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The English vocabulary, which is one of the most extensive among the world’s languages contains an immense number of words of foreign origin.
Etymology – is a branch of linguistics that studies the origin of English words.
By a borrowing or loan-word we mean a word which came into the vocabulary of one language from another and was assimilated by the new language.
The 1st century B.C. Most of the territory now, known to us as Europe is occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the contimnent are Germanic tribes, “barbanans” as the arrogant Romans call them.
Their tribal languages contain only Indo-European and Germanic elements. After a number of wars between the German tribes and the Romans these two opposing come into peaceful contact. Trade is carried on, and the Germanic people gain knowledge of new and useful things to eat. Its only products known to the Germanic tribes were meat and milk. It’s from the Romans that they learn how to make butter and cheese, as there are no words for these foodstuffs in their tribal languages; they are to use the Latin words to name them. The Germanic tribes owe the knowledge of some new fruits and vegetables of which they had no idea before and the Latin names of these fruits and vegetables enter their vocabularies reflecting this new knowledge: cherry, plum, beet, pepper.
Here are some more examples of Latin borrowings of this period: cup, kitchen, mill, port, wine.
The 5th century A.D. Several of the Germanic tribes the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes migrated across the sea now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. They were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts defended their lands against the invaders. They retreated to the North and South-West (modern Scotland, Wales and Cornwall). Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were place names, names of rivers, bills, etc. The Germanic tribes occupied the land, but the names of many parts and features of their terrirory remained Celtic. For instance, the names of the rivers Avon, Esk, originate from Celtic words meaning “river” and “water”.
Some Latin words entered the Anglo-Saxon languages through Celtic, among such widely used words as “street” and “walls”.
The 7th cenrury A.D. This century was significant for the christianisation of England. Latin was the official language of the Christian church, the spread of Christianity was accompanied by a new period of Latin borrowings. They mostly indicated persons, objects and ideas associated with chutch and religious rituals: priest, bishop, candle, monk.
There were educational terms. These were also Latin borrowings, for the first schools in England were church schools, and the first teachers were priests. The very word “school” is a latin borrowing.
From the end of the 8th to the middle of the 11th century. England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which inevitably left the trace on English vocabulary. Here are some examples of early Scandinavian borrowings: call, take, die, law, husband (Sc hus + bondi, i.e. “inhabitant of the house”), window, low, weak.
Some of the words of this group are easily recognizable as Scnadinavian borrowings by the initial sk- combination: sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt.
Certain English words changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian borrowings of the same root. “Bread” which is meant piece acquired its modern meaning by association with the Scandinavian “brand”.
The Norman Conquest. With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Con queror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. England became a bilingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this 200-years period is immense: French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is the list of examples of Norman French borrowings:
Administrative: state, government, parliament, council, power.
Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.
Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy.
Educational terms: pupil, lessons, library, science, pen, pencil.
Numerous terms of everyday life were borrowed from French in this period: table, plate, dinner, supper, river, uncle.
The Renaissance Period. In England this period was marked by significant development in science, art, cultury by a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. A considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings appeared. They were mostly abstract words (major, minor, intelligent, to elect, to create). There were naturally numerous scientific and artistic terms (datum, status, phenomenon, philisophy, method, music).
The Renaissance was a period of extensive cultural contact between the major European states. New words entered the English vocabulary from other European languages. The most significant were French borrowings. This time they came from the Parisian dialect of French and are known as Parisian borrowings: regime, routine, police, machine, ballet, matinee, scene, technique, bourgeois.