Etymology of English Words PowerPoint Presentation

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Etymology of English words

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Etymology of English words English words native words 25-30% of the whole bulk of the vocabulary borrowed (loan) words 75-70% of the vocabulary Common Indo-European stock Common Germanic stock

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Native words Indo-European words have cognates in various Indo-European languages, they present the oldest layer. They were inherited from the Indo-European parent language (праязык). Son – OE sunu; Gothic sunus; Russian сын; Icel. sunr; Danish son; Swedish son; German Sohn; Lithuanian sunus; Sanskrit sunu. E.g. Father – Gothic fadar; Swedish fader; Dutch vader; German Vater; Greek pater; Latin pater; Sanskrit pitr

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Indo-European words express the most vital, important and frequently used concepts, they fall into several semantic groups: terms of kinship: father, mother, brother, daughter, son; names of natural phenomena: fire, moon, hill, night, day, star, snow, sun, stone, water, tree, birch, corn, wind, wood; names of animals and birds: bull, cow, crow, cat, fish, mouse, goose, wolf; basic verbs: do, know, eat, sleep, sit, stand, bear, be; basic physical properties and colours: red, hard, light, quick, thin, white, slow, cold, new, glad (Russian гладкий), sad ( Russ сытый); parts of human body: heart, eye, foot, nose, mouth, ear, arm, knee, lip; numerals from one to a hundred: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, hundred; pronouns: personal (except Scan. ‘they’); demonstrative, interrogative.

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Native words Common Germanic words have cognates in Germanic languages – German, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic. They were inherited from the Germanic parent language. Have – OE habban; Gothic haban; Dutch hebben; Swedish hava; German haben E.g. Hand – OE hand, hond; Gothic Handus; Swedish hand; German Hand; Icelandic – hond; Danish – hand

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Common Germanic words fall into several semantic groups: parts of the human body: head, hand, finger, bone; animals: bear, fox, calf, sheep, horse, chicken; plants: oak, fir, grass; natural phenomena: rain, frost, sea, ground, earth, flood, ice; nouns denoting periods of time: winter, spring, summer, time, week; nouns denoting artifacts and materials: bridge, house, room; words denoting abstract notions: care, evil, hope, life, need; sea-going vessels: boat, ship; verbs: drink, forget, hear, follow, live, make, send, sing, shake, burn, bake, keep, learn, meet, rise, see, speak, tell, answer, make, drink; adjectives, denoting colours, size and other properties: dead, deaf, deep, heavy, sharp, soft, broad, green, grey, thick, old; pronouns: all, each, he.

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Typical features of native words: mostly simple in their structure – often monosyllabic; show great word-building power and serve as a basis for word-formation; E.g. hand – handy, handwork, handicraft, handful, handbook, handcuff, handbag; enter a number of set expressions and proverbs; E.g. hand in hand, hands off, at hand, in hand, with a heavy hand, with a high hand; they are characterized by a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency; high frequency value; have a highly developed polysemy; stability.

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Borrowed (loan) words: ‘zero, alcohol, algebra’ come from Arabic, ‘golf, wagon, gin’ – from Dutch, ‘balcony, piano, umbrella’ – from Italian, ‘lilac, lemon, shawl’ – from Persian, ‘poet, catastrophe, idiot’ – from Greek, ‘alligator, ranch, rodeo’ – from Spanish, ‘potato, chocolate, moccasin’ – from the language of American Indians.

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Types of borrowed (loan) words: Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between people) through written speech (through books, newspapers). Borrowings may be: direct indirect source of borrowing origin of borrowing E.g. table < French ‘la table’ < Latin ‘tabula’; paper < French ‘papier’ < Latin ‘papyrus’ < Greek ‘papyros’.

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Types of borrowed (loan) words: borrowings proper: regime (Fr), ballet (Fr), bouquet (Fr); translation loans: superman – German Ubermensch; homesickness – German Heimweh; first dancer – Italian prima-ballerina; semantic loans: OE bread ‘piece’ - Scandinavian ‘braud’; OE dream ‘joy’ - Scandinavian ‘draumr’; dwellan (OE ‘блуждать, медлить’) assimilated the meaning of the Scandinavian ‘dvelja’ ‘жить’; OE gift ‘выкуп за жену, свадьба’ - Scandinavian ‘present’

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Assimilation. Degrees of assimilation According to the degree of assimilation borrowed words are classified into: completely assimilated loan words; partially assimilated loan words; unassimilated loan words (barbarisms).

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Partially assimilated loan words: words not assimilated semantically E.g. domino, minaret, valenki words not assimilated grammatically E.g. bacillus – bacilli; phenomenon – phenomena; crisis – crises; words not assimilated phonetically – borrowed after the XVII century; E.g. Parisian borrowings – machine, bourgeois, protégé, beige, boulevard, fiancé; words not assimilated graphically - mainly of the French origin; E.g. restaurant, corps, bouquet, cliché, ballet.

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Etymological Doublets Etymological doublets enter the vocabulary by different routes: a native word – a borrowed word. E.g. shrew (Native) – screw (Scan); two borrowings from different languages which historically descended from the same root. E.g. senior (Latin) – sir (French); captain (Latin) - chieftain (French); words borrowed from the same language twice, but in different periods. E.g. corpse (Norman French) – corps (Parisian French); cavalry (Norman French) – chivalry (Parisian Fr); a shortened word – the one from which it was derived. E.g. story – history; fancy – fantasy; fan – fanatic.

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International Words denote terms of politics, arts, industry, sports, science; they are present in English as well as in other languages: Fr, G, Sp, Ru; they have one source; they are very close in the meaning; international words are often confused with other words which ultimately come from the same source but have diverged in meaning - ‘false friends’ or ‘false cognates’, e.g. accurate/аккуратный , conserves/ консервы; they preserve phonetical and morphological peculiarities typical of the given language.

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International Words

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The role of borrowings in English Borrowed words have influenced: the phonetic structure of English words and the sound system; the word-structure and the system of word-building; the semantic structure of English words; the lexical territorial divergence.

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The influence of borrowings on the phonetic structure of English words and the sound system the appearance of a number of words of new phonetic structure with strange sounds or familiar sounds in unusual positions, e.g. waltz, psychology, souffle. The initial [ps], [pn], [pt] are used in English alongside the forms without the initial sound [p]; the appearance of a new diphthong [oi] which came into English together with such French words as point, joint, poise; the reappearance of the initial [sk] mostly due to Scandinavian borrowings; the development of the Old English variant phonemes [f] and [v] into different phonemes: [v] came to be used initially (vain, valley) and [f] in the intervocal position (effect, affair); the appearance of the affricate [dj] at the beginning of words, e.g. jungle, journey, gesture. In the Middle English period the affricate [dj] was found at the end or in the middle of words: bridge.

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The influence of borrowings on the word-structure and the system of word-building the appearance of a number of new structural types in which some highly-productive borrowed affixes (e.g. re-, inter-, -er, -ism) can combine with native and borrowed bases. Other borrowed affixes, not so productive (e.g. со-, de-, -ant, -ic), combine only with Latinate bases, i.e. bases of Latin, Greek or French origin, e.g. inform-ant (inform- < Old French < Latin), defend-ant (defend- < Old French

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The influence of borrowings on the semantic structure of English words the differentiation of borrowed words and synonymous native words in meaning and use, cf.: feed (native) — nourish (L); the narrowing of meaning of native words due to the differentiation of synonyms. For instance, the word stool of native origin in Old English denoted ‘any article of furniture designed for sitting on’. Under the influence of the French borrowing chair the word stool came to be used as the name for only one kind of furniture, i. e. ‘a seat that has three or four legs, but no back or arms’; the extension of meaning of native English words or the acquisition of additional or new meanings, e.g. the political meanings of shock and deviation have come from the Russian ударный and уклон.

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The influence of borrowings on the lexical territorial divergence the intensification of the difference between the word-stock of the literary national language and dialects owing to the borrowing of words into the literary national language which are not found in the dialects, and vice versa; the enlargement of the word-stock of different dialects and national variants of English. For example, Irish English has the following words of Celtic origin: shamrock — трилистник, dun - холм, colleen — девушка, etc. In the Northern and Eastern dialects there are many Scandinavian borrowings, e.g. busk — ‘get ready’; mun — ‘mouth’; the acquisition by literary national words of a status of dialectal words, e.g. heal — скрывать, покрывать (OE helan).

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Folk etymology MnE cutlet «котлета» goes back to Fr cotelette; MnE buttery «кладовая» goes back to Latin botaria «место хранения напитков» (Latin bota «бочка, бутылка») was erroneously associated with the English butter «масло»; ‘asparagus’ (Latin) – ‘sparrow grass’ (English); ‘tarantula’ (Latin) – a spider – ‘triantelope’ (English); ‘crevice’ (French) ‘рак’ – ‘crayfish’ (English); ‘primerole’ (French) ‘примула’ – ‘primrose’ (English).

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Languages are the pedigrees of nations. (Samuel Johnson) Языки – родословная наций.

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Latin borrowings Third layer the Renaissance Period XIV – XVI centuries Second layer Christianization of England the end of VI – VII centuries A.D. First layer by the V-th century A.D. The English language

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The first layer of Latin borrowings (by the V-th cent. A.D.) wine (Lat. vinum); cheese (Lat. cāseus); peach (Lat. persicum); butter (Lat. būtyrum); mill (Lat. molina); kitchen (Lat. coquina); cup (Lat. cuppa); mule (Lat. mulus); cheap (Lat.caupōna)

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Germanic tribes before they left the continent for the British Isles (V-th century A.D.)

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The first layer of Latin borrowings (by the V-th cent. A.D.) street (Lat. strata via); camp (Lat. campus); port (Lat. portus); wall (Lat. vallum); colonia and castra (Lincoln, Manchester, Gloucester, Leicester)

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Latin borrowings Third layer the Renaissance Period XIV – XVI centuries Second layer Christianization of England the end of VI – VII centuries A.D. First layer by the V-th century A.D. The English language

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angel (Lat angelus < Gk aggelōs ‘вестник’); nun (Lat nonna); candle (Lat. candela); pope (Lat pāpa;Gk pāpas); devil (Lat-Gk); priest (Lat-Gk); school (Lat. schola < Gk. skholế ‘досуг’); verse (Lat. versus); circle (Lat circŭlus); scholar (Lat); magister (Lat) The second layer of Latin Borrowings (Christianization)

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Latin borrowings Third layer the Renaissance Period XIV – XVI centuries Second layer Christianization of England the end of VI – VII centuries A.D. First layer by the V-th century A.D. The English language

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The third layer of Latin borrowings (Renaissance) Nouns: act, conception, defect, effect, election, fate, formula, idea, imitation, illusion, memory, torture, use. Verbs: to add, to addict, to adopt, to celebrate, to describe, to collect, to convince, to decorate, to neglect, to tolerate. Adjectives: absent, absolute, accurate, direct, equal, fatal, finite, future, humane, immediate, immaculate, literary, manual, neutral.

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Greek borrowings direct borrowings (church – Gk. kuriakon ‘дом бога’) Peculiarities of Greek borrowings: the sound [k] is graphically presented by ch: Christ, character; the sound [f] – by ph: alphabet, emphasis; the letter p before s is not pronounced: psychology, psychiatry; in the middle of the word y is used instead of i: sympathy, physics.

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Scandinavian borrowings Old Scandinavian IX – XI centuries The English language

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Scandinavian borrowings Nouns: root, wing, anger, fellow, gate, husband, window. Verbs: cast, cut, die, hit, take, call, want. Adjectives: low, ill, ugly, weak, loose, odd, wrong, happy. Pronouns: they, them, their, both, same. Place names: ending in -by (Sc byr – ‘селение’) – Derby, Whitby, Rugby; -thorp, -torp (Sc torp ‘деревня’) – Althorp, Linthorpe; -toft (Sc ‘участок земли’) – Eastoft, Brimtoft, Nortoft; -thwaite (Sc ‘порубка’) – Applethwaite, Braithwaite, Langthwaite. Markers: initial combination sk (sc): sky, skin, skull, scant, skill, scanty, whisk, to scare; g, k in the combination with the front i, e (in old English they were palatalized [j], [tЅ]), examples: get, gift, guess.

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French borrowings The second layer The Renaissance period XIV – XVI centuries The English language The first layer The Norman Conquest XI c.

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The first layer.Norman French borrowings state, govern, government, country, county, power, parliament, people, nation; servant, feudal, prince, duke, count, baron, glory, noble, fine; army, enemy, battle, war, peace, defence, conquest, victory, navy, officer, soldier, captain, sergeant; court, justice, accuse, judge, jury, attorney, solicitor, crime; religion, prayer, dean, abbey, saint, to tempt, to blame, vice, virtue; literature, art, colour, to paint, to design, story, volume, chapter, tower; dress, gown, costume, dinner, supper, soup, to boil, to fry, to roast, to toast, sport, chase, pleasure, comfort, cards, dice, trump, ace, luxury, ornament, jewels.

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The second layer.Parisian borrowings capital, commerce, investment, bank, machine, manufacture; memoir, cartoon, lampoon, critique, miniature, symphony, burlesque, to banter, to ridicule, to remark; bourgeois, regime, police, currency, capitalism, capitalist, finance; aristocrat, democrat, despot, royalist, conscription, section, to revolutionize, to terrorize, revolution, demagogic, tyranny, bureaucracy; platoon, bomb, corps, bayonet, blockade, marine.

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Celtic borrowings bannock ‘пресная лепешка’, bin ‘закром’, brock ‘барсук’, crag ‘утес’, dun ‘серовато-коричневый цвет’, down ‘холм’, brat ‘вульг. ребенок’; place names: rivers - Avon, Dover, Trent, Wye; uisge ‘вода’ gave name to the rivers – Exe, Esk, Usk; mountains – Barr, Bredon, Torr; Celtic roots are preserved in some place names: aber ‘устье реки’ – Aberdeen; dun ‘крепость’ – Dundee, Dunstable; cum ‘долина, ущелье’ – Duncombe, Helcombe, Wonchcomb; llan ‘церковь’ – Llandaff, Llandovery; inbher ‘устье’ – Inverness, Inverurie. London: Llyn + dun; llyn (river) + dun (a fortified hill); the meaning of the whole being ‘a fortress on the hill over the river.’ Later borrowings from the Celtic languages (Irish, Scottish): clan, flannel, loch, shamrock, slogan, Tory, whiskey. Some words of Celtic origin came to English through French: beak, budge (отсюда budget), gravel, harness, tunnel, carry, cargo.

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Italian borrowings musical terms: adagio, allegro, andante, aria, baritone, basso, concert, duet, contralto, falsetto, legato, intermezzo; terms of art: aquarelle, miniature, fresco, studio, stucco, terra cotta, model, bust; literature terms: canto, stanza; architectural terms: colonnade, niche, grotto, gallery, pedestal, villa, mosaic, facade, corridor, portico, granite, balcony; words of military character (they entered English through French in XVI – XVII centuries): alarm, cartridge, cavalry, colonel, corporal, infantry, campaign, pistol, brave; festive terms: confetti, costume, gala, motto, vogue, salon, tarantella, masquerade, carnival, cortege, paladin, escort; crime: charlatan, bandit, ruffian, corsair, contraband, vendetta; banking world: cash, cashier, casino, debit, credit, bank, banker, bankrupt, accredit, tariff, risk; food industry: ravioli, spaghetti, vermicelli, macaroni, pizza, pizzeria, Chianti, bologna.

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Borrowings

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Borrowings caramel caramel

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Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)