The role of the borrowings in the English language

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Training

«Irkutsk State Linguistic University»

Department of Theoretical Linguistics 
 
 
 

The role of the borrowings in the English language 
 
 
 
 
 
 

By the student of group TMPA1-09-06

Faculty of the English Language

Major: Theory and Methods of

Foreign Languages and Cultures Teaching

Ekaterina B. Bokhieva

Thesis Advisor:

Svetlana K. Voronova

Candidate of philological sciences 
 
 

Irkutsk 2011

Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………...……3 

1. Theoretical background………………………………………………………….4 

1.1 Definiton………………………………………………………………………..4 

1.2 History of the English language…………………………………………...…...7 

1.3 Loanword periods………………...…………………………………………….8 

1.3.1 The Zero period…………………………………...………………………….9 

1.3.2 The First period……………………………………………………………..10 

1.3.3 The Second period…………………………………………………………..11 

1.3.4 The Third period…………………………………………………….………13 

1.3.5 The Modern period………………………………………………….………15 

1.4 Different kinds of borrowings………………………………………….……..16 

1.5 What kinds of words are borrowed?.................................................................17 

1.6 How many words are loanwords?.....................................................................19 

2. An investigation of the origin of the words in “God save the Queen”…..…….21 

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….….28 

List of the literature………………………………………………………………30 

Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………….31 
 

  Introduction 

People all around the globe with different mother tongues often have the same opinion regarding loanwords in their languages; they mostly do not like them. They wish that their own native words would be used instead and often fear that too much borrowing could lead to their mother tongue eventually dying out. A lot of this fear has been directed on the English language the last decades. Due to its tremendous rise as a global language many English words have entered other languages in all parts of the world. Babysitter and makeup are just two examples of common English words that are used in many other languages around the globe. Today, many countries are trying to reduce the influence that English has on their native tongues. In France, for example, laws are passed that make it illegal to use an English word in official contexts when there are native words that could be used instead [5 P. 23]. However, English is not the only language that has played an important role in “exporting” words to other languages. Latin and French, for example, are two other languages that have had a deep impact on many others throughout history. Most people do not seem to realize that borrowing words from other languages is a very old and common linguistic phenomenon. All languages have some words in their vocabulary that are of foreign origin, and so does the English language. This essay will focus on exactly this subject: the role borrowings in English. The paper will deal with many aspects concerning this topic. The essay will be divided in two major parts: a theoretical and an empirical part. In the theoretical part, essential information will be given on the subject. What languages do loanwords in English come from? When and why were these words borrowed? In the empirical part, the British national anthem, “God Save the Queen”, will be analyzed. How many words in the text originally come from other languages? What other languages do these words come from? What kinds of words are loanwords? “God Save the Queen” was chosen as the object to be examined, because a national anthem usually has the purpose of symbolizing a people and its country. Therefore it is interesting to discover if the words that are used in the song are also native English words. 

1. Theoretical background 

1.1 Definition 

A substantial amount of all English words have been borrowed from other languages. These words are usually called “loanwords”, since they are not native English words. In Merriam-Webster’s Online dictionary the word “loanword” is defined in this way: “a word taken from another language and at least partly naturalized [12]. Naturalized means in this case “to introduce into common use or into the vernacular” [16]. Loanwords are often even more widely known than native words since their “borrowing served a certain purpose, for example to provide a name for a new invention” [12]. An example of such a borrowing is “pizza”. Since the Italians were those who introduced pizzas in England, the English borrowed the word from them [11]. 

The word “loanword” is in fact a type of loanword itself. The word comes from the German word “lehnwort”, which means precisely loanword. In this case, the meaning of the German words (lehn + wort), the English equivalents are used. This type of borrowing is called a calque. As this example shows us, there are different kinds of borrowings, and they can be divided into subgroups. These subgroups will be discussed later in the essay. 

The word “borrow” is often used in literature on loanwords to symbolize that a language uses a word that originally comes from another language. In this paper the term will also be used, even though the word is somewhat misleading. The word “borrow,” indicates that the item borrowed will be returned, and since this obviously is not the case, “borrow”  may not be the best metaphor in this particular case. 

In order for loanwords to enter a language it is necessary that some people of the “borrowing” language are bilingual. These people have to be able to understand and to some extent speak the “lending” language so that words can be borrowed from that language. 

Borrowings enter a vernacular in a very natural way. The process starts off with that bilingual people of a certain language community start using words from another language. These people often choose to use certain foreign words because they feel that these words are more prestigious than their native ones. As time passes, more and more people start using the word and  eventually the word has become a part of the vocabulary of the borrowing language. An example of this is how it became popular for the upper class in Germany in the beginning of the 18th century to speak French. Between, 1650 and 1770, France was the leading political and cultural nation in Europe, and the French language was very popular and prestigious during this time. Many wealthy Germans also wanted to be part of the culture and therefore learned French and became bilingual [3 P. 143]. The majority of Germans, who were poor peasants, however, still spoke German, but many French loanwords managed to enter the German vocabulary. Examples are the words “Kostüm”, “Parfüm”, “Promenade” and “Balkon” [3 P. 143]. Often, the original native word exists alongside the borrowed, but many times the native word died out. 

Sometimes however, the “borrowing”  language does not have a native word with the same meaning as the loanword. When this is the case, certain concepts, ideas or objects of the “lending”  language community are new to the people of the “borrowing”  language community. So, instead of making up a complete whole new word for the idea or object they simply borrow the word from the people they came in contact with. An example of this is the word “bagel”. The word was adopted from the Yiddish language, since the Jews were those who introduced bagels to the rest of the world [19]. Many other languages, including English, therefore borrowed the word “bagel”. 

Another reason for borrowing lexica from other languages is when a language uses words that are not semantically differentiated enough. An example of such a case is how the English used the word “lufu” (love) when they meant “charity” before the 12th century. Since “lufu” also had the meaning as it has today it was at times unclear what a person meant. This resulted in that the English borrowed the word “charity” from French, in order to be able to more specifically distinguish between the two words [2 P. 87]. 

Most English loanwords have been a part of the English vocabulary for a long time. Many people would not, for example, consider the word, “simple” to be a loanword, since it was borrowed centuries ago. “Simple” entered the English language around 1220 and was adopted from the French language [13]. The word is, however, not originally a French word, but had once been borrowed from Latin [13]. As this example shows us, loanwords can have existed in our vocabulary for a very long time, but still be loanwords. In order for us to be able to distinguish between borrowings and native words, however, we have to understand and know the history of the English language. 
 
 

1.3 Loanword periods 

English has borrowed words from virtually all languages on earth. The British came in contact with many different people and languages when the British Empire colonized various parts of the world. Hindi words, like shampoo and pajamas, for example, were adopted into English after the British had colonized India and there had been contact between the natives and British [20]. English has, in this sense, been a very open language, and not been afraid of borrowing material from other languages. 

One language had especially a deep impact on English: Latin. Latin has influenced English exceedingly throughout history, and the first period of Latin influence took place around 2000 years ago on the Germanic dialects that would one day develop into English. Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the 6th century and 7th century brought with them Latin religious terms which entered the English language: abbot, altar, apostle, candle, clerk, mass, minister, monk, nun, pope, priest, school, shrive. It is often said that English is, to some extent, as much a Romance language as a Germanic one,n because of the tremendous amount of words that have been borrowed from Latin and French. 

The next part of the essay will look at loanword periods in the history of the English language. There are five major Romance loanword periods. These periods are the zero period, the first period, the second period, the third period and the modern period [17]. 

We will also look at other languages that have helped shape the English vocabulary. 
 

1.3.1 The zero period 

Even before English became English, in other words, before the Angles, Jutes and the Saxons moved to the British Isles, the dialects they spoke on the continent came in contact with the Romans and their language, Latin. Even though the Germanic languages and Latin derived from the same source, namely the Indo European language, they had developed in different directions and were back then, as they are today, completely different languages. At this point in history, the Romans were far more technically advanced than the Germanic people [3 P. 55]. They had plenty of words in their vocabulary that the Germanic people did not have, because they had not developed the objects or ideas yet. An example of this is that they only lived in wooden houses and had not discovered the art of building houses out of stone. 

When they came in contact with the Romans, though, and learned this new technique, they borrowed the Latin terms [3 P. 55]. Most of these words were quite short and therefore “easily adaptable to the highly inflected Germanic languages”  [17]. 

The words often had to do with cooking, military matters, commerce and trade [17]. Examples of words that were borrowed during this period are “mule”, “chalk” and “linen” [8]. 
 

1.3.2 The first period 

During the first period, which began in year 43 A.D. and continued until 449 A.D., “Latin was the official language of the administration” in the British Isles [17]. The Anglo-Saxons had not yet migrated to the British Isles and the Celts, the indigenous people of Britain, were living there. The Romans had occupied the country, and their language, Latin, became the official language. Many Latin loanwords entered Celtic languages during this period, and these loanwords were then passed on to the Anglo-Saxons when they moved to Britain. Here are some examples of the loanwords, which entered the language during this period : ambassador, bannock, bard, bracket, breeches, car, career, carry, charge, druid, embassy, piece, vassal. 
 

1.3.3 The second period 

During the second period, which took place between 597 A.D. and 1066 A.D., the Romans christianized the Anglo-Saxons. This period can be divided into two parts, the Early and the Benedictine period [17]. During the Early period many words were borrowed from Latin that were related to the Anglo-Saxons new religion, Christianity [17]. Examples of such words are “bishop”, “mass” and “pope” [17]. Words relating to other subjects were also borrowed, like school and plant. During the Benedictine period, many exotic and learned words were borrowed [9]. 

During this period there was also some borrowing of Celtic words. Celtic name words for places and rivers were frequently borrowed, and today many of the names of towns in England have their origin in the Celtic language. Examples are: London, Cornwall and Thames [19]. However, only a few “normal” Celtic loanwords entered the English language during this time. The explanation for this is most likely that the Anglo-Saxons were the conquerors and the Celts the conquered, and the powerful people only seldom borrow words from the people they have defeated. Additionally, there was not much contact between the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons and the relationship between them was presumably hostile [9]. 

There was also a profound Scandinavian influence on the English vocabulary during this period. The Vikings occupied the northeastern parts of England and Scotland, later to be called the Danelaw, in the 9th and 10th Century, and therefore many words from their mother tongue, Old Norse, entered the English language. Words, like “dream”, “sky” and the pronoun “they” are examples of words that were borrowed from the Old Norse language [12]. Since Old English and Old Norse were fairly similar languages, it is likely that a colloquial Anglo-Norse arised in the Danelaw area [6 P. 63]. In this colloquial it was easy for many Old Norse words to replace Old English ones. A further example of a word that was once borrowed from Old Norse is “window”. The Scandinavian name was “vindöga”´, but in some Scandinavian languages like Swedish, for example, the word is not used anymore. The Swedes borrowed the word “fönster” from Low German in the 15th century, and this example shows us that other languages, in this case English, may save a word from dying out, because they became loanwords [3 P. 130]. 
 

1.3.4 The third period 

In year 1066 A.D. the Norman Conquest took place. The Anglo-Saxons were defeated, and since the Normans spoke Norman French, their language became the official language in England [17]. Both in business and in the government Norman French was the language that was used (examples are : attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime, 

defendent, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, larceny, noble, 

parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict) [6 P. 74]. Norman French was a local variant of Old French that was spoken in the area of Normandy in the 10th century. The people that lived in this area and spoke this dialect where originally of North Germanic origin, which lead to that Norman French had a considerable amount of Germanic influence [20]. 

Thousands of words, from all kinds of fields, were borrowed from Norman French into English after the Norman Conquest. Words like: castle, marry, noun, language, glory and poet are all examples of loanwords from this time [20]. Many of the borrowed words came from the field of administration, state, politics, war, law and art [2 P. 53]. This third period continued into the 16th Century, which means that for more than 400 years Norman French influenced English. It is likely that many French words entered the English language, because the upper class that had spoken French continued to use many French words when the country went over to speaking English. Other people then imitated their language, because of their social standing and education, and the result was that thousands of French borrowings were adopted [6 P. 75]. In the middle of the 14th century, a French dialect called Central French or Parisian became the official standard in France and on the British Isles [6 P. 75]. The loanwords that entered during this time are therefore borrowed from this dialect. Many of them do not exist in French anymore. 

Some of them have however “survived”  in English. Examples of such words are close, feature, fuel and remain [17]. 

Some 10,000 French words entered the English vocabulary during the Norman occupation. Around 75% of these words are still “alive” and used in English today [14]. 

Today it is also possible to look at English words and understand how certain aspects of society worked during this time. If we look at the words “beef” and “cow”, for example, it is clear to see that the words are not of the same origin even though their semantic relationship is obvious. The explanation for this is that the word “beef” derives from Norman French, while “cow” is of Germanic origin. Due to the fact that the French people were those who could afford to eat “beef” during this period, since many of them belonged to the aristocracy, they used a word from their language. The people who tended the cattle, however, were mostly the Anglo-Saxons and therefore they used the Germanic word “cow” [20]. 

Many times, words of Germanic and Romance origin that had the same meaning existed side by side. The Romance word was often more formal and not as emotional as the native word [9]. Today, many of these words are still used. Examples are the synonyms doom and judgment, and odor and scent [9]. 

In the 14th and 15th Century there was also a considerable amount of Latin influence. Due to translations of Latin literature, and the fact that some people read literature written in Latin, Latin loanwords managed to enter the English language [9]. The writings of Trevisa, Lanfranc, Arderne, and Wyclif are some famous scientific and theological works that were translated during this period [7 P. 8]. Examples of Latin loanwords from this period are “commit”, “create” and “impress”. 
 

1.3.5 The Modern Period 

During the Renaissance in the 15th century Latin and Greek became important languages once again. Scholars and intellectuals studied classical texts that were written in Greek and Latin, which eventually led to many loanwords from these languages entering the vocabulary of other European languages, like English. Thousands of words were borrowed during this 

period, and many of them had already been borrowed from French some centuries earlier. Now, the “same” word entered the language, only this time from Latin directly [17]. “Perfect” is an example of a word that was borrowed twice. In Middle English the word was “parfit” and had been borrowed from French, but during the Modern Period the word was changed into “perfect”, because the Latin equivalent was “perfectus”, and it was considered better if the word resembled the Latin word [17]. 
 

1.4 Different types of borrowings 

As mentioned earlier in the essay, there are different types of borrowings. In the empirical part of the essay the words in “God Save the Queen” will not be divided into subgroups, and the word “loanword” will still be used as the overall term. However, most linguists categorize borrowings in this way: 

Loanwords are words that keep their meaning and phonetic shape, when they find their way into another language. The word “pizza”, for example, which has its origin in Italian, has the same “shape”, in other words, is pronounced and written in the same way in both English and Italian, which makes it a “real” loanword. It is also important that the word is inflected in the same way. The plural forms therefore also have to be identical in both languages. 

A semantic loan is a borrowing where “the meaning of a foreign word is transferred onto an existing native word [9]. An example of a semantic loan is the word “God”. The word is a native English word and existed in Old English as well, but the Christian meaning it has today was borrowed from the Romans and their religion when they came to the British Isles. 

A calque or a “loan translation”  is a “one-to-one translation of a foreign model” [9]. An example of a calque is the English word “embody”, which has its origin in the Latin equivalent “incorporare”. The word “loanword” is also a calque.