Etymological division of the OE Vocabulary

It is generally held that the OE vocabulary was mainly homogeneous as loan words were an insignificant part of it. The table below illustrates its etymological layers:

Native OE words can be subdivided into a number of etymological layers coming from different historical periods. The three main layers of the native OE words are: a) common IE words 2) common Germanic words; 3) specifically OE words.

a) Words belonging to the common IE layer constitute the oldest part of the OE vocabulary. They go back to the days of the IE parent-language before its extension over the wide territory of Europe and Asia and before the appearance of the Germanic group. They were inherited by the PG and passed into the Germanic languages of various subgroups, including English.

Among these groups we find names of some natural phenomena, plants and animals, agricultural terms, names of parts of the human body, terms of kinship, etc.; verbs belong to this group denote basic activities of man; adjectives indicate the most essential qualities; this layer includes personal and demonstrative pronouns and most numerals.

b) The common Germanic layer includes words which are shared by most Germanic languages, but do not occur outside the group. Being specifically Germanic, these words constitute an important distinctive mark of the Germanic languages at the lexical level. This layer is certainly smaller than the layer of common IE words. (The ratio between specifically Germanic and common IE words in the Germanic languages was estimated by the 19^th century scholars as 1:2; since then it has been discovered that many more Germanic words have parallels outside the group and should be regarded as common IE)

Common Germanic words originated in the common period of Germanic history, i.e. in PG when the Teutonic tribes lived close together. Semantically these words are connected with nature, with sea and everyday life. See the table below.

Common Germanic words in English

Some of the words did not occur in all the OG languages. Their distribution reflects the contacts between the Germanic tribes at the beginning of their migrations: West and North Germanic languages (represented here by OE, OHG and O Icel) had many words in common.

c) The third etymological layer of native words can be defined as specifically OE that is words which do not occur in other Germanic or non-germanic languages. These words are few: clipian (call), brid (bird), wiffman=wimman, and several others. However, they are far more numerous if we include in this layer OE compounds and derived words fromed from Germanic roots in England. For instance, OE wifman or wimman consists of 2 roots which occurred as separate words in other OG languages, but formed a compound only in OE (cf. OHG wi:b, O Icel Vif; OE man, GT mann(a). other well-known examples are: OE hlāford, originally made of hlāf (loaf) (Belarusian хлеб and weard (keeper) Belarusian (варта). This compound word was simplified and finally shortened to NE lord. The OE hlāfdiʒ е: the first part is the same and diʒ е which is related to parallels in other OG languages: GT digan, O Icel deigi a ‘knead’, literally ‘bread-kneading’, later simplified to MdE lady. One compound denotes posts and institutions in OE kingdoms: OE sci:rʒerefa – chief of the shire (sherrif).

d) Borrowings:

They constitute only a small part of the OE vocabulary (600 words), but they are of great interest for linguistic and historical study. The borrowings reflect the contacts of English with other tongues resulting from diverse political, economic, social and cultural events in the early periods of British history. OE borrowings come from two sources: Celtic and Latin.

Celtiс borrowings. There are very few Celtic loan-words in the OE vocabulary, for there must have been little intermixture between the Germanic settlers and the Celts in Britain. Those in some parts of the island the Celtic population was not exterminated during the WG invasion, linguistc evidence of Celtic is weak. Obviously there was little that the newcomers could learn from the celts. Celtic borrowings are 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, and perhaps London have been traced to celtic sources (celtic du:n means ‘hill’). Celtic amhuin (river) is reflected in such names as Avon, Evan; uisge (water) – xe, Usk, Esk; dum, dun (hill) – Dumbarton, Dumfries; llan (church) Llandaff; coil (forest) – Kilbrook; kil (church) Kilbride; inis (island) Innisfail, etc.

Latin borrowings:

The role of the Latin language is clearly significant as was determined by such historical events as the Roman invasion, the influence of the Roman civilization and the introduction of Christianity. The impact of Latin on the English vocabulary enables us to see the spheres of Roman influence on the life in Britain.

Latin words entered the English language at different stages of Oe history. Chronologically they can be divided into several layers.

The earliest layer comprises words which the WG tribes brought from the continent when they came to settle in Britain. The adoption of Latin words continued in Britain after the invasion, since Britain had been under Roman occupation for about 400 years. Though the Romans left Britain before the settlement of the West Teutons, Latin words could be transmitted to them by the Romanised Celts.

Early OE borrowings from Latin indicate new things and concepts which the Teutons had learned from the Romans. They pertain to trade, agriculture, building, and home life. For example, straet (strat), weall (vallum), cycene (coquina, myln (moli:nium), wi:n (vinum); Latin castra (a military camp) gave rise to a number of names: Manchetsre, Wincehster, etc. Latin portus to Portsmouth, Bridport; Latin Strata to Stradford, etc.

The second layer consists of words which directly or indirectly belong to the sphere of religion and church. When Christianity was introduced in Britain, the Latin language came to be used as the language of the church (and learning). At this time certain Latin words were borrowed into English: biscop (bishop) from episcopus; cleric (church man) from clericus; apostol (apostle) from apostolus; deofol (devil) from diabolus; maesse (mass) from missa; munuc (monk) from monachus; ma:gister (master) from magister; scrifan (prescribe) from scribere;

Under Latin influence some English words acquired new meanings: e:astron (a heathan spring holiday) became easter; ʒ odspell (gospel) literary ‘ good news’, þrenes (trinity).

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