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#2 The etymology of English words.

By etymology of words their origin is understood. English vocabulary which is one of the most extensive in the world contains a lot of words of foreign origin.

From the point of view of etymology, English vocabulary can be divided into 2 parts: 70% of borrowings in English language, 30% of native words. Borrowings usually take place under 2 circumstances: 1) when people have a direct contact with another people; 2) when there is a cultural need to borrow a word from another languages.

There are different reasons for borrowing words, linguistic and extro-lingustic (historic) reason. Historic reasons include wars and conquest and peaceful contacts as well. The main linguistic reason are the following: 1.) a gap in vocabulary. EG: potato, tomato were borrowed from Spanish, when these vegetables were brought to the British island. So, the word were borrowed together with notions which they denoted. 2.) To present the same notion in a new aspect, from a different point of view. EG: The French word “to adore” was added to native words “to like” and “to love”, to denote the strongest degree of the process.

Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed;

b) according to the degree of assimilation;

c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed. (In this classification only the main languages from which words were borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian).

Borrowed aspect:

· Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages, they are called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in the borrowed word is substituted by the corresponding sound of the borrowing language. In some cases the spelling is changed. The structure of the word can also be changed. The position of the stress is very often influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm of the word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also changed. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from Italian etc.

· Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two relative languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g. there are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the meaning “to live” for the word “to dwell” which in Old English had the meaning “to wander”. Or else the meaning “дар”, “подарок” for the word “gift” which in Old English had the meaning “выкуп за жену”.

Semantic borrowing can appear when an English word was borrowed into some other language, developed there a new meaning and this new meaning was borrowed back into English, e.g. “brigade” was borrowed into Russian and formed the meaning “a working collective”, “бригада”. This meaning was borrowed back into English as a Russian borrowing. The same is true of the English word “pioneer”.

· Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can find a of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system, that is why there are a lot of words - hybrids in English where different morphemes have different origin, e.g. “goddess”, “beautiful” etc.

Degree of assimilation:

· fully assimilated - have undergone all types of assimilation; often used and stylistically neutral; not felt as foreign words in the lang. (sport, animal, face);

· partially assimilated - didn't undergone one of the type of assimilation:

ü graphically unassimilated (ballet, bouquet, colour);

ü phonetically unassimilated - peculiarities in stress, combination of sounds, which are not standard for English (police, machine, regime);

ü grammatically unassimilated - from Latin or Greek (phenomenon – phenomena);

ü semantically unassimilated - denote objects or nation characteristic of the country from which they came (sushi).

· not assimilated or barbarisms - words from other languages used by English people but not assimilated in any way and for which there are corresponding English equivalents (sari, sheik, spaghetti, sherbet, pizza, ratatouille, tete-a-tete).

Sources of borrowings:

Romanic Borrowings.

Latin borrowings: they are divided into 3 periods:

1) 5 century, words are connected with trade (pound, inch, kitchen, wall, port);

2) The time of Christianity, words are connected with religion (Latin words: alter, cross, dean; Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem);

3) Time of renaissance, words were borrowed after great vowel shift (17 century) (item, superior, zoology, memorandum, vice versa, AM, PM).

French:the largest group of borrowings is French borrowings. Most of them came into English during the Norman Conquest. Normans belong to the race of scand. Origin but during their residence in Normandy they had given up the native language and adopted the French dialect. During 3 centuries after the Norman Conquest French was the language of the court, of the nobility.

There are following semantic groups of French borrowings:

1. words relating to government (administer, empire, state);

2. military affairs (army, war, battle);

3. jurisprudence (advocate, petition, sentence);

4. fashion (luxury, coat, collar);

5. jewelry (topaz, pearl);

6. food and cooking (lunch, cuisine, menu);

7. literature and music (pirouette, ballet).

Italian: cultural and trade relations between England and Italy in the epoch of renaissance brought in many Italian words:

1) musical terms: concert, solo, opera, piano, trio;

2) political terms: manifesto;

3) geological terms: volcano, lava.

Among the 20th century Italian borrowings, we can mention: incognito, fiasco, and graffiti.

Spanish: a large number of such words was penetrated in English vocabulary in 1588 when Phillip 2 sent a fleet of armed ships against England (armada, ambuscade); trade terms: cargo, embargo; names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, guitar; names of vegetables and fruits: tomato, tobacco, banana, ananas.

Germanic Borrowings:

Scandinavian: By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. As a result of this conquest there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English (pronouns: they, them, their; verbs: to call, to want, to die; adj: flat, ill, happy; noun: cake, egg, knife, window.

German: in the period of Second World War such words were borrowed as: luftwaffe (возд. авиация); bundeswehr (вооруженные силы ФРГ). After the Second World War the following words were borrowed: Volkswagen, berufsverbot (запрет на профессию (в ФРГ)), and some other words (cobalt, wolfram, iceberg, rucksack).

Dutch: Holland and England have had constant interrelations for many centuries and more then 2000 Dutch words were borrowed into English. Many of them are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14th century, such as: skipper, pump, keel, dock; and some words from everyday life: luck, brandy, and boss.

Russian: Among early Russian borrowings there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rubble, kopeck, sterlet, vodka, and words relating to nature: taiga, tundra, steppe. After the October revolution many new words appeared in Russia, connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were borrowed into English: collectivization, udarnik, Komsomol and also translation loans: five-year plan, collective farm. One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with perestroika, suck as: glasnost, nomenclature, and apparatchik.

Native words are divided into 3 basic groups:

1) The words which have cognates (words of the same etymological root, of common origin) in many Indo-European languages. For ex: family relations: father (Vater), mother, daughter, son; parts of human body: foot, heart, nose; wolf, cow, cat; numerous verbs: stand, sit; the numerals from 1 to 100; heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star.

2) The words, which have cognates with words of the language of the Germanic group. Some of the main groups of Germanic words are the same as in the Indo-European group. For ex: parts of human body: head, hand, arm, finger; animals: bear, fox; natural phenomena: rain, frost; human dwellings and furniture: house, bench; adj: green, blue, old, good, small, high; verbs: see, hear, tell, say, drink, give.

3) the English element proper. Ex.: bird, boy, girl, woman, lord, always. Assimilation – the process of adaptation phonetic, gram. and semantic features of language. 3 basic types: phonetical – sounds are adopted; grammatical – when a borrowed word occurs (спутник); semantic – connected with the meaning of the word.

International words.

It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages and not just by one. Such words usually convey concepts, which are significant in the field of communication. Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences are international, e.g. philosophy, chemistry, biology; sports terms: football, baseball, tennis; foodstuffs and fruits imported from exotic countries: coffee, chocolate, banana, grapefruit; clothing: pullover, shorts.

Etymological doublets

Doublets are words which have the same origin but they are different in phonetic shape and in meaning.

Doublets appeared in English in different ways.

1.) One of the pair may be a native word and the other a borrowed one. EG: the word “shirt” is a native one. “skirt” was borrowed from Scandinavian. (одежда)

2.) Both the words are borrowed, but from different languages. EG: senior (from Latin) sir (from French)

3.) Both the words are borrowed from one of the same language, but at different period of time. EG: cavalry (Normandy French) – кавалерия. Chivalry (Parisian Language) – рыцарство (ch-показывает о более позднем происхождение)

4.) Shortening may bring to life etymological doublets. EG: history and story, defense and fance, fantasy - fancy.

Translation-Loans. This term is equivalent to borrowing. They are not taken into the vocabulary of another language more or less in the same phonetic shape in which they have been functioning in their own language, but undergo the process of translation. It is obvious that it is only compound words, which can be subjected to such an operation, each stem being translated separately. Ex: collective farm (колхоз); wonder child (Wunderkind); five-year plan (пятилетка).

Translation-loan(s) (калька) – are borrowings which are made up by means of literally translating words and word combinations. EG: from the Russian language: пятилетка – five-year plan. from German: Wunderkind – wonder child. from Italian: prima ballerina – first dancer.