I. Consider your answers to the following

1.How can you account for the fact that English vo
cabulary contains such an immense number of words of
foreign origin?

2. What is the earliest group of English borrowings?
Date it.

3. What Celtic borrowings are there in English?
Date them.

4. Which words were introduced into English vocab
ulary during the period of Christianization?

5. What are the characteristic features of Scandina
vian borrowings?

6. When and under what circumstances did England
become a bi-lingual country? What imprint features
were left in English vocabulary by this period?

7. What are the characteristic features of words bor
rowed into English during the Renaissance?

8. What suffixes and prefixes can help you to recog
nize words of Latin and French origin?

9. What is meant by the native element of English
vocabulary?

II. Subdivide all the following words of native origin into:
a) Indo-european, b) Germanic, c) English proper.

Daughter, woman, room, land, cow, moon, sea, red, spring, three, I, lady, always, goose, bear, fox, lord, tree, nose, birch, grey, old, glad, daisy, heart, hand, night, to eat, to see, to make.

III. Read the following jokes. Explain the etymology of the
italicized words. If necessary consult a dictionary.¹

1. He dropped around to the girl's house and as he
ran up the steps he was confronted by her little brother.

"Hi, Billy."

"Hi,"said the brat.

"Is your sister expecting me?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know that?"

"She's gone out."

2. A man was at a theatre. He was sitting behind two
women whose continuous chatter became more than he
could bear. Leaning forward, he tapped one of them on
the shoulder.

"Pardon me, madam," he said, "but I can't hear." "You are not supposed to — this is a private conversation," she hit back.

3. Sonny: Father, what do they make asphalt
roads of?

Father: That makes a thousand question you've asked today. Do give me a little peace. What do you think would happen if I had asked my father so many questions?

Sonny: You might have learnt how to answer some of mine.

¹ Skeat W. A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Oxford, 1961; Weckley E. An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. V. I—II. No 4, 19.

CHAPTER 4

The Etymology of English Words (continued)

Why Are Words Borrowed?

This question partially concerns the historical circumstances which stimulate the borrowing process. Each time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions or conquests when foreign words are in effect imposed upon the reluctant conquered nation. There are also periods of peace when the process of borrowing is due to trade and international cultural relations.

These latter circumstances are certainly more favourable for stimulating the borrowing process, for during invasions and occupations the natural psychological reaction of the oppressed nation is to reject and condemn the language of the oppressor. In this respect the linguistic heritage of the Norman Conquest seems exceptional, especially if compared to the influence of the Mongol-Tartar Yoke on the Russian language. The Mongol-Tartar Yoke also represented a long period of cruel oppression, yet the imprint left by it on the Russian vocabulary is comparatively insignificant.

The difference in the consequences of these evidently similar historical events is usually explained by the divergence in the level of civilisation of the two conflicting nations. Russian civilisation and also the level of its language development at the time of the Mongol-Tartar invasion were superior to those of the invaders. That is why the Russian language successfully resisted

the influence of a less developed language system. On the other hand, the Norman culture of the 11th c. was certainly superior to that of the Saxons. The result was that an immense number of French words forced their way into English vocabulary. Yet, linguistically speaking, this seeming defeat turned into a victory. Instead of being smashed and broken by the powerful intrusion of the foreign element, the English language managed to preserve its essential structure and vastly enriched its expressive resources with the new borrowings.

But all this only serves to explain the conditions which encourage the borrowing process. The question of why words are borrowed by one language from another is still unanswered.

Sometimes it is done to fill a gap in vocabulary. When the Saxons borrowed Latin words for "butter", "plum", "beet", they did it because their own vocabularies lacked words for these new objects. For the same reason the words potato and tomato were borrowed by English from Spanish when these vegetables were first brought to England by the Spaniards.

But there is also a great number of words which are borrowed for other reasons. There may be a word (or even several words) which expresses some particular concept, so that there is no gap in the vocabulary and there does not seem to be any need for borrowing. Yet, one more word is borrowed which means almost the same, — almost, but not exactly. It is borrowed because it represents the same concept in some new aspect, supplies a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring (see Ch. 10). This type of borrowing enlarges groups of synonyms and greatly provides to enrich the expressive resources of the vocabulary. That is how the Latin cordial was added to the native friendly, the French desire to wish, the Latin admire and the French adore to like and love.

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