Some English words changed their meanings taking on the meanings of the corresponding Scandinavian words: OSc. draurm - dream (OE dream - joy), OSc.- brauth - bread (OE bread - crumb, fragment).
Scandinavian settlements in England left their toponymic traces in a great number of place names: OSc. byr - village (Derby, Rugby); OSc. foss - waterfall (Fossbury, Fossway); OSc. toft - cite, plot of land (Brimtoft, Langtoft).
7. The Norman-French Element in the English Vocabulary
The French layer rates second to Latin in bulk. It has been estimated that English owes one fourth of its vocabulary to French. French borrowings penetrated into English in two ways: from the Norman dialect (during the first centuries after the Norman Conquest of 1066) and from the French national literary language beginning with the 15th century.
The Normans who conquered England in 1066 were of Scandinavian origin and their French differed somewhat from the central dialect of France. During two centuries after the Norman Conquest the linguistic situation in England was rather complicated; the feudal lords spoke the Norman dialect of the French language, the people spoke English, scientific and theological literature was in Latin, the court literature was in French. Latin and French were used in administration and school teaching. Still English was in common use and therefore the Norman dialect was to a certain extent influenced by English in some phonetical and lexical points. Gradually English assimilated many French words that either ousted their Saxon equivalents (OE unhope - despair; OE tholemodness - patience), brought new concepts (exchequer, parliament) or became synonyms to native words (to help = to aid; weak = feeble).
Before the Norman Conquest only a few words were borrowed: proud, market.
French words borrowed during the period of the 12th -16th centuries show the social status of the Norman invaders and their supremacy in economic, cultural and political development. At that time a lot of terms were borrowed into the English language:
terms of rank: duke, prince, baron;
law terms: prison, jury, judge;
military terms: army, peace, soldier;
religious terms: pray, faith, saint;
terms of art: art, beauty, paint;
terms of architecture: pillar, palace, castle.
In most cases such words were completely assimilated.
Later French borrowings can be easily identified by their peculiar form and pronunciation: garage, technique, machine.
8. Various Other Elements in the English Vocabulary
Quite a number of words were borrowed from other languages: Dutch, Italian, Spanish. England was in commercial contact with the Netherlands during the Middle ages. There lived and worked many skilful Dutch artisans in England (weavers, shipbuilders). Hence, the terminology of some professions owes much to Dutch and Flemish: cruise, dock, reef. Among borrowings there are also weaving terms: rock, spool.
Dutch art terms came to English as a result of the influence of Dutch art (landscape, easel).
The Italian language began to contribute to the English vocabulary in the16thcentury. Many Italian words such as military terms entered through French. During the period of Renaissance Italian culture greatly influenced the cultural life of England. Many musical terms were borrowed at that time: piano, opera, sonata. Among borrowings we find artistic terms (studio, fresco), literary terms (stanza, canto), business terms (bank, traffic), words denoting realities of Italian life (gondola, macaroni).
Spanish brought some words as well. Many words belonging to various languages of the native population of America came through Spanish: banana, canyon, cargo, potato, Negro.
Some Portuguese words came through French, Spanish and Dutch: caste, fetish. There are not many words borrowed immediately from Portuguese: tank, cobra, port (wine), emu.
There are borrowings from the German language: cobalt, quartz, leitmotiv, kindergarten, rucksack.
Some other languages contributed to the English vocabulary as well. Arabian gave some terms: algebra, Moslem, mufti, sherbet.
With the beginning of England's colonial expansion in the 16th-17th centuries many words penetrated into the English vocabulary from the languages of colonial countries: cashmere, jungle, rupee (Hindi), ginseng, serge (Chinese), hara-kiri, rickshaw (Japanese).
The Russian language also contributed to the English vocabulary: rouble, kopeck, taiga, sable, sarafan, tsar.
In the Ukrainian language there borrowings from the Polish language (в'язень, застава, ліжко, зичити), from the Check language (брама, праця, вагатися). There also exist Turkic words (кабан, кайдани) in the Ukrainian language.
Words borrowed from the English language are partially assimilated (футбол, хокей). Some borrowings in the Ukrainian language are restricted in word-formation. Such words as ноу-хау, от кутюр have no derivatives.
International words are used in both languages: organisation, telephone, judo, banana. Some international words can coincide only in one of the meanings. E.g.: the words stress, faculty, data. They are called pseudointernationalisms.
9. False Etymology
The historical development of borrowed words often brings about an indistinctness of the word's etymological meaning. The words are then wrongly associated with their ultimate source whereas actually the word may have come through some intermediate language. The word debt comes not from the Latin word debit but from the French dette while doubt comes not from the Latin word dubitare but from the French word doute. But scientists wrongly attributed them directly to the Latin source and consequently introduced the missing b which never came to be pronounced.
In many cases words lose their etymological clarity. The word buttery (larder) which came from the Latin word botaria (Latin bota - barrel, bottle) was wrongly associated with the English word butter. Such instances of the so-called folk etymology are not very rare in the English language.
In some cases folk etymology leads to the appearance of compound words which are tautological. In the word greyhound the first element of which comes from the Scandinavian grey (собака) was associated with grey meaning colour.
Sometimes under the influence of folk etymology the spelling of the word is changed. The word hiccough was written hicket but it was associated with the word cough and a new spelling was introduced.
10. Types of Borrowings
1. Aliens - words like eau-de-Cologne, phenomenon - phenomena, retaining their foreign look, their phonetical and grammatical peculiarities.
2. Denizens - loan-words that received the “right of citizenship” in English and are not easily recognised as borrowings (wine, table).
3. Barbarisms - words usually having synonyms among the completely assimilated or native words limited to official, literary, bookish usage (en regale, tete-a-tete).
4. Translation loans - a word-for-word or element--for-element translation of a unit of the lexical source language (blue stocking, collective farm).
5. Semantic borrowings - the words which changed their meanings under the influence of a foreign language: cadres (військовий персонал - кадри).
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VOCABULARY
Ways of classifying the vocabulary.
Special literary vocabulary
neologisms;
archaisms.
Special Colloquial vocabulary
a) dialects.
b) slang.
Ways of Classifying the Vocabulary
The whole of the word-stock of the English language can be divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups each of which has a property it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. Prof. I. Galperin calls this common property the aspect. The aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It makes the layer more or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character which makes the layer unstable. The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is unrestricted in its use. It can be used in all styles of the language. It is this feature that makes the layer the most stable of all.
The subgroups of the special literary vocabulary are the following: terms, poetical words, foreignisms and barbarisms, archaic words, nonce-words.
The subgroups of the special colloquial layer are such: dialectical words, vulgarisms, slang, jargon, professionalisms, nonce-words.
The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term Standard English vocabulary. Other groups in the literary layer are regarded as special literary vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer are regarded as special colloquial vocabulary.
Words can be classified from the point of view of their origin. They can be native and borrowed (See the previous chapter).
Special Literary Vocabulary
a) Neologisms
Neologisms are words and expressions used for new concepts that appear in the course of the language development, new meanings of the already existing words and new names of old concepts.
Neologisms appear all the time. The words table, sky once were neologisms. But soon they became vital and widespread to be felt neologisms. Names of different fruit, species were new names of new concepts (pea, cherry, pepper). The introduction of Christianity brought with it a great number of new concepts and words (church, candle). The Norman Conquest also contributed to the enrichment of the English vocabulary (army).
The development of industry, the development of technology, new inventions caused the appearance of new words (film, television, self-starter).
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