'water'; Thames, Stow, Dover also come from Celtic.

some elements frequently occurring in Celtic place-names can help to identify them:
-comb 'deep valley' (Batcombe, Duncombe, Winchcombe);
-torr 'high rock' (Torr, Torcross);
-llan 'church' (Llandaff, Llanelly);
-pill 'creek' (Pylle, Huntspill).

+ Latin / Germanic = a compound place-name):
Celtic plus

Latin Celtic plus Germanic
Man-chester York-shire
Win-chester Corn-wall
Glou-cester Salis-bury
Wor-cester Lich-field
Devon-port Devon-shire
Lan-caster Canter-bury
Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few (10-12):
OE binn (NE bin 'crib'), cradol (NE cradle), dūn 'hill', cross (NE cross), probably through Celtic from the L crux;
In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects e.g. loch dial, 'lake', coomb dial. 'valley'.

OE alphabet,
the growth of writing and literature.

chronologically several layers

agriculture, building and home life (Early OE borrowings from Latin)
-

religion (OE apostol - NE apostle, biscop – bishop, clerec – clerk, dēofol – devil, munuc - monk)
- education (OE scōl - NE school - L schola
māister - master, 'teacher’ - L magister
fers – verse – L versus
dihtan - ‘compose’ – L dictare)
- names of trees and plants — elm, lily, plant, pine;
- names of illnesses and words pertaining to medical treatment — cancer, fever, paralysis, plaster;
- names of animals — camel, elephant, tiger;
- names of clothes and household articles — cap, mat, sack, sock;
- names of foods — beet, caul, oyster, radish;
- miscellaneous words — crisp, fan, place, spend, turn.

to borrowing of words.
"translation-loans" — words and phrases created

on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations.
The earliest instances of translation-loans are names of the days of the week :
OE Mōnan-dæ (Monday) 'day of the moon',
L Lunae dies;
Tiwes-dæ (Tuesday) 'day of Tiw‘,
L Mortis dies (Tiw - a Teutonic God corresponding to Roman Mars).

assimilation - sound changes:
e.g. in disc and ciese the

consonants [sk] and [k’] were palatalised and eventually changed into [] and [t] (NE dish, cheese);
grammatical assimilation – grammatical forms were inflected like respective parts of speech:
e.g. cirice, cuppe (NE church, cup).
Fem. nouns were declined as n-stems: тиnc, dēofol (NE monk, devil), Masc. — like a-stems,
the verbs pinian, temprian were conjugated like weak verbs of the second class ('torture’, NE temper).
word-formation:
stems of some Latin borrowings were used in derivation and word compounding,
e.g.: - the verbs fersian 'versify’, plantian (NE plant) were derived from borrowed nouns fers, plant;
- abstract nouns - martyrdōm, martyrhād were built by attaching native suffixes to the loan-word martyr (NE martyrdom)

French language
the nature of the borrowings and their amount reflect

the conditions of the contacts between the English and these languages

awe, bloom, knife, root, bull, cake, husband, leg, wing, guest,

loan, race
Adjectives: big, week, wrong, ugly, twin
Verbs: call, cast, take, happen, scare, hail, want, bask, gape, kindle
Pronouns: they, them, their; and many others.

the English language borrowed a word for which it had

no synonym. These words were simply added to the vocabulary:
law, fellow.
2. The English synonym was ousted by the borrowing. Scandinavian taken (to take) and callen (to call) ousted the English synonyms niman and clypian, respectively.
Both the words, the English and the corresponding Scandinavian, are preserved, but they became different in meaning:
Native Scandinavian borrowing
heaven sky
starve die

Sometimes a borrowed word and an English word are etymological

doublets, as words originating from the same source in Common Germanic.
Native Scandinavian borrowing
shirt skirt
shatter scatter
raise rear
5. Sometimes an English word and its Scandinavian doublet were the same in meaning but slightly different phonetically, and the phonetic form of the Scandinavian borrowing is preserved in the English language, having ousted the English counterpart:
NE to give, to get come from the Scandinavian gefa, geta,
which ousted the English gyven and getan, respectively. Similar Modern English words are gift, forget, guild, gate, again.
6. There may be a shift of meaning. Thus, the word dream originally meant "joy, pleasure"; under the influence of the related Scandinavian word it developed its modern meaning.

judge, crime, prison, condemn, sentence, parliament, etc.
military life: army, battle,

peace, banner, victory, general, colonel, lieutenant, major, etc.
religion: religion,sermon, prey, saint, charity
city crafts: painter, tailor, carpenter (but country occupations remained English: shepherd, smith)
pleasure and entertainment: music, art, feast, pleasure, leisure, supper, dinner, pork, beef, mutton (but the corresponding names of domestic animals remained English: pig, cow, sheep)
words of everyday life: air, place, river, large, age, boil, branch, brush, catch, chain, chair, table, choice, cry, cost
relationship: aunt, uncle, nephew, cousin.

A word may be borrowed from the French language to

denote notions unknown to the English up to the time: government, parliament, general, colonel, etc.
2. The English synonym is ousted by the French borrowing:
English French
micel large
here army
3. Both the words are preserved, but they are stylistically different:
English French
to begin to commence
to work to labour
to leave to abandon
life existence
look regard
ship vessel
The French borrowing is generally more literary or even bookish, the
English word - a common one; but sometimes the English word is
more literary: foe (native, English) — enemy (French borrowing).

Sometimes the English language borrowed many words with the same

word-building affix.
The meaning of the affix in this case became clear to the English-speaking people. It entered the system of word-building means of the English language, and they began to add it to English words, thus forming word-hybrids.
suffix -ment entered the language within such words as government, parliament, agreement but later there appeared such English-French hybrids as: fulfilment, amazement.
the suffix -ance/-ence, which was an element of such borrowed words as innocence, ignorance, repentance, now also forms word-hybrids, such as hindrance.
the -able
French borrowings admirable, tolerable, reasonable,
but also: readable, eatable, unbearable.

One of the consequences of the borrowings from French was

the appearance of etymological doublets.
— from the Common Indo-European:
native borrowed
fatherly paternal
— from the Common Germanic:
native borrowed
yard garden
ward guard
choose choice
— from Latin:
earlier later
(Old English) (Middle English)
borrowing borrowing
mint money
inch ounce

Due to the great number of French borrowings there appeared

in the English language such families of words, which though similar in their root meaning, are different in origin:
native borrowed
mouth oral
sun solar
see vision
7. There are calques on the French phrase:
It's no doubt - Ce n'est pas doute
Without doubt - Sans doute
Out of doubt - Hors de doute.

borrowing
the sources of loan words is different from ME

the nature of the new words

the process can be understood if sociolinguistic factors are taken into consideration.

be subdivided into:
borrowings of the Early NE period (XV-XVII c.)

- the period preceeding the establishment of the literary norm,

loan words which entered the language after the establishment of the literary norm - in the XVIII—XX centuries, the period which is generally alluded to as late NE.

relations
trade relations
SOURCES:
In the XV c.:
Italian: cameo, archipelago, dilettante, fresco,

violin, balcony, gondola, grotto, volcano;
in the XVI century:
Spanish and Portuguese: armada, negro, tornado, mosquito, renegade, matador,
Latin (the language of culture of the time):
- verbs, with the characteristic endings -ate, -ute: aggravate, abbreviate, exaggerate, frustrate, separate, irritate, contribute, constitute, persecute, prosecute, execute, etc.,
- adjectives ending in -ant, -ent, -ior, -al: arrogant, reluctant, evident, obedient, superior, inferior, senior, junior, dental, cordial, filial.

result of numerous Latin borrowings at the time there appeared

many etymological doublets:
Latin
strictum (direct) factum

strict strait (through French) fact feat

In the XVII c.:
America: canoe, maize, potato, tomato, tobacco, mahogany, cannibal, hammock, squaw, moccasin, wigwam, etc.
French borrowings — after the Restoration: ball, ballet, billet, caprice, coquette, intrigue, fatigue, naive.

English borrowings (XVIII - XX centuries)
German: kindergarten, waltz, wagon, boy,

girl
French: magazine, machine, garage, police, engine
Indian: bungalow, jungle, indigo
Chinese: coolie, tea
Arabic: caravan, divan, alcohol, algebra, coffee, bazaar, orange, cotton, candy, chess
Australian: kangaroo, boomerang, lubra
Russian: borzoi, samovar, tsar, verst, taiga,Soviet, bolshevik, kolkhoz, sputnik, lunnik, lunokhod, synchrophasotron, glasnost, perestroika.
In New English there also appeared scientific or technical terms formed on the basis of Greek and Latin vocabulary: telephone, telegraph, teletype, telefax, microphone, sociology, politology, electricity, etc.