Ministry of higher and secondary

CLASSIFICATION OF LOANWORDS

There were three distinct occasions before the end of the Old English period when Latin loans came into the English language.

1. 
   Continental borrowing before the migration of the Anglo-Saxons to England.
   
2. 
   Early Latin borrowings during the settlement period (Latin through Celtic transmission). 3) Borrowings in connection with the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons after ca 600/650. This last period may be subdivided into the time before and after the Benedictine reform.
   

Each period has a specific character of loanwords [22, 45-46].
The first period was the one when the Germanic tribes who were living on the Continent came into contact with the Romans. After Julius Caesar had conquered Gaul, Roman merchants had travelled as far as Scandinavia. This resulted in a greater degree of intercourse between Germanic and Roman tribes [ 19 , 213 ] . Contacts between the two peoples were not always peaceful in the beginning, but they gradually became peaceful. More and more members of the Germanic tribes joined the Roman army, the consequence of which was that these German soldiers and their families became familiar with Latin military words. Latin words denoting plants and animals they had not seen before, as well as names of objects that were used in the camp came into the various Germanic
dialects. The Roman merchant followed the army. He sold his goods, e.g. dresses, ornaments, jewels, plant products and household vessels from the south. Settlers also stayed, and they introduced building terms. According to Hogg, it is estimated that about 170 lexical items were borrowed during the continental period. From these, roughly 30 per cent denote plants and animals, 20 per cent food, vessels, household items, 12 per cent buildings, building material, settlements, 12 per cent dress, 9 per cent military and legal institutions, 9 per cent commercial activities, 3 per cent miscellaneous other phenomena [13, 125].
It is important to mention here the feet that there are no written records from this period. The reason for this is that Proto-Germanic was a spoken language. We know about the borrowing of Latin words from the analysis of sound changes [ 14,55 ].
List of the various kinds of loanwords adopted during this first period:

1. 
   words related to agriculture and war: camp ‘battle’ < L campus; weall
   

‘wall’ < L vallus; street ‘road, street’ < L strata; mil ‘mile’ < L mile.

2. 
   words connected with trade are more numerous: pund ‘pound’ < Lpondus; mynet ‘coin’ < L moneta.
   

Wine trade was one of the most important commercial branches: win ‘wine’
< L vinum; must ‘new wine’ < L mustum; eced ‘vinegar’ < L acetum; flasce ‘flask, bottle’ < LLflasconem.

3. 
   words relating to domestic life and household articles:
   

cytel ‘kettle’ < L catillus; mese ‘table’ < VL mesa; teped ‘carpet, curtain’ < L ta- petum; cycene ‘kitchen’ < L coquina; cuppe ‘cup’ < L cuppa; disc ‘dish’ < L discus.

4. 
   words related to dress:
   

belt ‘belt’ < L balteus; cemes ‘shirt’ < camisia; side ‘silk’ < VL seda < L
seta; sutere ‘shoemaker’ < L sutor [5, 222].
The second period of Latin influence occurred during the settlement period after ca. 450 until the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons, which started at the
end of the sixth century. After about 410, the use of Latin began to decline. The reason for this was that only those Britons used it who belonged to the upper classes and those who lived in the cities and towns. There was no opportunity for direct contact between Latin and Old English. This meant that the Latin words which came into Old English during this second period arrived through Celtic transmission. The Celtic influence on Old English vocabulary had been very slight, which meant that the Latin loans that were transmitted by the Britons were also very small. Let us have a look at a few examples: ceaster < castra, cf. Chester, Colchester, Manchester, etc.; port ‘harbour, town’ < por- tus, porta; wic ‘village’ < vicus; munt ‘mountain’ < montem; torr ‘tower, rock’
< turns [12, 98].
The loanwords of the first and second period came into English mainly orally. This is why there are no literary remains from the pre-Christian period. In Beowulf, however, Christian and pagan elements are mixed. Christian words were not unknown to the people before their conversion. There is evidence that they knew some terminol- ogy. The word church is one of the earliest loans that belong here. In Old English it was cirice, cyrice. It is from Greek kuriakon ’(house) of the Lord’, or rather the plural ku- riaka. Christianity became the official religion of the Empire in 313, and from this time the Germans invaded Christian churches. This was the reason for their becoming famil- iar with the word. Jespersen (1967: 37-8) lists some other words that belong to this very early period: Minster, OE mynster