1.

There are very few Celtic loan-words in the OE vocabulary, for there must have
been little intermixture between the Germanic settlers and the Celtic in Britain.
Though in some parts of the island the Celts population was not exterminated during
the WG invasion, linguistic evidence of Celtic influence is meager. Obviously, there
was little that the newcomers could learn from the subjugated Celts. Abundant
borrowing from Celtic is to be found only in place-names. The OE kingdoms Kent,
Deira and Bernicia derive their names from the names of Celtic tribes. The name
of York, the Downs and erhaps London have been traced to Celtic sources
(Celtic dūn meant 'hill'). Various 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, Stour, Dover also come
from Celtic. Some elements frequently occurring in Celtic place-names can help to
identify them: -comb 'deep valley' in Batcombe, Duncombe, Winchcombe; -torr 'high
rock' in Torr, Torcross; -llan 'church' in Llandaff, Llanelly; -pill 'creek' in Pylle,
Huntspill. Many place-names with Celtic elements are hybrids; the Celtic component,
combined with a Latin or a Germanic component, make a compound place-name; e.g.

Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few: no more than a

dozen. Examples of common nouns are: OE binn (NE bin 'crib'), cradol (NE cradle),
bratt 'cloak', dun (NE dun Mark coloured'), dūn 'hill', crass (NE cross), probably
through Celtic from the L crux. A few words must have entered OE from Celtic due to
the activities of Irish missionaries in spreading Christianity, e.g.
OE ancor 'hermit', drӯ'magician', cursian (NE curse). In later ages some of the Celtic
borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects, e.g. loch dial,
'lake', coomb dial. 'vallev'.

2) Early OE borrowings from Latin indicate the new things and con-cepts which the
Teutons had learnt from the Romans; as seen from the examples below they pertain to
war, trade, agriculture, building and home life.
Words connected with trade indicate general concepts, units of measurements and
articles of trade unknown to the Teutons before they came into contact with Rome:
OE cēapian, cēap, cēapman and manʒion, manʒunʒ, manʒere ('to trade', 'deal', 'trader',
'to trade', 'trading', 'trader') came from the Latin names for 'merchant' — caupo and
mango.

Evidently, the words were soon assimilated by the language as they yielded many
derivatives. Units of measurement and containers were adopted with their Lat-in
names: OE pund (NE pound),OE ynce (NE inch)from L pondo and uncia, OE mynet,
mynetian ('coin', 'to coin'), OE flasce, ciest (NE flask, chest). The following words
denote articles of trade and agricultural prod-ucts, introduced by the Romans: OE win
(from L vinum), OE butere (from L būtӯrum), OE plume (from L prunus),OE ciese
(from L cāseus), OE pipor (from L. piper), (NE wine, butter, plum, cheese, pepper).

Roman contribution to building can be perceived in words like OE cealc, tiʒele, coper
(NE chalk, tile, copper). A group of words relating to domestic life is exemplified by
OE cytel, disc, cuppe, pyle (NE kettle, dish, cup, pillow),etc.

Borrowings pertaining to military affairs are OE mil (NE mile)from L millia passuum,
which meant a thousand steps made to measure the distance; OE weall (NE wall)from
L vallum, a wall of fortifications erected in the Roman provinces; OE strǣt from Latin
strata via, — a "paved road" (these "paved roads" were laid to connect Roman
military camps and colonies in Britain; the meaning of the word changed when houses
began to be built along these roads, hence NE street); to this group of words belong
also OE pit 'javelin', OE pytt (NE pile, pit).

There is every reason to suppose that words of the latter group could be borrowed in
Britain, for they look as direct traces of the Roman occu-pation (even though some of
these words also occur in the continental Germanic tongues, cf. G Straβle).

3. What facts can be given to prove that OE was generally resistant to borrowing and
preferred to rely upon its own resources?
Latin words entered the English language at different stages of OE history.
Chronologically they can be divided into several layers. Early OE borrowings from
Latin indicate the new things and con¬cepts which the Teutons had learnt from the
Romans; as seen from the examples below they pertain to war, trade, agriculture,
building and home life.
It should be noted that the distinction of two layers of early Latin bor-rowings is
problematic, lor it is next to impossible to assign precise dates to events so far back in
history. Nevertheless, it seems more reasonable to assume that the earlier, continental
layer of loan words was more numerous than the layer made in Britain. In the first
place, most OE words quoted above have parallels in other OG languages, which is
easily accounted for if the borrowings were made by the Teutons before their
migrations. At that time transference of loan-words from tribe to tribe was easy, even
if they were first adopted by one tribe. Second¬ly, we ought to recall that the relations
between the Germanic conquerors and the subjugated Britons in Britain could hardly
be favourable for extensive borrowing.
The bulk of the OE vocabulary were native words. In the course of the OE period the
vocabulary grew; it was mainly replenished from native sources, by means of word-
formation.
According to their morphological structure OE words (like modern words) fell into
three main types:
a) simple words ("root-words") or words with a simple stem, contain-ing a root-
morpheme and no derivational affixes, e.g. land, sinʒan, ʒōd (NE land, sing, good);
b) derived words consisting of one root-morpheme and one or more affixes, e.g. be-
ʒinnan, weorp-unʒ, un-scyld-iʒ, ʒe-met-inʒ (NE begin, 'worthiness', 'innocent',
meeting).
c) compound words, whose stems were made up of more than one root-morpheme,
e.g. mann-cynn, norpe-weard, fēower-tiene, weall-ʒeat, scir-ʒe-refa (NEmankind,
northward, fourteen, wall gate, sheriff).

4. As in Mod. E., new OE words could be formed from existing ones with the
addition of prefixes or suffixes. Prefixes tend to affect meaning, for instance by
reversing or intensifying the application of the original word (e.g. excusable,
inexcusable; sound, unsound). Suffixes are used to change one type of word into
another: for instance, to create a noun from a verb (e.g. sing, singer), or an adverb
from an adjective (e.g. sad, sadly).

Common OE prefixes include:

mis- defective (dǣd ‘deed’, misdǣd ‘misdeed’; faran ‘to go’, misfaran ‘to go astray’)
ofer- excess (ǣt ‘eating’, oferǣt ‘gluttony’; fyllan ‘to fill’, oferfyllan ‘to fill to
overflowing’)
un- negative (cūþ ‘known’, uncūþ ‘unknown’; riht ‘right’, unriht ‘wrong’)

However, prefixes sometimes have little if any effect. For instance, giefan and
forgiefan both mean ‘to give’. Many verbs can occur with or without the prefix ge-;
niman and geniman both mean ‘to take’. This is sometimes summarized in
dictionaries and grammars of OE as (ge)niman, and the ge is ignored when the words
are alphabetized.

Common suffixes, many of which are still used in Mod. E., help to identify types of
word.

Common adjective suffixes include:

-ful (cearu ‘care, sorrow’, cearful ‘sorrowful’)
-ig (blōd ‘blood’, blōdig ‘bloody’)
-isc (cild ‘child’, cildisc ‘childish’)
-lēas (hlāford ‘lord’, hlāfordlēas ‘lordless’)
-lic (wundor ‘wonder, miracle’, wundorlic ‘wonderful, miraculous’)

Many adverbs end in:

-e (heard ‘hard, fierce’, hearde ‘fiercely’)
-līce (hrædlic ‘quick’, hrædlīce ‘quickly’)
Abstract nouns often end in:
-dōm (wīs ‘wise’, wīsdōm ‘wisdom’)
-hād (cild ‘child’, cildhād ‘childhood’)
-nes (beorht ‘bright’, beorhtnes ‘brightness’)
-scipe (frēond ‘friend’, frēondscipe ‘friendship’)

Other common Mod. E. suffixes, such as those in words like devotion, fortitude;
generous, generosity; social, sociable, sociability, were adopted later from French or
Latin.

5.Word Structure
The bulk of the OE vocabulary were native words. In the course of the OE period the
vocabulary grew; it was mainly replenished from native sources, by means of word-
formation.

According to their morphological structure OE words (like modern words) fell into
three main types:

a) simple words ("root-words") or words with a simple stem, contain-ing a root-

morpheme and no derivational affixes, e.g. land, sinʒan, ʒōd (NE land, sing, good);

b) derived words consisting of one root-morpheme and one or more affixes, e.g. be-
ʒinnan, weorp-unʒ, un-scyld-iʒ, ʒe-met-inʒ (NE begin, 'worthiness', 'innocent',
meeting).

c) compound words, whose stems were made up of more than one root-morpheme,
e.g. mann-cynn, norpe-weard, fēower-tiene, weall-ʒeat, scir-ʒe-refa (NEmankind,
northward, fourteen, wall gate, sheriff).
As stated above (§ 66), in Late PG the morphological structure of the word was
simplified. By the age of writing many derived words had lost their stem-forming
suffixes and had turned into simple words. The loss of stem-suffixes as means of
word derivation stimulated the growth of other means of word-formation, especially
the growth of suffixation.
In OE there existed a system of word-formation of a com-plexity similar to that of
Mod E. One of the most striking examples of the potentials of OE word-formation
was the ability of a single root to appear in an abundant store of simple, derived and
compound words. For instance, OE mōd (NE mood) yielded about fifty words:
derived words, such as mōdiʒ, ʒemōded, ofermōd ('proud', 'disposed', 'arrogance'),
compound words mōd-caru, mōd-leof, mōd-ʒepōht, ʒlædmōdnis ('care', 'beloved',
'thought', 'kindness'). Scores of words contained the roots of OE dæʒ, ʒōd, monn,
weorp, lonʒ(NE day, good, man, worth, long). Many derivational affixes appear to
have been very productive as they occurred in numerous words: wip- a prefix in more
than fifty words, ofer- in over a hundred words.

It is not always possible for the present-day linguist to assess cor-rectly the
productivity of OE word-building means. It is difficult to distinguish processes which
were active from those that had ceased to be productive but whose products were still
in use. Due to the scarcity of written evidence sometimes we cannot say whether the
word was in common use or it was created by the author of a certain text for one
occasion — these kinds of words "said once" are termed "hapax legomena".

6. Determine the part of speech and the meaning of the words in the right
column derived from the stem given in the left column:
Learn-ian - V “learn” Leorn-ere – N – learner
Leorning – V – learning

ʒe-samn-ian – V ʒesamnung – N – assembly

“assemble”
Sceot-an – V – shoot
Leoht – N – light
stranʒ - Adj - “strong”
Eald – Adj – “old”
Scearp – Adj – “sharp”
sorʒ - N – “sorrow”
Sceotend – N - warrior
Leohtlic – Adj - bright
stranʒlic – Adj - strong
Ealdian – V – grow old
Ealdunʒ - N – age; growing old
Ealddom – N - age
Scearpnis – N – sharpness
sorʒian - N – sorrow

Faest – Adj – “firm, fast”
ʒeorn – Adj – “eager”
Freond – N –“friend”
sorʒfull – Adj - sorrowful
Faeste – Adv – firmly
Georne – Adv – eagerly
Geornfulnes - N - Eagerness
Freondleas – Adj – friendless
Freondscipe – N – friendship

OE employed two ways of word-formation: derivation and word-composition.

7. Add negative prefixes to the following words and explain the meaning of the
derivatives:
rot ‘glad’ — unrot ‘unhuppy’; hal ‘healthy’ — wan-hal ‘unhealthy’; spēdiʒ ‘rich’ —
unspēdiʒ, wanspēdiʒ ‘poor’; cūp ‘known’ — uncup ‘unknown’; lician ‘please’ —
mislician ‘displease’; limpan ‘happen’ — mislimpan ‘go wrong’.