Classification of borrowing according to the degree assimilation

Borrowings in English                                               

Contemporary English is a unique mixture of Germanic & Romanic elements. This mixing has resulted in the international character of the vocabulary. In the comparison with other languages English possesses great richness of vocabulary.

All languages are mixtures to a greater or lesser extent, but the present day English vocabulary is unique in this respect.

Borrowing – 1) (process) resorting to the word-stock of other languages for words to express new concepts, to further differentiate the existing concepts and to name new objects, etc.; 2) (result) a loan word, borrowed word – a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language. – See Assimilation, Source of borrowing, Origin of borrowing. The following types of borrowings can be distinguished:

· loan words proper – words borrowed from another language and assimilated to this or that extent;

loan translation – 1) (process) borrowing by means of literally translating words or word combinations, by modelling words after foreign patterns; 2) (result) translation loans (calques) – words and expressions formed from the material already existing in the English language but according to patterns taken from another language by way of literal word-for-word or morpheme-for-morpheme translation;

· semantic borrowings/loans – the term is used to denote the development in an English word of a new meaning due to the influence of a related word in another language (e.g. policy) [12; 86]

Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed;

b) according to the degree of assimilation;

c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.    

3.1. Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect                    

There are the following groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans, semantic borrowings and morphemic borrowings.

Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages; they are called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in the borrowed word is substituted by the corresponding sound of the borrowing language. In some cases the spelling is changed. The structure of the word can also be changed. The position of the stress is very often influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm of the word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also changed. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from Italian etc.

Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme) translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical units, to take the bull by the horns  (Latin), fair sex (French), living space (German) etc. Some translation loans appeared in English from Latin already in the Old English period, e.g. Sunday (solis dies). There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: pipe of peace, pale-faced, from German: masterpiece, homesickness, superman.

Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two relative languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g. there are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the meaning to live for the word to dwell which in Old English had the meaning to wander. Or else the meaning дар, подарок for the word gift which in Old English had the meaning выкуп за жену.

Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can find a lot of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system, that is why there are a lot of words - hybrids in English where different morphemes have different origin, e.g. goddess ( native root + Romanic suffix –ess), beautiful (French root + English suffix –ful), unmistakable (English prefix un- + English prefix mis- + Scandinavian root + Romanic suffix –able) etc.

Classification of borrowing according to the degree assimilation

The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following factors:  a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed (if the word belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language belongs it is assimilated easier);                                                                                             b) in what way the word is borrowed: 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, if 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, e. g. capital, service.

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, and 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); 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).

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) and many others.

3.3. 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: church, angel, devil, anthem.

Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English period: memorandum, minimum, maximum, veto etc.

Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. 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 largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them came into English during the Norman Conquest.

 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.

Italian borrowings                                                                                               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, operetta, libretto, piano, violin.

Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention: gazette, incognito, altostrati, fiasco, fascist, dilettante, grotesque, graffitto etc.

Spanish borrowings

Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant. There are the following semantic groups of them:

a) trade terms: cargo, embargo;

b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, guitar;

c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, cocoa, banana, ananas etc.                                                                                                                       

         Germanic borrowings                                               

Scandinavian borrowings

By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.

                                                                                                                                          However there were also many words in the two languages which were different, and some of them were borrowed into English, such nouns as: bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat, ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as : call, die, guess, get, give, scream and many others.

German borrowings

There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt, bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words denoting objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German: iceberg, lobby  and rucksack etc.

In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed: Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber and many others.

Holland borrowings

Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14-th century, such as: freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others.

Besides two main groups of  borrowings (Romanic and Germanic) there are also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak about Russian borrowings, borrowings from the language, which belongs to Slavoninc languages.

Russian borrowings

There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they borrowed words from one language into the other. Among early Russian borrowings there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rouble, copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to nature, such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.

There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik, moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist etc.

After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were borrowed into English, such as: collectivization, udarnik, Komsomol etc and also translation loans, such as: shock worker, collective farm, five-year plan etc.

One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with perestroika, such as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc. [11; 189]

CONCLUSIONS

Investigation of the origin of words is very important, because English is one of the most common languages. With borrowed words we can better understand this or that word, even knowing its translation. Language belongs to each of us. Everyone uses words. What is there in a language that makes people so curious? The answer is that there is almost nothing in our life that is not touched by language. We all speak and we all listen so we are all interested in the origin of words, in how they appear and die. Nowadays 750 million people all over the world use English. It has become the language of the planet.

 Most of words are the same, but there are some differences. For example, lounge is long; agony is ago and so on, but they are a little bit similar in writing, so it is not very difficult to understand them.

The borrowing of vocabulary is rapprochement of nations on the ground of economic, political and cultural connections. The bright example of it can be numerous French borrowings to English language.

 Attempts to continue borrowings in 20th century did not have special success because language became more independent.

 On the opinion of investigators we are managed to study the problems of French borrowings in the English language. We understood possible ways of penetrating French words in the English language, we have seen difference ways of difference types of borrowings.

The role of loan words in the formation and development of English vocabulary is dealt with in the history of the language. It is there that the historical circumstances are discussed under which words borrowed from Latin, from Scandinavian dialects, from Norman and French and many other languages, including Russian, were introduced into English. Lexicology, on the other hand, has in this connection tasks of its own, being chiefly concerned with the material and the results of assimilation.

ANNEXES

Various elements in the English vocabulary      

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Антрушина Г. Б., Афанасьева О. В., Морозова Н. Н. Лексикология английского языка: Учеб. Пособие для студентов. – М.: Дрофа, 1999. – 288с.

2. Аракин В. Д. История английского языка – М.: Физматлит, 1985. - 272с.

3. Арбекова Т. И. Лексикология английского языка: Практический курс. – М.: ЧеРо 1977. – 280с.

4. Бруннер К. История английского языка: В 2т. – 2-е издание – М.: УРСС – 2003 – 720с.

5. Вестник Московского городского пед. университета: Научный педагогический журнал. - №1 (14) март 2007. – М.; Жизнь и мысль. - 2007 – с. 111 – 121.

6. Волохов Ю. К. Деякі особливості лексико-семантичного освоєння словникових запозичень. // Мовознавство – 1974 - №1- с. 80 – 82.

7. Ворожейкин В. В. Французские взаимствования в английском языке // Иностранные языки в школе. – 2004. - №2. – с. 90 – 92.

8. Градобик М. С. Інноваційні процеси в лексиці сучасної англійської мови // Іноземні мови в навчальних закладах. – 2007. - №5/6 – с. 106 – 114.

9.  Дубенец Э. М. Лексикология современного английского языка. – М.: Глосса – Пресс. – 2002. – 192с.

10.   Жилко Н. М. Курс лексикології англійської мови. Конспект лекцій для студентів факультету іноземної філології. – Ніжин – 2004. – с. 15−33. 

11.  Зацний Ю. А. Сучасний англомовний світ і збагачення словникового складу – Л.: Нова книга – 2007. – 224с.

12.  Иванова И. П.История английского языка = A history of the English Language: Учебник: Хрестоматия: Словарь – Санкт-Петербург: Лань – 2001 – 512с.

13.  Іноземна філологія : респ. міжвід. науковий збірник. – Вип. 56 – Л.: Вища школа – 1979. – 152с.

14. Квеселевич Д. І. Практикум з лексикології сучасної англійської мови: Навчальний посібник – В.: Кова книга – 2001 – с.117.

15.  Клименко О. Запозичення в субстандартній англійській мові США // Урок української. - №7 – 2008. – с. 62 – 63.

16.  Маковський М. М. Английская этимология: Учебное пособие для институтов и факультетов иностранных языков. – М.: Высшая школа. – с. 200.

17.  Мигляченко Л. Г. З історії франко-англійських мовних зв'язків // Мовознавство. – 1974 - №1 – с. 77 – 80.