ETYMOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE OLD ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Plan
OLD ENGLISH VOCABULARY
LECTURE 9
Main trends in the replenishment of the English vocabulary
About 85% of OE words died out, though the total number of items in the English lexicon has been multiplied by tens in ME and NE.
It has been claimed that the total number of words in Modern English is estimated to be between 400,000 and 600,000, and many of them have more than one meaning! The nearest language in word count is French with a mere (as in 'a restricted amount', rather than a lake) 150,000.
About 70% of Modern English vocabulary is represented by loan words which have been borrowed from 87 languages. Despite this the language is still basically Germanic and most basic words are still derived from Old English. Taking the body as an example, whilst we may have French spirit, our body still has English arms, legs, hands, feet, head, eyes, ears, nose and mouth, plus brain, liver, lungs.
Most of the increase in the English word stock in ME and NE came from borrowing. By the beginning of the 14th c. English lexicon has been enhanced by a thousand Scandinavian words, by about 10 thousand of French borrowings. In particular there were numerous Latin contributions to English, along with a handful of words from other languages, European and non-European in ME.
Chronologically, the first significant new source of loan words was Scandinavian.
1. Etymological survey of the Old English vocabulary.Native words.
Foreign element in the Old English vocabulary (borrowings from
Celtic. Latin influence on the Old English vocabulary). Etymological
layers of the Old English vocabulary (Table).
2. Word-formation in Old English.Word structure.Ways of word-
formation. Word-derivation.Sound interchanges. Word stress.
Prefixation. Suffixation. Word-composition. Stylistic stratification of
the Old English vocabulary.
Literature
1. Аракин И.Д. Очерки по истории английского языка. – М, 1955.
2. Бруннер К. История английского языка. Перев. с нем. – М.: Иностранная литература, т. I, II, 1956.
3. Верба Л.Г. Історія англійської мови. Посібник для студентів та викладачів вищих навчальних закладів. – Вінниця: НОВА КНИГА, 2006. – 296 с.
4. Введение в германскую филологию. Арсеньева М.Г., Балашова С.П., Берков В.П., Соловьева Л.Н. – М., 1980.
5. Иванова И. П., Беляева Т. М. Хрестоматия по истории англий-ского языка. – Л., 1973.
6. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка. – М., 1976
7. Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. – Л., 1973.
8. Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка. – М., 2005.
9. Смирницкий А.И. История английского языка. Курс лекций. – М., 1965.
The full extent of the OE vocabulary is not known to present-day scholars. There is no doubt that many words have not been recorded in the extant texts at all. The evidence of the records has been supplemented from other sources: from the study of the words of closely related OG languages and from later, more extensive ME texts.
Modern estimates of the total vocabulary of OE range from about thirty thousand words to almost one hundred thousand (A. I. Smirnitsky, M. Pei), ─ the latter figure being probably too high and unrealistic. (Among other causes the differences in the estimates depend on the treatment of polysemy and homonymy. But even the lowest estimates show that OE had already developed about as many words as used by a present-day cultured English speaker.) Despite the gaps in the accessible data, philological studies in the last centuries have given us a fairly complete outline of the OE vocabulary as regards its etymology, word structure, word-building and stylistic differentiation.
Examination of the origin of words is of great interest in establishing the interrelations between languages and linguistic groups. Word etymology throws light on the history of the speaking community and on its contacts with other peoples.
The OE vocabulary was almost purely Germanic; except for a small number of borrowings, it consisted of native words inherited from PG or formed from native roots and affixes.