Latinisation of French Borrowings

Study of Latin had peculiar consequences for some English words of French origin. Many French words that had been borrowed in the 13^th – 14^th centuries were latinised in the 15^th century: their spelling and sometimes even their pronunciation were brought closer to their Latin source. Thus, for example, ME dette (from French dette) began to be spelt de b t, because its source was Latin de b itum. ME doute (from French doute) came to be spelt dou b t, because its source was Latin du b ito. The change in spelling brought the word closer to dubious and indubitable, with which doubt is connected semantically.

Another example is ME aventure (from French aventure), which was resplelt as a d venture (from Latin a d uentura) and the pronunciation followed suit. ME parfit was changed into perfect under the influence of Latin perfectum. So, Latinisation of French words was characterized by the tendency to show the latin origin of the words. Occasionally latinisation was prompted by false etymology. Thus, ME avancen and avantage were wrongly changed into a d vance and a d vantage (on the analogy with adventure), though both the words originated from the Latin expression “ab ante” (от предыдущего состояния).

Wide use of Latin words caused a protest on the part of purists (Roger Ascham, 1515-1568; Thomas Wilson, 1525-1581), who called upon English writers not to use so many foreign words. The purists were struggling against use of Latin and other foreign words but they themselves could not avoid them and were strongly influences by classical languages.

Greek gave English a number of terms of science and political life: epoch, anarchy, aristocracy, democracy, geometry, etc.

In the Renaissance period the English vocabulary grew to a very great extent, and in the 16^th century the mixed character of the vocabulary became obvious. Elements of different origin were combined into a complex system, numerous hybrids appeared.

1) Native root and borrowed affix: readable, talkative, eatable, disbelief.

2) French root and native affix: merciful, dukedom, falsehood, useful, useless, because, undervalue.

Borrowings in the 17^th century

17^th century English was characterized by further growth of the vocabulary due to borrowing words.

Various colonial languages gave words denoting products and other objects brought from the New World:

1) North American words: canoe, maize, potato, tobacco, mahogany, cannibal, colibri;

2) South American: caoutchouc [‘kauCuk], jaguar, buccaneer, condor, puma, pampas.

French loan words of this period were far more important. Many of these refer to the semantic field of feudal culture: ball, ballet, beau [bou], caprice, chagrin, coquette, intrigue.

Some other borrowings had a wider meaning: grotesque, gazette, naïve, ridicule, serenade, etc.

These are late borrowings and have some peculiarities in pronunciation:

1) the stress is on the last syllable (intrigue, coquette, caress);

2) vowels keep their French pronunciation ([i:] – police, naïve, [ou] – beau, chateau);

3) the digraph ch is read as [S], as in modern French (chemise, chagrin).

4) final t or s is silent (ballet, bouquet, pas, a propos).

Borrowings of the 18^th – 20^th centuries

New words from other languages continue to come into English. Many of them denote ideas, institutions, and customs peculiar to some country.

Kindergarten and waltz were borrowed from German, from dialects in Indian – bungalow, from Chinese coolie and ketchup, from Persian caravan, from Turkish giaour. A number of artificial words came from Greek roots to form terms for new inventions and discoveries: telegraph, telephone, microscope, oxygen, hydrogen, etc. Some Russian words were also borrowed: borzoi (a wolf hound), borsch, tsar, sputnik.

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