The document discusses the various language borrowings in English from Celtic, Scandinavian, French, Latin, Greek, and other languages, detailing historical influences and periods of these borrowings. It highlights the evolution of the English language as it incorporated words from other cultures and languages due to conquests, social changes, and cultural exchanges. Additionally, it notes the changes in the nature of borrowings over time, from core native words to more sophisticated and exotic terms.

1. WORD BORROWINGS IN ENGLISH
1. CELTIC BORROWINGS
Pre-settlement Celtic borrowings
These took place on the continent of Europe, before the Germanic tribes settled in England.
- rice (kingdom) [bishopric]
- dun (hill, mountain) [‘down’] (as in Portsdown Road)
Celtic borrowings on-settlement
Confined to a mere handful, since the original native Celts were displaced or suppressed by
the Germanic invaders.
Names of places, hills, rivers: Avon, Thames, Londinium
- dun, bard, galore
- coomb, Exe-(ter), Cam-(bridge), Devon, Kent
2. SCANDINAVIAN BORROWINGS
Two major invasions of the Vikings : (i) from 750 to the 9th c.,
(ii) from the 9th until the beginning of the 11th c.
Three periods of Scandinavian influence
1. 750 –1016 750 –1016 . Not too many borrowings, because the English and the
Scandinavians were hostile to each other.
2. 1016 – 1050. Very much the same as above. Also, because Alfred the Great had subdued
the Scandinavians and encouraged the development of English
3. 1050 – 1480. After the Norman Conquest, the English and the Scandinavians come
together and interact with each other more closely. Therefore, a massive influence of the
Scandinavian languages on English, in both grammar and vocabulary (over 1,800 words).
The Impact on English
Scandinavian influence on English great, but not EXPERIENCED as very dramatic. For all
intents and purposes, therefore Scandinavian words may be taken as core, native-type words.
They have the same quality, texture as Anglo-Saxon words.
Examples: bag, dirt, fog, knife, flat, low, odd, ugly, want, trust, get, give, take, raise,
smile, they, them, their, though. Also, the verb are (to be)
Reasons:
 The same Germanic racial, cultural and linguistic stock originally. Their language,
therefore, shared common grammatical features and words. But changes had
occurred in the languages during the couple of centuries of separation of the two sets
of people.
 The Scandinavians came to settle, not conquer, pillage, etc. They lived alongside the
Anglo-Saxons on more or less equal terms.
 Under the Norman French, particularly, the two different groups fashioned a
common life together as subjects.
 For these reasons, the impact on the word stock was often not simply in terms of
borrowings but in other ways too.
 Examples:
(a) The English word displaces the cognate Scandinavian word: fisk - fish gayte - goat
(b) The Scandinavian word displaces the cognate English word: egg - eyren
(c) Both remain, but with somewhat different meanings: skirt - shirt skiff - ship scrub -
shrub
(d) The English word remains, but takes on the Scandinavian meaning dream (originally
‘joy’, ‘mirth’, ‘music’, ‘revelry’)
(e) English words that were becoming obsolete were given a new lease of life dale, barn

2. 3. FRENCH BORROWINGS
1066. The impact of the Norman Conquest
Three-fold division of labour among languages
1. LATIN: Lang. of learning and Church
2. FRENCH: Lang. of prestige, administration and polite social intercourse of
society/civilisation. Develops into Anglo-Norman FR.
3. ENGLISH: Low level lang. of menials, in backwoods
Centripetal force towards French
- Dominance and prestige of French
- Norman French introduced a radically new social system: new institutions, relationships and
practices, and a massive change of outlook, a fundamentally different view of reality.
- France on the verge of a great cultural renaissance, the emergence of a very sophisticated,
elegant, graceful, courtly kind of culture, based on elaborated hierarchy, rank.
- Fundamentally different in quality, texture, spirit from the old heroic type of culture.
- Therefore, LOSS of Old English heroic word stock, while the words that were retained from
there were reinterpreted according to the new spirit of the times.
eg King, queen, earl
- MASSIVE ALTERATION of the nature of the English word stock which now loses its
fundamental all-encompassing Germanic character for the FIRST time and begins to become
the mixed language it is today.
Three periods of French borrowings
I.1066-1250: height of Norman power
The language of the King’s court, the nobles’ castles, the courts of law in which Norman
French was the language of honour, chivalry and justice - reflecting the dominance of the
Normans in powerful institutions such as the royal court and the church.
1263: Mathew of Westminster: ‘Whoever was unable to speak French was considered a vile
and contemptible person by the common people.’
The impulse continues for a while but during this first period there was only a trickle of
French borrowings, since English continues be used, largely in its own, low-level arenas.
II. 1250 – 1400: English–French bilingualism
The trickle of French borrowings becomes a FLOOD as historical circumstances lead English
to establish itself in arenas earlier almost exclusively occupied by French.
1204 – Fall of Normandy leading to greater autonomy for England once the dynastic link with
Normandy had been broken.
RESULT: THE REVIVAL OF ENGLISH (late 14th c.)
The Norman French rulers in England (the Capetian dynasty) find themselves saddled with a
socially inferior variety of French, as Parisian French (the lang. of the Angevian dynasty, now
in power) becomes the prestigious language in France. – Decide to be English first and last.
1385 - Richard Pentrich: ‘in all the grammar schools of England, children have abandoned
French and construe and learn in English.’
Borrowings of the first two periods
These reflect the very different society, views of reality, modes of experience, etc.
introduced by French.
Rank: OE: king, queen, earl
FR: count, countess, sire, madame, duke, marquis,
dauphin, viscount, baron, chevalier, servant, master
Administration, etc.: Parliament (cf. OE witagenemot)
Chancellor, government, country, crown
Finance: treasure, wage, poverty
Law: attorney, plaintiff, larceny, fraud, jury, verdict
War: battle, army, castle, tower, siege, banner
Religion: miracle, charity, saint, pardon
Morality, emotions, etc.: virtue, vice, gentle, patience, courage, mercy, courtesy, pity

3. Recreation: falcon, covert, scent, chase, quarry
Art, fashion, etc.: apparel, costume, gown, art, beauty, colour, image, design, cushion,
tapestry
Cuisine: stew, grill, roast, . . . (cf. OE: bake, carve)
English: boar, calf, cow, deer, ox, sheep, swine
French: bacon, mutton, pork, veal, venison
Household Relationships: OE: father, mother, brother, sister (Scandinavian form of
cognate OE sweoster)
FR: uncle, aunt, nephew, cousin
III. 1400 – (STILL GOING ON)
French borrowings of this period very different from those of the first two in quality, texture,
use.
- The borrowings of the first two periods tend to be more elegant, sophisticated, etc.; but not
too far away from the core.
Several quite nativised.
dance, April, native, fine, line vs. machine, élite,
punish, finish vs. finesse
- The borrowings of the third period quite alien, exotic, distant from the core, with attention
being explicitly called to their sophisticated, well-bred, cultivated, even arty ‘French’
texture
ballet, tableau, statuesque, cliché, motif, format, trousseau, lingerie, souffle, hors
d’oevre, rouge, etiquette
- By the 16th, & esp. the 17th C. England was establishing itself as a modern nation state,
economically viable, self- confident, powerful. No longer needed French words - for special
effects.
4. LATIN BORROWINGS
Pre-settlement Latin borrowings
These were Latin words borrowed before the Germanic tribes arrived in Britain. Generally
reflected the superior material culture of the Roman Empire, which had spread across
Europe:
street, wall, candle, chalk, inch, pound, port, camp
Latin borrowings on-settlement
Strangely, the native Celts gave the Germanic settlers several Latin (‘vulgar Latin’) words
which they had developed when they were ruled by the Romans:
sign, pearl, anchor, oil , chest, pear, lettuce
Latin borrowings on the arrival of Christianity
AD 597. Christianity arrived from Rome with St Augustine.
This coincided with the development for the first time of something like the notion of the
state, in the coming together of the warring tribes south of the River Humber in some kind of
a loose ‘union’, overseen by the Bretwalda (‘Ruler of Britain’).
A state needs a writing system – Christianity had such a system.
Therefore, the impact of Latin, the main language of Christianity.
Religion: pope, bishop, monk, nun, cleric, demon, disciple, mass, priest, shrine,
Learning:circul, not(note), paper, scol (school),epistol
The number of borrowings was not as great as might have been expected, however.
Reasons: the comparatively limited impact of the spirit of Christianity and the preservation
of the heroic spirit in AS poetry
Latin borrowings during Norman French times (1580-1660)
Difficult to say whether the borrowings were:
- Direct borrowings from Latin
- Or had come through French
Because Latin was the language of learning among the French too
French suffixes: - ity ( brevity from Latin brevis,
passivity from Latin passivus)

4. - ation (consolation , destination)
- ance (dalliance, variance)
French helped break the resistance of English to foreign (incldg. Latin) borrowings by giving
French suffixes to English together with the French words it gave it. These same suffixes were
also used by French to assimilate Latin borrowings it made. Once they came into English, they
provided a MODEL for English itself to directly borrow and assimilate Latin words in the same
way.
Latin borrowings since the 15th century
Changes the nature of English in a fundamental way
A deluge, following the dawn of the modern order of society and the accompanying
intellectual / philosophical changes that were taking place.
- the rise of PHILOSOPHICAL EMPIRICISM
- the Renaissance
- Printing
New demands on the language - recourse to the western classics to make good the
grammatical, lexical and rhetorical deficiencies of the language.
Large numbers of words poured in from Latin and Greek - mainly learned words introduced
through writing rather than speech – scientific, mathematical, legal, & pertaining to the
liberal arts:
affidavit, apparatus, caveat, corpuscle, compendium, equilibrium, equinox, formula, inertia,
incubate, momentum, molecule, pendulum, premium, stimulus, subtract, vaccinate,
vacuum,
RESULT: the appearance for the first time of the distinction between the LEARNED and the
POPULAR.
- No strong sense of the distinction in Shakespeare
What hands are these? Ha, they pluck at mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune ‘s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand ? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine
Making a green one red.
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
5. GREEK BORROWINGS
One of the ancient languages of learning, and the Roman Empire learned much from the
Greek tradition
Pre-conquest: abbot, monk, priest, apostle, devil
Through French: agony, aristocracy, enthusiasm, metaphor,
Through Latin: ambrosia, nectar, phenomenon, rhapsody
Technical terms: anatomy, barometer, microscope, homeopathy
General vocabulary: fantasy, cathedral, charismatic, idiosyncracy

5. Renaissance and after - modern COINAGES rather than borrowings:
PHOTO- + -graph, -genic, -lysis, -kinesis
BIO- + -ology, -genesis, -metry, -scope
TELE- + -phone, -pathy, -graphic, -scopic
STEREO- + …….. CRYPTO- + . . . . .
HYDRO- + . . . . . . HYPER- + . . . . .
HYPO- + . . . . . . NEO- + . . . . . .
The tendency to borrow rather than create has its social
consequences. The Anglo-Saxon habit of word formation kept
the meaning of a word transparent and was therefore democratic.
You can work out what a new word means because you know the meaning of the parts.
Compounding in OE: breakfast (break + fast)
holiday (holy + day)
woman (wife + man)
blackbird (black + bird)
Foreign vocabulary has often been used to dominate and mystify.
Affixation, compounding and conversion in Modern English:
decarbonise (carbon + ise / de+ carbonise)
miniaturisation (miniature + ise + ation )
Other borrowings
Primarily a result of EMPIRE and TRADE CONTACTS
American: racoon, coyote, prairie, wigwam
Australian: wallaby, kangaroo, boomerang
Arabic: saffron, sequin, tamarind, alchemy, zenith
Persian: naphtha, jasmine, chess, lilac
Japanese: samurai, kimono
Other Asian regions: avatar, yoga, stupa, karma, curry,
bangle, chop, catamaran, mandarin, ketchup, kowtow