Baugh and Cable, Ch 4. FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON OLD ENGLISH The Celtic and Latin influence

4-53 THE CONTACT OF ENGLISH WITH OTHER LANGUAGES In the course of the first 700 years English was brought into contact with the languages of The Celts The Romans The Scandinavians

4-54 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE According to the generally held view Celtic languages have only played a very minor role in the development of the English language. Apart from place names, Celtic influence on Old English is believed to have been restricted to no more than a dozen or so loanwords.

4-54 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE Even though large numbers of the Celts were killed and others fled to the west, A considerable Celtic-speaking population survived until fairly late times. It is likely that many Celts were held as slaves and many Anglo-Saxons took Celtic mates.

4-54 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE The limited contact effects are mainly explained by the relative status of the speakers of Celtic languages and English: the language of a subjugated people could not be expected to have left any significant traces in the speech of the Germanic conquerors.

Celts in Europe - maximum Celtic expansion by the 3rd century BC (light green) - areas that remain Celtic-speaking today (dark green)

4-55 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE – placenames Outside of place names the influence of Celtic on Old English is negligible. WHY PLACENAMES? The greatest number of loans – in the names of rivers and places Thames < Celtic *Tamisa; also Avon, Esk, Usk, Dover Kent < Celtic *Canti, London (most likely, even though the origin is uncertain) Celtic elements in: Duncombe (cumb – a deep valley); Torr, Tornhill (torr – high rock, peak) Latin castra was used in naming places during the Roman occupation (Winchester)

binn 'basket, crib,' crag, cumb 'valley,' torr 'projecting rock,' 4-55 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE There are two main groups of loan words: 1. Popular words that the Anglo-Saxons learned through everyday contact with Celtic natives (transmitted orally, words of popular character): binn 'basket, crib,' crag, cumb 'valley,' torr 'projecting rock,' dun 'dark-colored,' etc.

4-55 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE 2. Those that were introduced through Irish missionaries in the North, more or less learned words. In 563 St Columba came from Ireland and founded a monastery on Iona (Scotland). St. Aidan, a monk of Iona, became the first bishop (635) in Lindisfarne in Northumbria (cf. Viking invasions).

St Colomba 521-597, born probaly in Donegal Ireland (of royal descent)

4-55 THE CELTIC INFLUENCE Ancor ‘hermit’ Cross Clugge ‘bell’ Many of these Celtic words soon died out, others were used locally. The Celtic influence remains the least of the early influences that affected the English language

5-56 Three Latin influences on Old English The second great influence – Latin. Latin was not the language of the conquered people. It was the language of a highly regarded civilization, one from which the Anglo-Saxons wanted to learn. Contact with this civilization (commercial, military, religious, intellectual) extended over many centuries and was constantly renewed.

5-57 Chronological criteria How do linguists determine when a Latin word entered the language? In a large number of cases it is possible to assign a word to a given period with a high degree of probability. 1. Frequency in Old English texts. 2. Phonetic form of the word.          

5-57 Chronological criteria Evidence: the appearance of the word in literature (however, the earliest written records in English do not go back beyond the year 700). The late appearance of a word in literature is no proof of late adoption. Why? (much of OE literature has been lost)

5-58 Latin Influence of the Zero period (continental borrowing) It occurred on the continent before Germanic tribes penetrated into England. Borrowings reflect early contact between Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire (1st -5th centuries AD). Around fifty words came into the language through Germanic contact with Rome before the invasion and settlement of Britain.

5-58 Latin Influence of the Zero period (continental borrowing) War: camp (L. campus) 'battle,' pil (L. pilum) 'javelin,' straet (L. strata) 'road,' mil (L. milia) 'mile;' b. Trade: ceap (L. caupo) 'bargain,' pund (L. pondo) 'pound,' win (L. vinum) 'wine,' mynet (L. moneta) 'mint, coin;'

5-58 Latin Influence of the Zero period (continental borrowing) c. Domestic Life: cuppe (L. cuppa) 'cup,' disc (L. discus) 'dish,' pyle (L. pulvinus) 'pillow,' cycene (L. coquina) 'kitchen,' linen (L. linum) 'linen,' gimm (L. gemma) 'gem;' Foods: ciese (L. caseus) 'cheese,' butere (L. butyrum) 'butter,' pipor (L. piper) 'pepper,' senep (L. sinapi) 'mustard,' cires (L. cerasus) 'cherry,' pise (L. pisum) 'pea,' minte (L. mentha) 'mint.' e. Other: mūl 'mule,' pāwa ‘peacock’, pipe 'pipe,' cirice 'church'

5-59 Influence of the First Period: through Celtic transmission These are Latin words held over from the Roman occupation of Britain which ended in 410 AD) Almost nothing remains outside a few elements found in place names: ceaster (L. castra 'walled encampment') found in names such as Dorchester, Winchester, Manchester, Lancaster wic (L. vicum) 'village,' found in Greenwich, etc.

4-60 Influence of the Second Period: the Christianizing of Britain When Roman missionaries introduced Christianity (7th to 10th centuries AD, attempt to convert the inhabitants to Christianity). Beginning in 597 as a systematic attempt, St. Augustine sent missionaries to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons. The conversion was gradual and lots of churches and monasteries were built.

St. Augustine as depicted by Botticelli, c. 1480

Domestic Life: cap, sock, silk, purple, chest, sack. Examples below are given in modern form since most of these words have altered only slightly in form a. Religion: abbot, alms, altar, angel, anthem, candle, collect, creed, deacon, demon, disciple, hymn, martyr, mass, nun, offer, organ, palm, pope, priest, prime, prophet, psalm, relic, rule, sabbath, temple, tunic. Domestic Life: cap, sock, silk, purple, chest, sack. Foods: lentil, pear, oyster, lobster, mussel, millet.

Examples below are given in modern form since most of these words have altered only slightly in form Plants: coriander, cucumber, ginger, pine, balsam, cedar, cypress, fig, plant. Learning: school, master, Latin, verse, meter, circe, history, paper, title, grammatical, accent. Other: fever, cancer, paralysis, plaster, place, sponge, elephant, scorpion, camel, tiger, giant, talent.

4-66 The Extent of the Influence As a result of the Christianizing of Britain some 450 Latin words appear in English writings before the close of the Old English period. But about one hundred of these were purely learned or retained so much of their foreign character as hardly to be considered part of the English vocabulary.

4-66 The Extent of the Influence Of the 350 words that have a right to be so considered some did not make their way into general use until later—were, in fact, reintroduced later. On the other hand, a large number of them were fully accepted and thoroughly incorporated into the language. The real test of a foreign influence is the degree to which the words that it brought in were assimilated.

4-66 The Extent of the Influence When, for example, the Latin noun planta comes into English as the noun plant and later is made into a verb by the addition of the infinitive ending -ian (plantian) and other inflectional elements, we may feel sure that the word has been assimilated.

4-66 The Extent of the Influence This happened in a number of cases, as in: gemartyrian (to martyr), sealmian (to play on the harp), culpian (to humiliate oneself), fersian (to versify), glêsan (to gloss), and crispian (to curl)

4-66 The Extent of the Influence The use of a foreign word in making compounds is evidence of the same thing. The word church enters into more than forty compounds and derivatives (church-bell, church-book, church-door, etc.).

4-66 The Extent of the Influence The Latin influence of the Second Period was not only extensive but thorough and marks the real beginning of the English habit of freely incorporating foreign elements into its vocabulary.