Borrowed words History of the Study of Borrowing

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:

1. 
   Indo-European element
   

2. 
   Germanic element
   

3. 
   English proper element (brought by Angles, Saxons and Jutes not earlier than 5th c.
   

A.D.)

The Borrowed Element:

1. 
   Celtic (5-6
   

Th c. A.D.)

2. 
   Latin: 1st group: B.C.
   

2

Nd group: 7 th c. A.D.

3d group: the Renaissance period

3. 
   Scandinavian (8-11 th c. A.D.)
   

4. 
   French: 1. Norman borrowings (11-13th c. A.D.); 2. Parisian borrowings
   

(Renaissance)

5. 
   Greek
   

6. 
   Italian (Renaissance and later)
   

7. 
   Spanish (Renaissance)
   

8. 
   German
   

English is a more varied (and delicious) melting pot than you think …

English—is one of the most incredible, flavorfully-complex melting pots of linguistic ingredients from other countries that’s been left to simmer for (in some cases) centuries. These linguistic ingredients are called loanwords that have been borrowed and incorporated into English. The loanwords are oftentimes so common now, the foreign flavor has been completely lost on speakers.

What usually happens is that English speakers find a word in another language to describe something they don’t yet have a word for. So they “borrow” that word. Forever. That said, loanwords fall into two categories: popular loanwords and learned loanwords. Learned loanwords tend to come from scholarly or specialized fields, like medicine or law. It’s usually easier to see what language these words came from. English, for example, draws from Latin for a lot of medical and legal terms.

It’s not always that cut and dried, though. Sometimes it’s harder to see the line between popular and learned loanwords. The word ballet, for example, comes from French, and the terms for the different positions and steps in ballet have retained their original French names. In this case, ballet is a popular loanword. Most English speakers recognize the word as referring to a type of dance. However, the specialized terms in ballet could also be considered learned loanwords because they’re familiar to dancers and choreographers (who are skilled professionals), but largely unknown to people outside the field.