Latin borrowings

The earliest borrowings came into English from Latin. Historically, all Latin loan words in English can be
divided into 3 layers. n the 1st century B.C. the Germanic tribes lived in Central Europe, they spoke
numerous Germanic languages which contained Indo-European and Common Germanic elements. As most
of Europe was occupied by the Roman Empire at that time The Germanic tribes came into constant
contacts with the Romans. The Germanic tribes were primitive cattle-breeders who knew next to nothing
about land cultivation. The only products known to them were meat and milk. So, from the more civilized
Romans they learnt how to make butter and cheese. Since there were no words to name the new
foodstuffs in their tribal languages they had to use Latin words for them. The Latin names of some fruits
and vegetables new to the Germanic tribes also entered their vocabulary: cherry, pear, plum, pea, pepper,
peach, beet. The very word plant is also of Latin origin.

 concrete objects (household (cup, pillow, dish, mill, kitchen, wine, kettle mill etc.), food (cheese,
butter, etc.), animals (mule, turtle, etc.));

 units of measurement (mile, pound, inch, etc.).

 such words as street (strata via), wall (vallum), camp (campus), port (portus), chester (as
in Manchester) (castra) remaine in the language.

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

 religion (angel, hymn, idol, pope, psalm; from Greek through Latin – anthem, bishop, candle,
apostle, etc.);

 learning (school, scholar, master, verse, accent, grammar, etc.);

 everyday life (plant, pine, radish, cap, sock, etc.).

Plus there appeared a lot of so-called translation loans – words that were translated part-for-part from
Latin (e.g. Monday (“moon day”, from Latin Lunae dies), goldsmith (from Latin aurifex (auri = gold, fex
= worker)), etc.).

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

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

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

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

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

Latin Greek

abstract concepts (anticipate, exact, exaggerate, theatre (drama, episode, scene, theatre, etc.)
explain, fact, dislocate, accommodation, etc. )
literature (anapest, climax, epilogue, rhythm, etc. )

rhetoric (dialogue, metaphor, etc.)

affixes de- (demolish, destroy, etc.), roots for creation of new words ( )

ex- (extract, , explore, explain, etc.),

affixes -ism (humanism, mechanism, aphorism, etc.),
re- (reread, retell, retry, etc.),
-ist (protagonist, terrorist, cyclist, etc.),
-ate (locate, excavate, etc.),
anti- (antibody, antidote, antibiotic, etc.),
-ent (apparent, present, turbulent, etc.),
di- (digest, diverse, etc.),
-ct (correct, erect, etc.)
neo- (neo-realism, neo-conservatism, etc.)

Greco-Latin Hybrids (words one part of which is Greek and the other one – Latin):

e.g. tele-graph, socio-logy, tele-vision, etc.

Many of them formed the basis for international terminology:

e.g. Latin borrowings: facsimile, introvert, radioactive, relativity, etc.;

Greek borrowings: allergy, antibiotic, hormone, protein, stratosphere, etc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The characteristic feature of loan words of this period is the preservation of French spelling, pronunciation,
stress on the final syllable: memoir, bourgeois, camouflage, regime, police, mirage, bomb, marine, ballet,
corps, grotesque, machine, technique, campaign, routine, etc.

Scandinavian borrowings

The borrowings were simple words of everyday use. The borrowed nouns are: sky, law, husband, skin,
wing, anger, egg, window, fellow, gate, seat; adjectives: low, ill, ugly, weak, loose, odd, wrong,
happy; verbs: cast, die, hit, lift, call, take, want. Some pronouns were borrowed: they, them, their (instead
of OE hie, him, hiera), both and same and one preposition – till. Forming elements: are (pr. tense pl. to be), -
s (pr. tense, 3rd p. sg)

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

Semantic  government and  everyday life (cake, raft, skirt,

Fields administration (assembly, birth, dirt, fellow, root,
authority, council, to govern, window, to die, etc.);
office, nation, etc.);
 military (knife, fleet, etc.);
 feudal system (baron, countess,
duke, feudal, noble, etc.);  legal matters (law,
husband, etc.);
 military (aid, arms, army, battle,
 defeat, force, etc.);  some pronouns and
conjunctions (they, their,
 law (crime, court, jury, justice, them, both, though, etc.);
false, defendant, etc.);
 essential notion (N scar,
 church (abbey, Bible, chapel, anger; V to call, to take, to
clergy, grace, etc.); want to kill, to cast, to
 art, architecture(chimney, scare; Adj happy, ill, weak,
palace, colour, figure, wrong; Pron same,
design, etc.); both; Prep till, fro, etc.).

 entertainment (pleasure, leasure,

sport, dance, cards, etc.);

 address (madam, sir, mister, etc.).

French borrowings are Scandinavian borrowings are hard to

often recognisable due to some phonetic, distinguish from the native words as
word-building and spelling peculiarities: far as Scandinavian Dialects belonged
to the same language group
Recognition  oi, oy (point, joy, toy, etc.);
(Germanic). The only distinctive
in ModE Scandinavian feature in English:
 initial v (very, voice, etc.);

 -age (village, carriage, etc.); Scandinavian cluster [sk] (sky, skill,

skin, skirt, etc.);
 c as [s] (pierce, city, etc.).

 French borrowings enlarged the  A lot of Scandinavian

English vocabulary (a lot of new borrowings disappeared,
words); some were left only in
dialects;
 Some French
borrowings replaced the native  Some Scandinavian
words (very, river, easy,etc.); borrowings replaced the nati
ve words (they, take,
 French borrowings enlarged the call, etc.);
number of synonyms in English:
Contributions  Scandinavian
native to hide – Fr. borr. to conceal, borrowings enlarged the
native wish – Fr. borr. desire, number of synonyms in
English:
native smell – Fr. borr. odour, etc.
native to blossom – Scan. borr. to
 Some French affixes were bloom,
borrowed into English (com-, sub-,
dis-, -ment, -ish, -able, etc.). native wish – Scan. borr. want,

native heaven – Scan. borr. sky, etc.

Features of Greek loans:

ch [k]: chemistry, character;

ph [f]: phenomenon, physics, phonetics;

th [θ]: theme, theatre, myth;

ps [s]: pseudonym, psychic;

rh [r]: rhythm, rhetor;

y /i/ in interconsonantal and final positions: system, physics, comedy;

ae: encyclopaedia ‘training in a circle,’ i.e. the ‘circle’ of arts and sciences, the essentials of a liberal
education; from enkyklios ‘circular,’ also ‘general’ (from en ‘in’ + kyklos ‘circle’) + paideia ‘education, child-
rearing’;