BORROWINGS

§ 5. Causes and Ways of Borrowing

In its 15 century long history recorded in written manuscripts the English language happened to come in long and close contact with several other languages, mainly Latin, French and Old Norse (or Scandinavian). The great influx of borrowings from these sources can be accounted for by a number of historical causes. Due to the great influence of the Roman civilization Latin was for a long time used in England as the language of learning and religion. Old Norse was the language of the conquerors who were on the same level of social and cultural development and who merged rather easily with the local population in the 9th, 10th and the first half of the llth century. French (to be more exact its Norman dialect) was the language of the other conquerors who brought with them a lot of new notions of a higher social system—developed feudalism, it was the language of upper classes, of official documents and school instruction from the middle of the 11th century to the end of the 14th century.

In the study of the borrowed element in English the main emphasis is as a rule placed on the Middle English period. Borrowings of later periods became the object of investigation only in recent years. These investigations have shown that the flow of borrowings has been steady and uninterrupted. The greatest number has come from French. They refer to various fields of social-political, scientific and cultural life. A large portion of borrowings (41%) is scientific and technical terms.

The number and character of borrowed words tell us of the relations between the peoples, the level of their culture, etc. It is for this reason that borrowings have often been called the milestones of history. Thus if we go through the lists of borrowings in English and arrange them in groups according to their meaning, we shall be able to obtain much valuable information with regard to England's contacts with many nations. Some borrowings, however, cannot be explained by the direct influence of certain historical conditions, they do not come along with any new objects or ideas. Such were for instance the words air, place, brave, gay borrowed from French. It must be pointed out that while the general historical causes of borrowing from different languages have been studied with a considerable degree of thoroughness the purely linguistic reasons for borrowing are still open to investigation.

The number and character of borrowings do not only depend on the historical conditions, on the nature and length of the contacts, but also on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of languages concerned. The closer the languages, the deeper and more versatile is the influence. This largely accounts for the well-marked contrast between the French and the Scandinavian influence on the English language. Thus under the influence of the Scandinavian languages, which were closely related to Old English, some classes of words were borrowed that could not have been adopted from non-related or distantly related languages (the pronouns they, their, them, for instance); a number of Scandinavian borrowings were felt as derived from native words (they were of the same root and the connection between them was easily seen), e.g. drop (AS.)— drip (Scand.), true (AS.)—tryst (Scand.); the Scandinavian influence even accelerated to a certain degree the development of the grammatical structure of English. Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between the peoples) and through written speech (by indirect contact through books, etc.).

Oral borrowing took place chiefly in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowing gained importance. Words borrowed orally (e.g. L. inch, mill, street) are usually short and they undergo considerable changes in the act of adoption. Written borrowings (e.g. Fr. communique, belles-lettres, naivete) preserve their spelling and some peculiarities of their sound-form, their assimilation is a long and laborious process.

6. Criteria of Borrowings

Though borrowed words undergo changes in the adopting language they preserve some of their former peculiarities for a comparatively long period. This makes it possible to work out some criteria for determining whether the word belongs to the borrowed element.

In some cases the pronunciation of the word (strange sounds, sound combinations, position of stress, etc.), its spelling and the correlation between sounds and fetters are an indication of the foreign origin of the word. This is the case with w altz (G.), psychology (Gr.), souffle (Fr.), etc. The initial position of the sounds [v], [d3], [3] or of the letters x,j, z is a sure sign that the word has been borrowed, e.g. volcano (It.), vase (Fr.), vaccine (L.), jungle (Hindi), gesture (L.), giant (OFr.), zeal (L.), zero (Fr.), zinc (G.), etc.

The morphological structure of the word and its grammatical forms may also bear witness to the word being adopted from another language. Thus the suffixes in the words neurosis (Gr.) and violoncello (It.) betray the foreign origin of the words. The same is true of the irregular plural forms papyra (from papyrus, Gr.), pastoratt (from pastorale, It.), beaux (from beau, Fr.), bacteria (from bacterium, L.) and the like. Last but not least is the lexical meaning of the word. Thus the concept denoted by the words ricksha(w), pagoda (Chin.) make us suppose that we deal with borrowings.

These criteria are not always helpful. Some early borrowings havebecome so thoroughly assimilated that they are unrecognizable without

a" historical analysis, e.g. chalk, mile (L), ill, ugly (Scand.), enemy, car (Fr.), etc. It must also be taken into consideration that the closer the relation between the languages, the more difficult it is to distinguish borrowings.

Sometimes the form of the word and its meaning in Modern English enable us to tell the immediate source of borrowing. Thus if the digraph ch is sounded as [j], the word is a fate French bsrrowing (as in echelon, chauffeur, chef); if it stands for [k], it came through Greek (archaic, architect, chronology); if it is pronounced as [tj], it is either an early borrowing (chose, OFr.; cherry, L., OFr.; chime, L.), or a word of Anglo-Saxon origin (choose, child, chin).

It is now "essential to analyse the changes § 7.Assimilation that borrowings have undergone in the of Borrowings. English language and how they have adapt-ed themselves to its peculiarities.

All the changes that borrowed elements undergo may be divided into two large groups.

On the one hand there are changes specific of borrowed words only. These changes aim at adapting words of foreign origin to the norms of the borrowing language, e.g. the consonant combinations [pn|, [ps], [pt] in the words pneumatics, psychology, Ptolemey of Greek origin were simplified into [n], [s], [t], since the consonant combinations [ps], [pn], [pn], very frequent at the end of English words (as in sleeps, stopped, etc.), were never used in the initial position. For the same reason the initial [ks] was changed into [z] (as in Gr. xylophone).

The suffixes -ar, -or, -ator in early Latin borrowings were replaced by the highly productive Old English suffix -ere, as in L. Caesar>oe Casere, L. sutor>OE. sutere.

By analogy with the great majority of nouns that form their plural in -s, -borrowings, even very recent ones, have assumed this inflection instead of their original plural endings. The forms Soviets, bolsheviks, kolkhozes, sputniks illustrate the process.

On the other hand we observe changes that are characteristic of both borrowed and native words. These changes are due to the development of the word according to the laws of the given language. When the highly inflected Old English system of declension changed into the simpler system of Middle English, early borrowings conformed with the general rule. Under the influence of the so-called inflexional levelling borrowings

like lasu, (MnE. lawj.feolaga (MnE. fellow), strait (MnE. street), disc

(MnE, dish) that had a number of grammatical forms in Old English acquired only three forms in Middle English: common case and possessive case singular and plural (fellow, fellowes, fellowes). It is very important to discriminate between the two processes — the adaptation of borrowed material to the norms of the language and the development of these words according to the laws of the language.

This differentiatidn is not always easily discernible In most cases we must resort to historical analysis before we can draw any definite conclusions. There is nothing in the form of the words procession and

progression to show that the former was already used in England in the llth century, the latter not till the 15th century. The history of these words reveals that the word procession has undergone a number of changes alongside with other English words (change in declension, accentuation, structure, sounds), whereas the word progression underwent some changes by analogy with the word procession and other similar words already at the time of its appearance in the language.

Since the process of assimilation of bor-§ 8. Phonetic, Grammatical rowings includes changes in sound-form, and Lexical Assimilation of Borrowings rnorphological structure, grammar characteristics, meaning and usage Soviet linguists distinguish phonetic, grammatical and lexical assimilation of borrowings.

Phonetic assimilation comprising changes in sound-form and stress is perhaps the most conspicuous.

Sounds that were alien to the English language were fitted into its scheme of sounds. For instance, the long [e] and [e] in recent French borrowings, alien to English speech, are rendered with the help of [ei] (as in the words communique, chaussee, cafe).

Familiar sounds or sound combinations the position of which was strange to the English language, were replaced by other sounds or sound combinations to make the words conform to the norms of the language, e.g. German spitz I/pits] was turned into English [spits]. Substitution of native sounds for foreign ones usually takes place in the very act of borrowing. But some words retain their foreign pronunciation for a long time before the unfamiliar sounds are replaced by similar native sounds.

Even when a borrowed word seems at first sight to be identical in form with its immediate etymon as OE. skill < Scand. skif, OE. scinn < < Scand. skinn; OE. ran < Scand. ran the phonetic structure of the word undergoes some changes, since every language as well as every period in the history of a language is characterized by its own peculiarities in the articulation of sounds.

In words that were added to English from foreign sources, especially from French or Latin, the accent was gradually transferred to the first syllable. Thus words like honour, reason were accented on the same principle as the native father, mother.

Grammatical Assimilation. Usually as soon as words from other languages were introduced into English they lost their former grammatical categories and paradigms and acquired new grammatical categories and paradigms by analogy with other English words, as in

см. спутник Com sing Sputnik

род спутника Pass sing. Sputnik's

дат. спутнику Com pl. Sputniks

вин.спутник Pass, pl Sputniks'

тв. спутником

предл. o спутнике

However, there are some words in Modern English that have for centuries retained their foreign inflexions. Thus a considerable group of

borrowed nouns, all of them terms or literary words adopted in the 16th century or later, have preserved their original plural inflexion to this day, e.g. phenomenon (L.) — phenomena; addendum (L.) — addenda; parenthesis (Gr.) — parentheses. Other borrowings of the same period have two plurai forms — the native and the foreign, e.g. vacuum (L.) — vacua, vacuums, virtuoso (It.) — n irtaosi, virtuosos.

All borrowings that were composite in structure in their native language appeared in English as indivisible simple words, unless there were already words with the same morphemes in it, e.g. in the word saunter the French infinitive inflexion-er is retained (of. OFr. s'aunter), but it has changed its quality, it is preserved in all the other grammatical formsof theword(of. saunters, sauntered, sauntering), which means that it has become part of the stem in English. The French reflexive pronoun s- has become fixed as an inseparable element of the word. The former Italian diminishing suffixes -etto, -otta, -ello(a), -celio in the words ballot, stiletto, umbrella cannot be distinguished without special historical analysis, unless one knows the Italian language. The composite nature of the word portfolio is not seen either (of. It. portafogli < porta — imperative of 'carry' + fogli —'sheets of paper'). This loss of morphological seams in borrowings may be termed simplification by analogy with a similar process in native words.[4]

It must be borne in mind that when there appears in a language a group of borrowed words built on the same pattern or containing the same morphemes," 'the morphological structure of the words becomes apparent and in the course of time their word-building elements can be employed to form new words.[5] Thus the word bolshevik was at first indivisible in English, which is seen from fhe forms bolshevtkism, bolshe-vikise, bolshevikian entered by some dictionaries. Later on the word came to be divided into the morphoiogical elements bolshev-ik. The new morphological division can be accounted for by the existence of a number of words containing these elements (bolshevism, bolshevist, feolshe-vise; sputnik, udarnik, menshevik).

Sometimes in borrowed words foreign affixes are replaced fay those available in the English language, e.g. the inflexion -us in Latin adjectives was replaced in English with the suffixes -ous or -al: L. barbams > > E. barbarous; L. botam'cus > E. botanical; L. balneus > E. balneat.

Lexical Assimilation. When a word is taken over into another language, its semantic structure as a rule undergoes great changes.

Polysemantic words are usually adopted only in one or tw.o of their meanings. Thus the word timbre that had a number of meanings in French was borrowed into English as a musical term only. The words cargo and cask, highly polysemantic in Spanish, were adopted only in one of their meanings— 'the goods carried in a ship', 'a barrel for holding liquids' respectively.

In some cases we can observe specialization of meaning, as in the word hangar, denoting a building in which aeroplanes are kept (in French
it meant simply 'shed') and revue, which had the meaning of 'review' in French and came to denote a kind of theatrical entertainment in English.

In the process of its historical development a borrowing sometimes acquired new meanings that were not to be found in its former semantic structure. For instance, the verb move in Modern English has developed the meanings of 'propose', 'change one's flat¹, 'mix with people' and others that the French mouvoir does not possess. The word scope, which originally had the meaning of 'aim, purpose', now means 'ability to understand', 'the field within which an activity takes place, sphere', 'opportunity, freedom of action'. As a rule the development of new mean-'ings takes place 50—100 years after the word is borrowed.

The semantic structure of borrowings changes in other ways as well. Some meanings become more general, others more specialized, etc. For instance, the word terrorist, that was taken over from French in the meaning of 'Jacobin¹, widened its meaning to 'one who governs, or opposes a government by violent means'. The word umbrella, borrowed in the meaning of a 'sunshade' or 'parasol' (from It, ombrella < ombra — 'shade') came to denote similar protection from the rain as well.

Usually the primary meaning of a borrowed word is retained throughout its history, but sometimes it becomes a secondary meaning. Thus the Scandinavian borrowings wing, root, take and many others have retained their primary meanings to the present day, whereas in the OE. feolage (MnE. fellow) which was borrowed from the same source in the meaning of 'comrade, companion', the primary meaning has receded to the background and was replaced by the meaning that appeared in New English 'a man or a boy'.

Sometimes change of meaning is the result of associating borrowed words with familiar words which somewhat resemble them in sound but which are not at all related. This process, which is termed folk etymology, often changes the form of the word in whole or in part, so as to bring it nearer to the word or words with which it is thought to be connected, e.g. the French verb sur(o)under had the meaning of 'overflow'. In English -r(o)under was associated by mistake with round — Kpyejibiu and the verb-was interpreted as meaning 'enclose on all sides, encircle' (MnE. surround). Old French estandard (L. estendere —'to spread') had the meaning of 'a flag, banner'. In English the first part was wrongly associated with the verb stand and the word standard also acquired the meaning of 'something stable, officially accepted',

Folk-etyrnologization is a slow process; people first attempt to give the foreign borrowing its foreign pronunciation, but gradually popular use evolves a new pronunciation and spelling. Another phenomenon which must also receive special attention is the formation of derivatives from borrowed word-stems. New derivatives are usually formed with the help of productive affixes, often of Anglo-Saxon (origin. For instance: faintness, closeness, easily, nobly, etc. As a rule derivatives begin to appear rather soon after-the borrowing of the word. Thus almost immediately after the borrowing of the word sputnik the words pre-sputnik, sputnikist, sputnikked, to out-sputnik were coined in English.

compared with the number of borrowings recorded. The only true way to estimate the relation of the native to the borrowed element is to consider the two as actually used in speech. If one counts every word used, including repetitions, in some reading matter, the proportion of native to borrowed words will be quite different. On such a count, every writer uses considerably more native words than borrowings. Shakespeare, for example, has 90%, Milton 81%, Tennyson 88%.[6] This shows how important is the comparatively small nucleus of native words.

Different borrowings are marked by different frequency value. Those well established in the vocabulary may be as frequent in speech as native words, whereas others occur very rarely.

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