The Old English vocabulary (etymological survey: native words, borrowings; word formation).
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 912.
Full extend isn't known. ~ 30.000-100.000 words. OE vocabulary is mainly homogeneous. It is purely Germanic wit the exception for a small number borrowed words which form an insignificant part of vocabulary. Native words. 1) Common IE words inherited from the IE parent language constitute the oldest part of the vocabulary. Names of natural phenomenon (mere, mora); Plants and animals (treow); Agriculture (sawan); Human body's parts (beard); Terms of kindship (brothor, sunu); Verbs (beon, don); Adjectives (niwe, lang). 2) Common Germanic words which are shared by most Germanic languages but don't occur outside the group: Nature (eorte); Sea and everyday life (sand, earm, singan). 3) Specifically OE words which can not occur in other Germanic and non-Germanic languages. There are few of them. e.g.: clipan, brid. Compound and derived words which were formed from Germanic roots. e.g.: wifman; hlaford. Compound words denoting posts and institutions. e.g.: scirgerefa. Borrowings. A small part of OE vocabulary which includes: Celtic; Latin. 1) From Celtic (few in number). Place names: Kent, Bernicia (names of kingdoms which derived from names of Celtic tribes.); York (city); London (êðåïîñòü ó ðåêè). Water's and rivers names were understood by the Germanic invaders as proper names (Esk, Osk, Avon). Miscellaneous: cradol; dun; cress. Elements indicating Celtic place names which have survived (comb=deep valley; Batcomb, Winchcomb. pill=creak; Huntspill). Place names with Celtic elements which are hybrids. Celtic + Latin (Manchester, Winchester, Lancaster); Celtic + Germanic (Cornwall, Yorkshire, Canterbury). 2) Latin borrowings. Roman occupation, roman civilization, Christianity developed: the history of England; Vocabulary. The oldest words taken over directly before the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain by the West-Germanic tribes which came and brought Latin words. Trade (ceapian, ceapman); Units of mergement and containers (pund, flasce); Fruit and vegetables (plume, pore, cieres); Articles of trade/agricultural products (win, ciese); Cookery (cyccen, cuppe, disc). During the Roman occupation: Military affairs (mil, weall, straet); Place names (chester, caster, port). 3) Words which directly/indirectly belong to the sphere of religion and church/learning: Christianity (biscop, munuc, cleric, scol, fers, candel). Latin in the OE vocabulary wasn't restricted only to borrowings. There are translations = words created ob the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations. Derived words. Word formation. According to the morphological structure: simple/root words; derived (root + suffix(es)) – beginna, weorthung, uscyli3; compound (more than 1 root): mann-cyn, northweard, scirgerefa. Ways of word-formation: 1) Word derivation. a) Sound interchange accompanied by suffixation: singan-song. Accompanied by palatal mutation: don – deman – domjan. Accompanied by breaking: beran, bearn. b) Word stress to differentiate some parts of speech. e.g.: (n)‘ond'swarian. c) Prefixation – a very productive way. e.g.: a3an; be3an; fore3an. d) Suffixation is the most productive way with nouns and adjectives. e.g.: freedom; cildhad. 2) Word composition (highly productive). Compound nouns and adjectives. Nouns may contain n + n: 3oldmith; adj. + n: cwicseoflor. Adjectives n + adj.: winsaed; adj. + adj.: widcup; adj. + n.: blithheort.