2015-08-21
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English vocabulary is composite and varied. In its 15 century history English happened to come in long and close contact with a number of foreign languages. As a result, many foreign words were borrowed. The source of borrowing is applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English. The origin of borrowing refers to the language, to which the word may be traced,
e.g. paper < Fr. papier < Lat. papyrus < Gr. papyrus
French is its source of borrowing, Greek is its origin.
Sometimes the word borrowing is used in a wider sense, and is extended onto the so-called translation-loans (or calques) and semantic borrowings.
Criteria of borrowings:
• phonetical
• grammatical
• lexical
The phonetical criteria are strange sounds, sound combination, position of stress and the correlation between sounds and letters.
e.g. wal tz (G.), ps ychology (Gr.), communi qué (Fr.)
The initial position of sounds [v], [z] or the letters x, j, z is a valid sign that the word is borrowed, e.g. v olcano (It.), v accine (L.), j ungle (Hindi), zinc (G.)
The morphological structure of the word and its grammatical forms also indicate that the word is adopted from another language,
e.g. the suffixes in the words neuro sis (Gr.), violoncel lo (It.);
the irregular plural forms: bacteria < bacterium (L.), papyri < papyrus (Gr.)
You can recognize such words by certain suffixes, prefixes, endings.
| Latin Affixes Suffix -ion e.g. communion, legion, opinion, union Suffix -tion e.g. relation, revolution, starvation, temptation Suffix -ate e.g. appreciate, create, congratulate Suffix -ute e.g. att’ribute, contribute, constitute, distribute Suffix -able e.g. detestable, curable Suffix -ate e.g. accurate, graduate Suffix -ant e.g. arrogant, constant Suffix -ent e.g. absent, decent, evident Suffix -or e.g. major, minor, junior, senior Suffix -al e.g. cordial, final, fraternal, maternal Suffix -ar e.g. lunar, solar, familiar Remnant suffix - ct e.g. act, conduct, collect Remnant suffix -d(e) e.g. applaud, divide, exclude, include Prefix dis- e.g. disable, distract, disown, disagree |
| French Affixes Suffix -ancee.g. arrogance, hindrance Suffix -encee.g. consequence, patience Suffix -mente.g. appointment, experiment Suffix -agee.g. courage, marriage Suffix -esse.g. tigress, lioness, adventuress Suffix -ouse.g. curious, dangerous, joyous, serious Prefix en- e.g. enable, enslave |
| Borrowed element |
| Celtic: 5th – 6th c Latin: 1st group 1st c BC 2nd group 7th c AD 3rd group the Renaissance period Scandinavian: 8th c AD French: Norman borrowings 11th – 13th c Parisian borrowings – 17th c Renaissance time Greek: Renaissance Italian: Renaissance time and later Spanish: Renaissance time and later German Indian Russian |
Why arewords borrowed?
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