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Masimova Lale,
Ph.D., Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University E-mail: [email protected]
WORDS OF NATIVE ORIGIN IN ENGLISH. THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH WORDS. COMMON INDO-EUROPEAN AND GERMANIC WORD-STOCK. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF NATIVE WORDS
Abstract: As English appertains to the Indo-European family of languages, it is interrelation to most other languages spoken in Europe and western countries is ubiquitous. This current article sheds lights on the matter of origin of English word stock and their fundamental peculiarities as well as by taking into consideration idiosyncrasies vis-à-vis Common Indo European and Germanic word storage. English is one of the world's most outstanding languages. Its history is interesting for couple of reasons, its flexibility in borrowing from other languages inclusive, a flexibility that has enriched its vocabulary over the centuries. The native language, called Proto-Indo-European, was spoken roughly 5,000 years ago by nomads believed to have roamed in the southeast European territories. Despite its close relation to English, German remains far more conservative than English in its retention of a fairly elaborate system of inflections. Due to etymology, the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogeneous. Whereas, clarifying the original word stock more precisely, it becomes apparent that the word-stock of English composed of two main sets - native and borrowed which may also be called as loanwords. Native words constitute high percentage of the most frequent words in English. They may be characterized by a high lexical and grammatical valiancy, high frequency and developed polysemy. They are often monosyllabic, have great word building power and enter a number of set expressions. The words of roots which belong to Indo-European elements common to all or most languages of the Indo-European group. English words peculiar to this group denote elementary concepts under circumstances which no human communication would be possible and express the most vital, important and frequently used concepts.
Keywords: Indo-European family of languages, the borrowed and native word stock, words of Common Germanic origin, source of borrowing, international words, eponymy, flexibility of function.
The origin of English words: Due to its versatile word-stock the English language has demonstrated a long way by having close contact with several other languages. Those languages are specifically Latin, French and Old Norse or Scandinavian. A number of Investigations that have been carried out have indicated that the flow of borrowings has been steady and uninterrupted. The greatest number has come from French origin (e.g. ice cream, sunray, jellyfish,
killjoy, lifeguard, and passageway). They are applicable to various fields of social-political, scientific and cultural life. A large portion of borrowings is affiliated with mainly scientific and technical terms. The number and character of borrowings do not only depend on the historical conditions, on the nature and length of the contacts, but also on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of languages concerned. The closer the languages, the deeper and
more versatile is the influence. This largely accounts for the well-marked contrast between the French and the Scandinavian influence on the English language. Therefore, under the influence of the Scandinavian languages, which were closely related to Old English, some classes ofwords were borrowed that could not have been adopted from non-related or distantly related languages (the pronouns they, their, them, for instance); a number of Scandinavian borrowings were felt as derived from native words.
The borrowed and native word stock of English language
Etymology is a neither rhetorical nor literary device. Etymology is a science whose major aim to investigate word histories as well as dealing with the origin of words.As aforementioned the word-stock of English is represented by native words (25% of the whole vocabulary) and borrowed words (75% of the whole vocabulary).
The most striking feature of English is usually observed in its mixed character. Many linguists consider foreign influence, especially that of French, to be the most important factor in the history of English. This wide-spread viewpoint is supported only by the evidence of the English word-stock, as its grammar and phonetic systems are very stable and not easily influenced by other languages.
For the purpose of comprehending complicated nature of the English vocabulary and its historical development it is essentially considerable to examine the following four notions:
1) etymology of different layers
2) the historical causes of their appearance
3) their volume and role
4) the comparative importance of native and borrowed elements
Above accentuated factors play an utmost role in enriching English vocabulary.
According to their origin words can be native and borrowed. A native word is a word which belongs to the original English stock as known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period.
A native word is a word which belongs to the original English word stock, as known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period. In linguistic literature the term 'native' is conventionally used to denote words ofAnglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles from the continent in the 5th century by the Germanic tribes-the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. Practically, however, the term is often applied to words whose origin cannot be traced to any other language. Therefore. interpretation may have somewhat more reliable criteria behind it, but it seems to have the same drawback-both viewpoints present the native element in English as static.
Up to the point native words are subdivided into two principial groups:
1) words of the Common Indo-European word stock;
2) words of the Common Germanic origin.
Words of the Indo-European stock have cognates
(parallels) in different Indo-European languages: Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Polish, Russian and others. The words those which having cognates in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages form the oldest layer. It has been supervised that they readily fall into definite semantic groups. Among them we find terms of kinship (mother, father, son, daughter), names of animals and birds (cat, wolf, goose), parts ofhuman body (arm, eye). Some of the most frequent verbs belong to this word stock: come, sit, stand. Most numerals are also of the Indo-European origin.
Subsequently, a bigger part of the native vocabulary consists of the words of the Common Germanic word stock. Such nouns as summer, winter, rain, ice, hat; the verbs to bake, to buy, to make, to meet; the adjectives deaf, dead, deep are of the Common Germanic origin. Most adverbs and pronouns also belong here.
Together with the words of the Common Indo-European stock the Common Germanic words form the bulk of the most frequent elements used in any style of speech.
Majority of the native words have experienced great changes in their semantic structure, and in a consequence are nowadays polysemantic. They may be characterized by the following features:
1) a high lexical and grammatical valency (ability to combine with other words)
2) high frequency and developed polysemy.
They are often monosyllabic, have great word
building power and enter a number of set expressions.
Diachronically native words are subdivided into three main groups:
1. Words of the Indo-European origin. Indo-European elements are meant words of roots common to all or most languages of the Indo-European group. English words of this group denote eleman-tary concepts without which no human communication would be possible and express the most vital, important and frequently used concepts.
The following semantic groups can be identified:
- family relations -kinship terms,
- words naming the most important objects and phenomena of nature,
- names of animals and plants, e.g. goose, wolf, cow,
- words denoting parts of the human body, e.g. ear, tooth, eye,
- words naming concrete physical properties and qualities (including some adjectives denoting colour), e.g. hard, quick, slow, red, white, new;
- numerals from one to a hundred,
- pronouns' (personal, demonstrative, interrogative)
- some of the most frequent verbs, e.g. hear, do, be, sit, eat, know, stand and others.
Words of Common Germanic origin
The Common Germanic stock includes words having parallels in German, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic.
It contains a great number of semantic groups some ofwhich are the same as in the Indo-European group of native words:
- nouns denoting parts of the human body, e.g. head, hand, arm, bone, finger;
- nouns denoting periods of time (seasons of the year), e.g. summer, winter, spring, time, week; (autumn is a French borrowing).
- words naming natural phenomena, e.g. storm, rain, flood, ice, ground, sea, frost, earth;
The term borrowing is used in linguistics to denote the process of adopting words from other languages and also the result of this process in the language material itself.
A borrowed word or a borrowings is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language.
English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion, the adoption of Cristianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and cultural relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The majorities of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from native words.
English continues to take in foreign words, but now the quantity of borrowings is not as plethora as it was before. Even more so, English now has become a «giving» language.
Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:
a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,
b)according to the degree of assimilation (partial or total conformation to the phonetically, graphical and morphological standards of the English language and its semantic system),
c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed. (In this classification, only the main languages from which words were borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian).
Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between people) and through written speech (through books, newspapers, etc.). Oral borrowings took place in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowings have gained importance. Words borrowed orally are usually short and they undergo considerable changes during the act of adoption.
Written borrowings preserve their spelling and peculiarities of their sound form, their assimilation is a long process.
Borrowings may be direct or indirect, i.e. through another language. Such languages-intermediaries were, for example, Latin through which many Greek words came into the English language and French by means of which many Latin words were borrowed.
Thus, there should be a noticeable differentiation made between the term 'source of borrowing' and the term 'origin of borrowing'. The first should be applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English. The second refers to the language to which the word may be traced.
Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral and written speech. Oral borrowing took place chiefly in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowing gained importance. Words borrowed orally are usually short and they undergo more changes in the act of adoption. Written borrowings preserve their spelling.
Borrowings can be borrowed in two ways:
1) through transcription (football, trailer, jeans)
2) transliteration (cruise, motel, club).
Besides there can be loan words (blue stocking,
collective farm).
International words
There exist overwhelming number ofwords that are multilingual which have been borrowed from several languages. Such words basically refer to Latin and Greek origin and convey notions which are unequivocally significant in the field of communication in different countries. This list comprises:
1) the names of sciences philosophy, physics, chemistry, linguistics,
2) terms of art, e.g., music, theatre, drama, artist, comedy,
The English language became a source for international sports terms, e.g., football, hockey, cricket, rugby, tennis.
Eponymy
Every language has words that have not been borrowed from other languages but that have developed with the language over time. These are called native words. Words are arbitrary, but we know that is not strictly true. The form of the word must fit the phonology of the language. Companies spend a lot of money trying to find exactly the right sound and letter combination for their product. Kodak is an example of a brand name that has became a general synonym for camera. List as many other brand names which have become general terms as you can. Why have they been incorporated into the general lexicon in this way? Can you think of other examples of individuals who have coined words for the language?
The word boycott is also based on the name of a real person, Captain Boycott, a retired British army captain who oversaw estates in Ireland and refused to give humanitarian concessions to his Irish tenants. They hated him so much that they ostracized him and boycott became a synonym for rejection and isolation.
Place names can become common words. Camembert (cheese) and limousine are named after places in France. Charleston, the dance, is also the name of an American city. In science eponyms abound, and a definite etiquette governs how eponyms are used from field to field. In astronomy, comets are named for the first person who observes them.
An eponym is a word derived from the name of a real, fictional, mythical or spurious character, person or place. Most eponyms originate from a person's surname.
Flexibility of function:
To make a further addition the simplicity of inflections, English has got two other basic characteristics:
• flexibility of function;
• openness of vocabulary.
Flexibility of function has grown over the last five centuries as a consequence of the loss of inflections. Words formerly distinguished as nouns or verbs by differences in their forms are now often used as both nouns and verbs. One can speak, for example, ofplanning a table or tabling a plan, booking a place or placing a book, lifting a thumb or thumbing a lift. In the other Indo-European languages, apart from rare exceptions in Scandinavian languages, nouns and verbs are never identical because of the necessity of separate noun and verb endings. In English, forms for traditional pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs can also function as nouns; adjectives and adverbs as verbs; and nouns, pronouns, and adverbs as adjectives. One speaks in English of the Frankfurt Book Fair, but in German one must add the suffix -er to the place-name and put attributive and noun together as a compound. In French one has no choice except constructing a phrase involving the use of two prepositions: Foire du Livre de Frankfort. In English it is now possible to deploy a plural noun as adjunct
(modifier), as in wages board and sports editor; or even a conjunctional group, as in prices and incomes policy and parks and gardens.
Conclusion:
Language is a living thing as it grows and is exposed to alternations made by human negotiations through which obtained by interactions via contact with several languages by borrowing a number of words from one another's lexicon, and meanwhile, it can also go extinct. A language becomes moribund when people relinquish to learn it. After that, it can go extinct in a matter of decades. A language doesn't become extinct until the last person to speak it dies. It is undeniable fact that English vocabulary, which is one of the most extensive amongst the world's languages contains an immense number of words of foreign origin. It goes without saying that the English proper element also contains all the later formations, that is, words which were made after the 5th century according to English word-building patterns both from native and borrowed morphemes. The native element in English comprises a large number of high-frequency words like the articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries and, also, words denoting everyday objects and ideas. Following this further, the grammatical structure is essentially Germanic having remained unaffected by foreign influence.
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