The Scandinavian Element in the English Vocabulary

6. The Scandinavian Element in the English Vocabulary

The Scandinavian invasion of England which proved to be of linguistic importance began in the 8^th century. In 1017 the Danes conquered the whole of England and reigned over up to 1042.

The Danish settlers intermingled with the native population. The fact of both languages being Germanic facilitated mutual understanding and word borrowings. That is why it is difficult sometimes to say whether a word is native or borrowed from Scandinavian. Words are sometimes considered to be of the Scandinavian origin if they were not met in Anglo-Saxon written documents up to the 11^th century. Some examples of Scandinavian borrowings are the following: anger (OSc. angr – sorrow); gate (OSc. gata); sky (OSc. sky – cloud); want ( OSc. vant – lacking); to hit (OSc. hitta – not to miss); ill (OSc. illr – bad); ugly (OSc. uggligr – frightful).

In distinguishing Scandinavian words we may sometimes apply the criterion of sound such as [sk] – skill, scare, scream. The hard [g] and [k] sounds before i and e speak for the Scandinavian origin of the word since English words started having the palatalised [j] and [t ] sounds before i and e already in Old English. But these features are not always sufficient because sometimes we find [sk] in words of Latin, Greek or French origin or in Northern dialects.

Some English words changed their meanings taking on the meanings of the corresponding Scandinavian words: OSc. draurm – dream (OE dream – joy), OSc.– brauth – bread (OE bread – crumb, fragment).

Scandinavian settlements in England left their toponymic traces in a great number of place names: OSc. byr – village (Derby, Rugby); OSc. foss – waterfall (Fossbury, Fossway); OSc. toft – cite, plot of land (Brimtoft, Langtoft).

7. The Norman-French Element in the English Vocabulary

The French layer rates second to Latin in bulk. It has been estimated that English owes one fourth of its vocabulary to French. French borrowings penetrated into English in two ways: from the Norman dialect (during the first centuries after the Norman Conquest of 1066) and from the French national literary language beginning with the 15^th century.

The Normans who conquered England in 1066 were of Scandinavian origin and their French differed somewhat from the central dialect of France. During two centuries after the Norman Conquest the linguistic situation in England was rather complicated; the feudal lords spoke the Norman dialect of the French language, the people spoke English, scientific and theological literature was in Latin, the court literature was in French. Latin and French were used in administration and school teaching. Still English was in common use and therefore the Norman dialect was to a certain extent influenced by English in some phonetical and lexical points. Gradually English assimilated many French words that either ousted their Saxon equivalents (OE unhope – despair; OE tholemodness – patience), brought new concepts (exchequer, parliament) or became synonyms to native words (to help = to aid; weak = feeble).

Before the Norman Conquest only a few words were borrowed: proud, market.

French words borrowed during the period of the 12^th –16^th centuries show the social status of the Norman invaders and their supremacy in economic, cultural and political development. At that time a lot of terms were borrowed into the English language:

-  terms of rank: duke, prince, baron;

-  law terms: prison, jury, judge;

-  military terms: army, peace, soldier;

-  religious terms: pray, faith, saint;

-  terms of art: art, beauty, paint;

-  terms of architecture: pillar, palace, castle.

In most cases such words were completely assimilated.

Later French borrowings can be easily identified by their peculiar form and pronunciation: garage, technique, machine.

8. Various Other Elements in the English Vocabulary

Quite a number of words were borrowed from other languages: Dutch, Italian, Spanish. England was in commercial contact with the Netherlands during the Middle ages. There lived and worked many skilful Dutch artisans in England (weavers, shipbuilders). Hence, the terminology of some professions owes much to Dutch and Flemish: cruise, dock, reef. Among borrowings there are also weaving terms: rock, spool.

Dutch art terms came to English as a result of the influence of Dutch art (landscape, easel).

The Italian language began to contribute to the English vocabulary in the16^thcentury. Many Italian words such as military terms entered through French. During the period of Renaissance Italian culture greatly influenced the cultural life of England. Many musical terms were borrowed at that time: piano, opera, sonata. Among borrowings we find artistic terms (studio, fresco), literary terms (stanza, canto), business terms (bank, traffic), words denoting realities of Italian life (gondola, macaroni).

Spanish brought some words as well. Many words belonging to various languages of the native population of America came through Spanish: banana, canyon, cargo, potato, Negro.

Some Portuguese words came through French, Spanish and Dutch: caste, fetish. There are not many words borrowed immediately from Portuguese: tank, cobra, port (wine), emu.

There are borrowings from the German language: cobalt, quartz, leitmotiv, kindergarten, rucksack.

Some other languages contributed to the English vocabulary as well. Arabian gave some terms: algebra, Moslem, mufti, sherbet.

With the beginning of England’s colonial expansion in the 16^th-17^th centuries many words penetrated into the English vocabulary from the languages of colonial countries: cashmere, jungle, rupee (Hindi), ginseng, serge (Chinese), hara-kiri, rickshaw (Japanese).

The Russian language also contributed to the English vocabulary: rouble, kopeck, taiga, sable, sarafan, tsar.

In the Ukrainian language there borrowings from the Polish language (в’язень, застава, ліжко, зичити), from the Check language (брама, праця, вагатися). There also exist Turkic words (кабан, кайдани) in the Ukrainian language.

Words borrowed from the English language are partially assimilated (футбол, хокей). Some borrowings in the Ukrainian language are restricted in word-formation. Such words as ноу-хау, от кутюр have no derivatives.

International words are used in both languages: organisation, telephone, judo, banana. Some international words can coincide only in one of the meanings. E.g.: the words stress, faculty, data. They are called pseudointernationalisms.