09.12.2008.OE Vocabulary

OE vocabulary was quite rich. Some believe that number of words appearing between 2nd

and 11th century in manuscripts is around 30,000. Present estimates of the approximate number of OE words even vary to 100,000 but it is certain that this was a language rich enough to produce poetry from the beginning of the 7th century. It also produced religious manuscript till then of Latin origin. Two main sources of OE vocabulary are native & borrowed words.

The native part of OE vocabulary comprises three main groups of words:words of Indo-European stock, words of common Germanic stock and words of Celtic origin:

1. Words of IE stock constitute the oldest part of the OE vocabulary. They are easy to be recognized because they are similar to the words from other IE languages.* OE verb SITTAN ,5 (strong verb) finds its cognate in Serbian verb SEDETI and in MnE verb to sit.

* Sanskrit BHRĀTAR MnE - NIGHT OE BRŌ OR OE - NIHT Old Chs BRATU Lat – NOX, NOCIS Serbian BRAT MnE BROTHER Germanic BRUDER

Some other examplesof other OE words found in different languages of IE origin are: NAMA, FŌT, HEARTE, LONG, MŌDOR, FæDER, NĒOWEThis limited number of IE words is very frequent in native element of a language.

2. Words of Germanic stock constitute the largest part of the OE vocabulary appearing only in Germanic and not in other languages.

OE HŪS Gmc HOUS (=house)OE EALD Gmc ALT (=old)OE DRINCAN is of Germanic origin; in North DRINKAN

↓one of the 1st instances of k in OE

OE LAND Gmc LAND

3. Words of Celtic origin that are not numerous were frequently used by the Anglo-Saxons and those were mostly place-names of British soil and personal names.

OE ASSA (=ass)OE BINN (=bin)OE TORR (=peak)

OE LLAN (=church; Welsh)OE CUMB (=valley)

place names of Celtic origin: Avon, Thames, city of York, kingdom of Kent ↓

Celtic word ea (=river, water) is present in this name* There are also words of OE stock which are not found in any other Germanic language: HLĀFORD (=lord), FRECA (=hero), CLIPIAN (=call), BRID (=bird), GERĒFA (=reeve)

OE BORROWINGS were the foreign element in OE with a significant influence of:

I Numerous Latin borrowings became part of the OE vocabulary not only during the four-century-long period of Roman occupation of Britain, but also in the course of the Roman influence upon Germanic tribes on the Continent. Latin influence from different historical periods/stages:

1. Continental borrowings adopted by Germanic tribes mostly connected with trade, domestic life and agricultural products, including military terms, too, because they both lived and fought under Romans;

OE COPOR (=copper) OE PUND (=pound)OE CEALC (=chalk) OE MYLEN (=mill)OE CYCENE (=kitchen) OE WĪN (=wine)

2. Loan words that entered OE word-stock through the language of Romanized Celts:

OE WEALL (=wall)OE STRǣT (=street)

3. Third phase of adopting Latin was the period of 6 th and 7th centuries when Anglo-Saxons were Christianized. That was the period of the greatest influence of Latin upon OE when many words related to religion, service and monastic life entered the OE vocabulary:

OE BISCOP (=bishop)OE DĒFOL (=devil)

II The earliest Scandinavian loan-words adopted in OE are those associated with the first Scandinavian attacks on the shores of Britain from the end of 9 th century and the beginning of 10th century. By the end of 11th century Scandinavian borrowings were fully accepted. Terms were mostly connected to domestic life, battle and law:

OE DRENG (=warrior)

OE SCEG MANN(=pirate)OE LAGU (=law)OE ŪTLAGA (=outlaw)OE HŪSBA/ONDA (=house-dweller, husband)OE HITTA (=to hit)OE TAK(K)A (=to take) → NIMAN was fully replaced with TAKA by the 11th century

Number of Scandinavian loans became evident only after the OE period.