orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated
quicker, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater
the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how long the
word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it
is.
Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated,
partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).
Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the
language, cf the French word «sport» and the native word «start».
Completely assimilated verbs belong to regular verbs, e.g. correct
-corrected. Completely assimilated nouns form their plural by means of s-
inflexion, e.g. gate- gates. In completely assimilated French words the
stress has been shifted from the last syllable to the last but one.
Semantic assimilation of borrowed words depends on the words existing in
the borrowing language, as a rule, a borrowed word does not bring all its
meanings into the borrowing language, if it is polysemantic, e.g. the
Russian borrowing «sputnik» is used in English only in one of its meanings.
Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following groups:
a) borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and
notions peculiar to the country from the language of which they were
borrowed, e.g. sari, sombrero, taiga, kvass etc.
b) borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed from
Latin and Greek retain their plural forms (bacillus - bacilli, phenomenon -
phenomena, datum -data, genius - genii etc.
c) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with the
initial sounds /v/ and /z/, e.g. voice, zero. In native words these voiced
consonants are used only in the intervocal position as allophones of sounds
/f/ and /s/ ( loss - lose, life - live ). Some Scandinavian borrowings have
consonants and combinations of consonants which were not palatalized, e.g.
/sk/ in the words: sky, skate, ski etc (in native words we have the
palatalized sounds denoted by the digraph «sh», e.g. shirt); sounds /k/
and /g/ before front vowels are not palatalized e.g. girl, get, give, kid,
kill, kettle. In native words we have palatalization , e.g. German, child.
Some French borrowings have retained their stress on the last syllable,
e.g. police, cartoon. Some French borrowings retain special combinations
of sounds, e.g. /a:3/ in the words : camouflage, bourgeois, some of them
retain the combination of sounds /wa:/ in the words: memoir, boulevard.
d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greak
borrowings «y» can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym),
«ph» denotes the sound /f/ (phoneme, morpheme), «ch» denotes the sound
/k/(chemistry, chaos),«ps» denotes the sound /s/ (psychology).
Latin borrowings retain their polisyllabic structure, have double
consonants, as a rule, the final consonant of the prefix is assimilated
with the initial consonant of the stem, (accompany, affirmative).
French borrowings which came into English after 1650 retain their
spelling, e.g. consonants «p», «t», «s» are not pronounced at the end of
the word (buffet, coup, debris), Specifically French combination of letters
«eau» /ou/ can be found in the borrowings : beau, chateau, troussaeu. Some
of digraphs retain their French pronunciation: ‘ch’ is pronounced as /sh/,
e.g. chic, parachute, ‘qu’ is pronounced as /k/ e.g. bouquet, «ou» is
pronounced as /u:/, e.g. rouge; some letters retain their French
pronunciation, e.g. «i» is pronounced as /i:/, e,g, chic, machine; «g» is
pronounced as /3/, e.g. rouge.
Modern German borrowings also have some peculiarities in their spelling:
common nouns are spelled with a capital letter e.g. Autobahn, Lebensraum;
some vowels and digraphs retain their German pronunciation, e.g. «a» is
pronounced as /a:/ (Dictat), «u» is pronounced as /u:/ (Kuchen), «au» is
pronounced as /au/ (Hausfrau), «ei» is pronounced as /ai/ (Reich); some
consonants are also pronounced in the German way, e.g. «s» before a vowel
is pronounced as /z/ (Sitskrieg), «v» is pronounced as /f/ (Volkswagen),
«w» is pronounced as /v/ , «ch» is pronounced as /h/ (Kuchen).
Non-assimilated borrowings (barbarisms) are borrowings which are used by
Englishmen rather seldom and are non-assimilated, e.g. addio (Italian),
tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita (Italian), duende (Spanish), an homme a
femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.
CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING
TO THE LANGUAGE FROM WHICH THEY WERE BORROWED
ROMANIC BORROWINGS
Latin borrowings.
Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when
the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are such words as:
street, port, wall etc. Many Latin and Greek words came into English during
the Adoption of Christianity in the 6-th century. At this time the Latin
alphabet was borrowed which ousted the Runic alphabet. These borrowings
are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong Latin words: alter,
cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem.
Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English
period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific
words because Latin was the language of science at the time. These words
were not used as frequently as the words of the Old English period,
therefore some of them were partly assimilated grammatically, e.g. formula
- formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, minimum, maximum,
veto etc.
Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. Mostly
they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes. There are
quite a lot of them in medicine (appendicitis, aspirin), in chemistry
(acid, valency, alkali), in technique (engine, antenna, biplane, airdrome),
in politics (socialism, militarism), names of sciences (zoology, physics) .
In philology most of terms are of Greek origin (homonym, archaism,
lexicography).
French borrowings
The influence of French on the English spelling.
The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them came
into English during the Norman conquest. French influenced not only the
vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents were written
by French scribes as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the
ruling class was French. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin
alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations
of letters, e.g. «v» was introduced for the voiced consonant /v/ instead of
«f» in the intervocal position /lufian - love/, the digraph «ch» was
introduced to denote the sound /ch/ instead of the letter «c» / chest/
before front vowels where it had been palatalized, the digraph «sh» was
introduced instead of the combination «sc» to denote the sound /sh/ /ship/,
the digraph «th» was introduced instead of the Runic letters «0» and « »
/this, thing/, the letter «y» was introduced instead of the Runic letter
«3» to denote the sound /j/ /yet/, the digraph «qu» substituted the
combination «cw» to denote the combination of sounds /kw/ /queen/, the
digraph «ou» was introduced to denote the sound /u:/ /house/ (The sound
/u:/ was later on diphthongized and is pronounced /au/ in native words and
fully assimilated borrowings). As it was difficult for French scribes to
copy English texts they substituted the letter «u» before «v», «m», «n» and
the digraph «th» by the letter «o» to escape the combination of many
vertical lines /«sunu» - «son», luvu» - «love»/.
Borrowing of French words.
There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:
a) words relating to government : administer, empire, state, government;
b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier,
battle;
c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence,
barrister;
d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat,
embroidery;
e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl ;
f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast,
to stew.
Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through
French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not
completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these
borrowings:
a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie,
brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville;
b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage,
manouvre;
c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;
d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.
Italian borrowings.
Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many
Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into
English in the 14-th century, it was the word «bank» /from the Italian
«banko» - «bench»/. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the
streets on benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their
benches, it was called «banco rotta» from which the English word «bankrupt»
originated. In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed :
volcano, granite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were
borrowed: manifesto, bulletin.
But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo-
European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian : alto,
baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet,
opera, operette, libretto, piano, violin.
Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention : gazette,
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