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LING150/University of Oregon |
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4.3.1. Stages of word borrowing in English
English speakers have always been happy to borrow words any time, any place, and from anybody. They have borrowed from their conquerors and from the people they conquered. Each of the political events in the history of English speakers has left its mark on the English language. Here is a brief summary of the most influential events. (There are lots of examples in this WebLecture. Remember: you don't need to memorize specific examples, but look them over to get an idea of the kinds of words that were borrowed in each case.)
English evolved from the dialects of Germanic speakers (the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who colonized England about 500 A.D. These speakers had already borrowed some Latin words before they ever came to England. These very old borrowings have become quite Anglicized and often look like native words. Some examples are:
cup, kitchen, church, mile, pound, sack, pepper, dish, butter, cheese, street, kettle, wall
When the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes arrived in England, they brought with them their Germanic dialects. These formed the basic word stock of the English language.
About 600 A.D., Christianity was established in England. This resulted in many Latin words, especially ecclesiastical terms, being borrowed, as well as words which were necessary to understand Bible stories. Some examples are:
paper, camel, caesar, circle, comet, martyr
Later in this period, the Angle and Saxon colonists were pushed farther inland by Vikings who invaded the east coast of England. The Vikings settled along the coast, introducing many words from their Scandinavian languages into the original dialects. The English speakers sometimes replaced their own words, even words such as pronouns, with Scandinavian equivalents. Some examples are:
anger, cake, call, clumsy, doze, egg, fellow, get, give, hale, hit, husband, kick, kill, law, low, rag, raise, root, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, seat, skill, skin, skirt, sky, sly, take, they, them, their, thrall, thrust, ugly, want, window, wing
The French-derived vocabulary is perhaps the most lasting result of the Normans' conquest of England in 1066 A.D. English speakers often borrowed French words to replace English words for the same thing because the French words had higher status and sounded more educated. Compare the following sets:
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Borrowed from French |
poultry, mutton, venison |
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Anglo-Saxon equivalent |
chicken, sheep, deer |
In some cases, Anglo-Saxon words were considered vulgar, while their French or Latin-derived equivalents were acceptable even in polite society. This status (or register) difference between French-derived and Anglo-Saxon derived words remains today.
Here are examples of other French borrowings:
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Government |
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attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime, defendant, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, larceny, noble, parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict |
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Church |
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abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar, prayer, preach, priest, religion, sacrament, saint, sermon |
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Nobility |
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noble, royal, baron, count, duke, marquis, prince, viscount |
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Military |
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army, artillery, battle, captain, company, corporal, defense, enemy, marine, navy, sergeant, soldier |
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Foods and Cooking |
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beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, roast, salmon, stew, veal |
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Art, culture and luxury items |
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art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel, oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, sculpture |
The Renaissance and later developments in science and technology led to massive borrowing from Latin and Greek. Many of the academic and scientific words we are focusing on in this course were borrowed at this time.
During the 19th century, England conquered indigenous peoples on almost every continent. English speakers borrowed words from hundreds of the different languages. They typically only borrowed words for things that were new to them, such as local foods, plants, animals, tools, and weather phenomena. Some examples are:
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Hindi |
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bangle, bungalow, chintz, cot, cummerbund, dungaree, jamboree, juggernaut, jungle, loot, pajamas, shampoo, thug |
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Arabic |
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assassin, bazaar, caravan, emir, gazelle, giraffe, harem, hashish, lute, minaret, mosque, myrrh, sirocco, sultan |
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African languages |
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banana, banjo, chigger, goober, gorilla, gumbo, jazz, jitters, voodoo, yam, zebra, zombie |
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American Indian languages |
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avocado, cannibal, canoe, chipmunk, chocolate, chili, hammock, hominy, hurricane, maize, moccasin, moose, pecan, possum, potato, skunk, squash, teepee, tobacco, toboggan, tomahawk, tomato, wigwam, woodchuck |
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Australia |
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boomerang, kangaroo |
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Continue with the Unit 4 Reading Assignment 2. |
1998 by
the Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon.