Are all English words really English?

Are all English words really English?

A person who does not know English but knows French (Italian, Latin, Spanish) can recognize a great number of familiar-looking words when skipping through an English book.

English vocabulary contains a great number of words of foreign origin. Explanations for this we should seek in the history of the language.

The first century B.C.

Most of the territory of Europe was occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent were Germanic tribes. They were primitive cattle-breeders and knew almost nothing about land cultivation.

After a number of wars these peoples came into peaceful contact, and the Germanic people gained knowledge of new and useful things. The first among them were new things to eat. It is from the Romans that they learnt how to make butter and cheese and they began to use the Latin words to name them (Lat. butyrum, caseus). The Germanic tribes also gained knowledge of some new fruits and vegetables, and the Latin names of these fruits and vegetables entered their vocabularies: cherry (Lat. cerasum), pear (Lat. pirum), plum (Lat. prunus), pea (Lat. pisum), beet (Lat. beta), and pepper (Lat. piper). The word plant is also a Latin borrowing of this period (Lat. planta).

Here are some more examples of Latin borrowings of this period: cup (Lat. cuppa), kitchen (Lat. coquina), mill (Lat. molina), port (Lat. portus), wine (Lat. vinum).

The fifth century A.D.

Some of the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) migrated across the sea to the British Isles. There they met the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. So the conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (bald, down, druid, bard, cradle).

Even the name of the English capital originates from Celtic Llyn and dun in which llyn is Celtic word for "river" and dun stands for "a fortified hill".

The seventh century A. D.

This century was significant for the christianization of England. Latin was the official language of the Christian church, so a new period of Latin borrowings began. They mostly indicated persons, objects, and ideas associated with church and religious rituals: priest (Lat. presbyter), bishop (Lat. episcopus), monk (Lat. monachus), candle (Lat. candela).

From the 8th century to the 11th century

England underwent several Scandinavian invasions. Here are some examples of early Scandinavian borrowings: to call, to take, to cast, to die, a law, a husband (Sc. hus + bondi, "inhabitant of the house"), window (Sc. vindauga, "the eye of the wind"), ill, loose, low, weak.

Some of the words of this group are easily recognizable as Scandinavian borrowings by the initial sk- combination: sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt.

1066

After the famous Battle of Hastings the English were conquered by the Normans under William the Conqueror. French words penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief list of examples of French borrowings: administrative words (state, government, parliament, council, power), legal terms (court, judge, justice, crime, prison), military terms (army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy), educational terms (pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil), numerous terms of everyday life (table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle).

The Renaissance Period

This period was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture and by a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. Hence, a considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings.       They were mostly abstract words (major, minor, intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create).

Italian also contributed a considerable number of words to English (piano, violin, opera, alarm, colonel).

Список использованных источников

1. Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В. Лексикология английского языка. – М.: Дрофа, 1999. – 288 с.

2. Palmer F.R. Semantics: a new outline / F.R. Palmer; pref. and comment. by M.V. Nikitin. – Moscow: Cambridge univ.press, Vyssaja skola, 1982.