- •Contents
- •List of abbreviations
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Germanic languages
- •Classification of germanic languages
- •Ancient germanic tribes and their classification
- •Germanic alphabets
- •Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
- •Consonants
- •The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
- •Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
- •Verner`s Law
- •Word – Stress
- •Stressed vowels
- •Germanic Fracture (Breaking)
- •Gradation or Ablaut
- •Unstressed Vowels
- •Grammatical peculiarities of germanic languages
- •The Noun
- •The Adjective
- •The Verb
- •Gothic Strong Verbs
- •Vocabulary
- •Old english
- •2.1. Periods in the History of English
- •2.2. Historical Background
- •2.2.1. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- •2.2.2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records
- •2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period
- •2.5.1. Vowels
- •2.5.2. Old English Breaking
- •2.5.3. Palatal Mutation (I-mutation)
- •Monophthongs
- •Diphthongs
- •2.5.4. Back or Velar Mutation (Velarization)
- •2.5.5. Diphthongization of Vowels after Palatal Consonants
- •2.5.6. Lengthening of Short Vowels
- •2.5.7. Unstressed Vowels
- •2.5.8. Consonants
- •2.5.9. Palatalization of Velar Consonants
- •2.5.10. Assimilation, Metathesis, Doubling of Consonants, Loss of Consonants
- •2.6. Old English Morphology
- •2.6.1. Old English Noun: General Characteristics
- •Vowel Stems
- •Consonant Stems
- •2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension
- •2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions
- •2.6.4. Root-Stems
- •2.6.5. Pronouns
- •2.6.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
- •2.6.6. Adjectives
- •2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison
- •2.6.7. Adverbs
- •2.6.7.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •2.6.7.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •2.6.8. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of verbs
- •2.6.8.1. Strong Verbs
- •2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs
- •Conjugation of Weak Verbs
- •2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
- •Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
- •2.6.8.4. Anomalous verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb dōn
- •Indicative mood
- •2.6.8.5. Suppletive Verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon
- •Indicative mood
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān
- •Indicative mood
- •2.7. Old English Syntax
- •2.8. The Old English Vocabulary
- •2.8.1. Word-Building
- •Suffixation
- •Prefixation
- •Composition
- •2.8.2. Borrowings
- •Latin borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Middle english
- •3.1. Historical Background
- •3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions
- •3.1.2. The Norman Conquest
- •3.2. Middle English Dialects Rise of the London Dialect
- •3.3. Early Middle English Written Records
- •3.4. Word Stress
- •3.5. Vowels
- •3.5.1. Unstressed Vowels
- •3.5.2. Stressed vowels
- •3.5.2.1. Quantitative Vowel Changes
- •3.5.2.2. Qualitative Vowel Changes
- •Monophthongs
- •3.5.2.3. Monophthongization of Old English Diphthongs
- •3.5.2.4. Rise of New Diphthongs
- •3.6. Evolution of Consonants in Middle English
- •3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English
- •3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels
- •3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants
- •3.8. Changes in the Grammatical System
- •3.8.1. Preliminary Remarks
- •3.8.2. The Noun
- •3.8.2.1. Gender
- •3.8.2.2. Number
- •3.8.2.3. Decay of Noun Declensions
- •3.8.3. The Adjective
- •3.8.3.1. Declension of Adjectives in Late Middle English
- •3.8.3.2. Degrees of Comparison
- •3.8.4. Adverbs
- •3.8.4.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •3.8.4.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •3.8.5. The Pronoun
- •3.8.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •3.8.5.2. Possessive pronouns
- •3.8.5.3. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •3.8.5.4. Rise of the Articles
- •3.8.6. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of Verbs
- •Conjugation of Verbs Past Indicative
- •3.8.5.1. Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.1. Strong Verbs
- •3.8.6.2. Weak Verbs
- •3.8.6.3. Preterite-present Verbs
- •3.8.6.4. Suppletive verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms
- •Future Forms
- •Perfect Forms
- •Passive Forms
- •Continuous Forms
- •3.8.7. Development of the Syntactic System
- •3.9. Middle English Vocabulary Changes
- •3.9.1. Native Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.2. French Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
- •3.9.4. French Borrowings
- •New english
- •4.1. The formation of the English National Language
- •4.2. Changes in Pronunciation
- •4.2.1. Development of Unstressed Vowels
- •4.2.1.1. Loss of unstressed –e [ə]
- •4.2.1.2. Loss of Vowels in Intermediate Syllables
- •4.2.2. Stressed Vowels
- •4.2.2.1. The Great Vowel Shift
- •4.2.2.2. Shortening of Long Vowels
- •4.2.2.3. Development of Short Vowels
- •4.2.2.4. The Development of the New Short [л]
- •4.2.2.5. Changes in Diphthongs
- •4.2.2.6. Vowel Changes under the Influence of Consonants
- •4.2.3. Consonants
- •4.2.3.1. Voicing of Voiceless Consonants
- •4.2.3.2. Loss of Consonants Development of [X]
- •Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- •4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
- •4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
- •4.3. Changes in Spelling
- •4.4. Local Dialects in New English
- •4.4.1. Scottish Dialect
- •4.4.2. Northern Dialects
- •4.4.3. Western, Central and Southern Dialects
- •4.5. Some Essential Grammatical Changes of the New English Period: Morphology
- •4.5.1. The Noun
- •4.5.1.1. Number
- •4.5.1.2. Cases
- •4.5.2. The Pronoun
- •4.5.2.1. Personal Pronouns
- •4.5.2.2. Possessive Pronouns
- •4.5.3. The Adjective
- •4.5.4. The Adverb
- •4.5.5. The Verb
- •4.5.5.1. Personal Endings
- •4.5.5.2. Changes in Strong Verbs
- •4.5.5.3. Changes in Weak Verbs
- •4.5.5.4. Rise of Invariable Verbs
- •4.5.5.5. Changes in Preterite-Present Verbs
- •4.5.5.6. Irregular Verbs
- •4.6. New English Syntax
- •4.7. New English Vocabulary Changes
- •4.7.1. Latin Loanwords
- •4.7.2. Latinization of French Loanwords
- •4.7.3. Greek loanwords
- •4.7.4. French Loanwords
- •4.7.5. Mixed vocabulary of New English
- •4.7.6. Italian and Spanish Loanwords
- •4.7.7. Russian Loanwords
- •4.8. The Expansion of English
- •4.9. The English Language in the usa
- •4.9.1. Some peculiarities of American Pronunciation
- •4.9.2. American Spelling
- •4.9.3. Some peculiarities of American Grammar
- •4.9.4. Vocabulary of American English
- •Conclusion
- •Bibliography
3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
Apart from many place names (over 1400) in -by (< Sc town), -thorp (< Sc village), -thwaite (< Sc clearing) the number of Scandinavian borrowings was not very great, but they were mostly everyday words of very high frequency. According to the estimates of scientists, the total number of Scandinavian borrowings makes up about 900 words; about 700 of them belong to Standard English. A semantic range of Scandinavian borrowings varies from everyday words to military and legal terms.
Some of the Scandinavian words found their way into the oral speech of Anglo-Saxons as early as the IX c., but it was not until ME that Scandinavian borrowings became part and parcel of the English vocabulary.
The greater part of Scandinavian borrowings was not recorded until the XIII c.
As the two languages were closely related, English and Scandinavian dialects shared a considerable part of the vocabulary. Cf
OSc steinn – OE stān (NE stone), Osc dōmr – OE dōm (NE doom), OSc kyn – OE cyn (NE kin),
and it is often difficult to say whether the form of a given word is Scandinavian or English. The word «sister», for instance, is usually regarded a development of the Scandinavian systir, but it might be also a development of the OE sweostor under the Scandinavian influence. OE ʒiefan, ʒietan would have normally developed into E yev (yiv), yet but under the influence of Sc giva, geta they have become E give, get.
The reliable criteria of distinguishing Scandinavian loans from native words is the consonant cluster sk: skill (NE skill), Sc skinn (NE skin), Sc sky (NE sky), which does not occur in native words, as OE [sk] has been palatalized and modified to [] fish < OE fisc, ship < OE scip.
Other criteria are the sounds [k], [g] before front vowels, which in native words became [ʧʤ]: kid (Sc) – chin (< OE kin), girth (Sc) – yield (OE ʒieldan). These criteria, however, are not always reliable, as [k] was retained in some native words: king < OE cyninʒ, keep < OE cēpan.
The sounds [sk] and [] are sometimes found in related words in the two languages: shirt (native) –skirt (Sc loan), shatter (native) –scatter (Sc loan), shriek (native) –scream (Sc loan), which are etymological doublets, i.e. which go back to the same Gc root but have undergone different phonetic and semantic changes.
The extent of Scandinavian influence can be inferred from the fact that even personal pronouns were borrowed. The Scandinavian forms þeir (>E they), þeim (>them), þeirra (> E their) gradually ousted the respective forms hīe, him, hira. The Scandinavian conjunction þo (> E though) replaced the OE conjuction þeah.
The earliest Scandinavian borrowings are
(1) the nouns:
Sc vindauga (the eye of wind) > ME windoʒe (NE window)
Sc Angr > ME anger (NE anger)
Sc happ > ME hap (luck), which yielded the words happy, happiness, happen, perhaps
OSc hūsbōndi (householder) > OE hūsbōnda > husbonde (the head of the family) (NE husband)
OSc felaga (a partner, a shareholder) > OE fēolaʒa > ME felawe (NE fellow)
OSc laʒu > OE laʒa > ME lawe (NE law), which yielded ME outlaw, bylaw (town, local law), NE in-law, NE lawyer
OSc knifr > OE cnīf > ME knyf (NE knife)
(2) the verbs:
OSc taka > OE tacan> ME taken (NE take)
OSc kalla > OE ceallian > ME callen
The English language adopted many Scandinavian adjectives:
Sc illr (bad, sick) > NE ill
SC mjukr > NE meek (gentle and quiet)
Sc laus > NE loose
Sc lagr > NE low
Sc veikr > NE weak
Sc vrangr > NE wrong
The fate of borrowed Scandinavian words was different.
(1) Some of them, which denoted new things or phenomena, entered the English language without replacing any words of the English vocabulary. This is the case of law, outlaw and fellow.
(2) Others ousted the original English words, e.g. The Scandinavian verbs callen and taken ousted the native English verbs clipian and niman respectively.
The Scandinavian verb kasta > ME casten (NE cast) ousted the OE verb werpan with the same meaning. The same notion came to be denoted by the original English verb throw < OE þrāwan (turn).
The Scandinavian adjective veikr > NE weak ousted the native adjective wāc, from which the verb weaken was built. Thus, in ModE the verb weaken is native and the adjective weak is a borrowing.
(3) Both the borrowed and the native words survived as synonyms with a slight difference in meaning. Cf. NE bloom (< OSc blōm) and native blossom, NE ill (< OSc illr) and native evil, NE sky (< OSc sky – cloud) and native heaven, NE die (OSc deyia) and native starve.
In this case the meaning of one or both of the words narrowed and the spheres of reference of the synonyms were divided, e.g. OE steorfan (NE starve) had had a more general meaning (die) before deyen was adopted from OSc deyia (NE die); then it narrowed its meaning to «die of hunger». The verb deyen joined easily the noun death (< OE dēað) and the adjective dead (< OE dēad), forming a family of words: to die – dead – death.
(4) In some cases only the meaning of an English word, not its form was influenced, e.g. the word bread, which meant «a piece of bread» in OE, gained its present meaning (food) due to the Scandinavian influence.
The OE word drēam meant «joy», its present meaning came with the Scandinavians.
In OE wiþ (NE with) meant «against», whereas in Scandinavian it had the sense of accompaniment, expressed in OE by «mid».
(5) Some Scandinavian borrowings disappeared with the disappearance of objects they denoted, e.g. barda, cnearr, cseʒð (different types of ships).
(6) Scandinavian military and legal terms were replaced by French terms, e.g. Sc liþ – Fr navy, Sc orrest – Fr battaile (NE battle).