ETYMOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ENGLISH WORD-STOCK

Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being

homogeneous. It consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the
borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is
considerably larger than the native stock of words. In fact native words comprise
only 30 % of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native
words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and
writing. Besides the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical
valency, they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and
set expressions.
Borrowed words (or loan words or borrowings) are words taken over
from another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving
language.
In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is practically
indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough etymological analysis
(street, school, face). The number of borrowings in the vocabulary of a language
and the role played by them is determined by the historical development of the
nation speaking the language. The most effective way of borrowing is direct
borrowing from another language as the result of contacts with the people of
another country or with their literature. But a word may also be borrowed
indirectly not from the source language but through another language. When
analysing borrowed words one must distinguish between the two terms - "source of
borrowing" and "origin of borrowing". The first term is applied to the language
from which the word was immediately borrowed, the second - to the language to
which the word may be ultimately traced e.g. table - source of borrowing - French,
origin of borrowing – Latin; elephant - source of borrowing - French, origin-
Egypt: convene - source of borrowing - French, origin-Latin. The closer the two
interacting languages are in structure the easier it is for words of one language to
penetrate into the other.
 There are different ways of classifying the borrowed stock of words. First of
all the borrowed stock of words may be classified according to the nature of the
borrowing itself as borrowings proper, translation loans and semantic loans.
Translation loans are words or expressions formed from the elements
existing in the English language according to the patterns of the source language
(the moment of truth - sp. el momento de la verdad).
A semantic loan is the borrowing of a meaning for a word already existing
in the English language e.g. the compound word shock brigade which existed in
the English language with the meaning "аварийная бригада" acquired a new
meaning "ударная бригада" which it borrowed from the Russian language.
Latin Loans are classified into the subgroups.
1.Early Latin Loans. Those are the words which came into English through the
language of Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman
civilisation and had adopted several Latin words denoting objects belonging to that
civilisation long before the invasion of Angles, Saxons and Jutes into Britain (cup,
kitchen, mill, port, wine).
2.Later Latin Borrowings. To this group belong the words which penetrated the
English vocabulary in the sixth and seventh centuries, when the people of England
were converted to Christianity (priest, bishop, nun, candle).
3.The third period of Latin includes words which came into English due to two
historical events: the Norman conquest in 1066 and the Renaissance or the Revival
of Learning. Some words came into English through French but some were taken
directly from Latin (major, minor, intelligent, permanent).
4.The Latest Stratum of Latin Words. The words of this period are mainly
abstract and scientific words (nylon, molecular, vaccine, phenomenon, vacuum).

Norman-French Borrowings may be subdivided into subgroups:

1.Early loans - 12th - 15th century
2.Later loans - beginning from the 16th century.
The Early French borrowings are simple short words, naturalised in accordance
with the English language system (state, power, war, pen, river) Later French
borrowings can be identified by their peculiarities of form and pronunciation
(regime, police, ballet, scene, bourgeois).
The Etymological Structure of the English Vocabulary:
The Native element:
I. Indo-European element
II. Germanic element
III. English proper element (brought by Angles, Saxons and Jutes not earlier than 5 th c. A.D.)

The Borrowed Element:

I. Celtic (5-6th c. A.D.)
II. Latin: 1st group: B.C.
2nd group: 7 th c. A.D.
3d group: the Renaissance period
III. Scandinavian (8-11 th c. A.D.)
IV. French: 1. Norman borrowings (11-13th c. A.D.); 2. Parisian borrowings (Renaissance)
V. Greek
VI. Italian (Renaissance and later)
VII. Spanish (Renaissance)
VIII. German
IX. Indian and others
 Russian - English lexical correlations
Lexical correlations are defined as lexical units from different languages
which are phonetically and semantically related. Semantically Russian- English
lexical correlations are various. They may denote everyday objects and commonly
used things; brutal -грубый, cold - холодный, ground - грунт, kettle -котел,
kitchen - кухня, money - монета, sister - сeстра, wolf- волк etc.
For instance the word bolshevik was at first indivisible in English, which is
seen from the forms bolshevikism, bolshevikise, bolshevikian entered by some
dictionaries. Later on the word came to be divided into the morphological elements
bolshev-ik. The new morphological division can be accounted for by the existence
of a number of words containing these elements (bolshevism, bolshevist,
bolshevise; sputnik, udarnik, menshevik).
Assimilation is the process of changing the adopted word. The process of
assimilation of borrowings includes changes in sound form of morphological
structure, grammar characteristics, meaning and usage.
Phonetic assimilation comprises changes in sound form and stress. Sounds
that were alien to the English language were fitted into its scheme of sounds, e.g.
In the recent French borrowings communique, cafe the long [e] and [e] are
rendered with the help of [ei]. The accent is usually transferred to the first syllable
in the words from foreign sources.
The degree of phonetic adaptation depends on the period of borrowing: the
earlier the period the more completed this adaptation. While such words as "table",
"plate" borrowed from French in the 8th - 11th centuries can be considered fully
assimilated, later Parisian borrowings (15th c.) such as regime, valise, cafe" are
still pronounced in a French manner.
Grammatical adaption is usually a less lasting process, because in order to
function adequately in the recipient language a borrowing must completely change
its paradigm. Though there are some well-known exceptions as plural forms of
the English Renaissance borrowings - datum pl. data, criterion - pl. criteria and
others.
 The process of semantic assimilation has many forms: narrowing of
meanings (usually polysemantic words are borrowed in one of the meanings);
specialisation or generalisation of meanings, acquiring new meanings in the
recipient language, shifting a primary meaning to the position of a secondary
meaning.
Completely assimilated borrowings are the words, which have undergone all
types of assimilation. Such words are frequently used and are stylistically neutral,
they may occur as dominant words in a synonymic group. They take an active part
in word-formation.
Partially assimilated borrowings are the words which lack one of the types
of assimilation. They are subdivided into the groups:
1) Borrowings not assimilated semantically (e.g. shah, rajah). Such words
usually denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they came.
2) Loan words not assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed from Latin or
Greek which keep their original plural forms (datum - data, phenomenon -
phenomena).
3)Loan words not completely assimilated phonetically. These words contain
peculiarities in stress, combinations of sounds that are not standard for English
(machine, camouflage, tobacco).
4) Loan words not completely assimilated graphically (e.g. ballet, cafe,
cliche).
Barbarisms are words from other languages used by the English people in
conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way, and for which there are
corresponding English equivalents e.g. ciao Italian - good-bye English,
The borrowed stock of the English vocabulary contains not only words but a
great number of suffixes and prefixes. When these first appeared in the English
language they were parts of words and only later began a life of their own as
word-building elements of the English language (-age, -ance, -ess, -merit) This
brought about the creation of hybrid words like shortage, hindrance, lovable and
many others in which a borrowed suffix is joined to a native root. A reverse
process is also possible.
In many cases one and the same word was borrowed twice either from the
same language or from different languages. This accounts for the existence of the
so called etymological doublets like canal - channel (Latin -French), skirt - shirt
(Sc. - English), balsam - halm (Greek - French).
International words. There exist many words that were borrowed by
several languages. Such words are mostly of Latin and Greek origin and convey
notions which are significant in the field of communication in different countries.
Here belong names of sciences (philosophy, physics, chemistry, linguistics), terms
of art (music, theatre, drama, artist, comedy), political terms (politics, policy,
progress). The English language became a source for international sports terms
(football, hockey, cricket, rugby, tennis).

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I.V.Arnorld. The English Word. M,1986.
2. R.S.Ginzburg et.al. A course in Modern English
Lexicology. M,1979.
3. S.S.Hidekel et al .Readings in Modern English
Lexicology .L,1975.
4. J.Buranov,A.Muminov. A practical course in English
Lexicology. Tashkent,1990.
5. А.И.Смирницкий. Лексикология английского
М,1956.
6. Дж. Буранов.Сравнителъная типология английского и тюркских
языков. М, 1983.