The OE vocabulary and its etymological characteristics Native
The OE vocabulary and its etymological characteristics Native words Comm West on IE on Germa nic Borrowings Specifi cally OE Celtic Latin Norse
Common IE Nouns: - fæder, mōdor, dohtor, sweostar, sunu - heorte, nosu, tōð, fōt Adjectives: - rea: d, mycel, nīwe Numerals Pronouns: ic, þū, wē, sē, hwā Verbs: standan, sittan, etan, bēōn n
n - Common Germanic: hēāfod, hand, finger cealf gear, wicu, tīma, dæg, sumor hūs, rum grēn, bleo lŷtel, hēāh hīēran, sēōn, sprecan
n - Specifically OE: wimman (wīf + mann) hlāford (hlāf +weard) ealne weg (eal + weg)
Word-formation n simple words derived words compound words
Ways of word formation Derivation Prefixation Verbs (Nouns, adjectives) Word composition Suffixation Nouns adjectives
Prefixes n n n ā-, be-, fore-, ge-, ofer-, ungān – go ā-gān – go away be- gān – go round fore- gān – precede ofergān – pass over
Noun suffixes -end (frēond) (dead suffix) n –ere: fiscere, bōcere (fisher, baker) n Feminine of –ere - –ester webbestre n dōm, scipe, hād n
Noun suffixes n n –ing: cyning, Centing þ: lang- lengþu strong – strengþu Ung/-ing wilnian – wilnung n
Suffixes to form adjectives n n n n ig (hālig) -isc (English) -ede (hōcede- hooked) -sum -en - lic + -e turned the adjective into an adverb frēondlic- frēondlice.
Adjectives used as suffixes: n full n lēas – “deprived of” (less): sāwollēas (lifeless) n
Word composition n n eorþcræft – geometry hūsbonda hāligdæg – gōdspel – gospel (spel – tidings – news), sunnandæg – sun’s +day
1. What are three etymological layers that compose the OE vocabulary? 1. Point out 3 levels of Latin borrowing into OE. n
2. What was the most productive way of word derivation in OE? 2. What are the means of enriching vocabulary in any language?
Loan words (borrowings) Latin borrowings – 2 layers: - before the migration of the Germanic tribes to the British Isles and then through Celtic - religious vocabulary Celtic borrowings
OE in Modern English n n 24, 000 different lexical items in OE corpus About 85 per cent of OE words are no longer in use now 3 per cent of the words in OE are loan words Today 70 per cent are loan words
n n 50% of loan words are Latin and French influx
Anglo-Saxon vocabulary today n n n grammatical words lexical words affixes (mis-, un-, -ness, -less) million-word Brown University corpus Scandinavian: they are Romance: 105 (just) and 107 (people).
- Slides: 18