Tendencies in the adjective development.

In OE adj could change case, gender & number. The adj agreed with the N, it modified in all these categories. Unlike N almost any adj could be declined in 2 ways: acc to the weak (-n- steam) & strong declension. It depended on whether the adj was preceded by the definite article or pronoun which modified the same N or not, on the syntactical function of the adj, the degree of comparison. In degrees adj were declined as weak. The comparative suf – -ost- & the superlative –st-.

In ME the disappearance of gr-cal gender in N-s & the reduction of case-endinigs led to a considerable change in adj declension too. The characteristic weak - declension ending –en waws dropped. So the only case ending in adj-s came to be –e. The degrees of com-n are form by –er, est, e.g. words more, most. Which in MnE for dissylabic adj-s.

The vocabulary of Old English was rather extensive. It j_s said to have contained about 50 000 words. These words were mainly native words. They could be divided into a number of strata. The oldest stratum was composed of words coming from the Common Indo-European parent tongue.

Many of these words were inherited by English together with some other Indo-European languages from the same common source, and we shall find related words in various Indo-European languages. Compare:

Old English New English Latin     Russian

modor       mother         mater     мать

Another layer, relatively more recent, was words inherited by English and other Germanic languages from the same common Germanic source. You will find them in many languages, but only those belonging to the Germanic group. Compare:

Old English New English German

eorde        earth         Erde

The third stratum, and that not very extensive, was made up of words that existed only in English, for instance, the word clypian(u> call), the root preserved in the now somewhat obsolete word yclept(named).

The vocabulary was changing all the time, oldwords becoming extinct and new words entering the language, enriching it.

As is known, there are two principal ways of enriching the vocabulary of a language: internal means — those that are inherent in the language itself, and external means, which result from contacts between peoples.

External means of enriching vocabulary (Old English borrowings)

As wo understand, borrowings into a language are a result of contacts with other nations. The Germanic tribes had but few contacts with other nations at the beginning of A.D., consequently the number of borrowed words in Old English was not great. The main borrowings that we can single out in Old English were Latin and Celtic borrowings.

— Latin borrowings

The first Latin borrowings entered the language before the " Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians invaded the British Isles, i.e. at the time when they still lived on the continent. Due to trade relations with their southern powerful neighbour — the Roman empire — Germanic tribes learned a number of products that had been unknown to then, and, consequently, their names. So the first stratum of borrowings are mainly words connected with trade. Many of them are preserved in Modern English, such as:

pound, inch, pepper, cheese, wine, apple, pear, plum, etc.

The second stratum of words was composed of loan Latin words that the Germanic tribes borrowed already on British soil from the romanized Celts, whom they had conquered in the 5* century. Those were words connected with building and architecture, as the preserved nowadays:

tile, street, wall, mill, etc.

They denoted objects which the Germanic invaders encountered on the British Isles.

The third stratum of Latin loan words was composed of* words borrowed after the introduction of the Christian religion. They are generally of a religious nature, such as the present-day words: bishop, devil, apostle, monk.

As Latin was the language of learning at the time, there also entered the language some words that were not directly connected with religion, such as: master, school, palm, lion, tiger, plant, astronomy, etc.

 

Another layer, relatively more recent, was words inherited by English and other Germanic languages from the same common Germanic source. You will find them in many languages, but only those belonging to the Germanic group. Compare:

Old English New English German

eorde        earth         Erde

The third stratum, and that not very extensive, was made up of words that existed only in English, for instance, the word clypian(u> call), the root preserved in the now somewhat obsolete word yclept(named).

As is known, there are two principal ways of enriching the vocabulary of a language: internal means — those that are inherent in the language itself, and external means, which result from contacts between peoples.