Lecture 5

MODERN ENGLISH 1500 up to the present

Historical background The beginnings of ModE are at the same time the beginnings of the Renaissance in England. Many characteristics of ModE had already appeared in the second half of the 15th century. William Caxton (a merchant) introduced the technology of printing in England in 1476. This new invention provided people with more opportunities to write , and gave their work much wider circulation. Within the following 150 years, nearly 20,000 books appeared. The main factor promoting the flood of new publications in the 16th cent. was the renewed interest in the classical languages and literatures, and in the rapidly developing fields of science, medicine and the arts a period lasting from the time of Caxton until around 1650 which came to be called the Renaissance. The period of worldwide explorations was well under way; words from over 50 languages, including several American Indian languages and languages from Asia and Africa. Some words came into English directly; others came by intermediary languages.
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Two stands concerning borrowings:

(a) The purists objected against the influx of foreign words in English. They considered them inkhorn terms and condemned them for their obscurity and for the way they interfered with the development of the English vocabulary. They tried to revive obsolete terms (Chaucerisms) and to use words from the English dialects. (b) The defendants of borrowings pointed out that English had already borrowed extensively in the past, and that all other languages, including Latin and Greek had enriched themselves in this way. 16th cent. compromise: to borrow only in cases where it is absolutely necessary.

Latin borrowings: consolation, gravity, infernal, infidel, position might have come into English via French; expressions like abacus, abecedarium, arbitrator, abdomen, area, compensate, data, denominate, explicit, folio, gradual, gratis, index, item, medium, memento, memorandum, notorious, proviso, ignoramus (we do not know), series, strict, transient, ultimate, urban were taken straight from Latin without major changes. -synonymous: in meaning, as in form, they are no longer associated in the mind of the speaker: chapter capital, frail fragile, poor pauper, ray radius, reason ration, brotherhood fraternity, end terminus, daily diurnal, heaven celestial -nouns and adjectives that are related to one another in meaning are not of the same origin, e.g. egg oval, eye ocular, house domestic, land agrarian, mouth oral, moon lunar, nose nasal, side lateral, son filial, sun solar, ( Noun = Germanic, Adj. =Latin)

-Latin words that had already existed in English in their Norman-French form were reintroduced in their Latin form, but with a different meaning from that of the Norman-French words. Here are a few examples of such doublets:
Latin word abbreviare exemplum fragilem moneta persecutem statum Form derived from Norman-French abridge sample frail money pursue estate Reintroduced form abbreviate example fragile mint persecute state

-Latin abbreviations : a.m. (L. ante meridian) before noon; e.g. (L. exempli gratia) for example; i.e. (L. id est) that is to say; p.m. (L. post meridian) after noon; viz. (L. videlicet) namely, to wit; etc. (L. et cetera) - and so on (this is one of the few Latin abbreviations used unchanged in English).

-Latin technical terms and phrases: a fortiori (for a still stronger reason), ad hoc (for this special purpose only), ad libitum (at pleasure, to any extent), corpus delicti (the basic element of a crime), de facto (actually existing, especially when without lawful authority), editio princeps (first printed edition of a book), ex cathedra, honoris causa, in absentia, in memoriam, in toto (in the whole), infra dignitatem (beneath ones dignity), ipso facto (by the fact itself), non compos mentis (not master of ones mind, mad), per anum, per diem, per se (by or in itself, intrinsically), pro forma, pro tanto (so far to that extent), pro tempore (for the time).

-Some Latin words retained their original meaning in Elizabethan English. e.g. enormous = out of the norm, abnormal extravagant = wandering beyond the path premises = things mentioned previously -On entering the English language, some Latin words maintained their original form: e.g. Climax, appendix, delirium, index, medium, vertebra Other words lost their endings: e.g. to consult(are), to permit(ere), exotic(us), port(us)

Greek borrowings:
Most terms of Greek origin belonged to the spheres of science, mythology, and political life. They have generally acquired an international character. -cases of Greek doublets, such as the following (most of them coming through French and Latin): Greek word blasphmein phantasma phantasia paralysis Older English form blame phantom fancy palsy Later English form blaspheme phantasm phantasy paralysis.

French borrowings -aristocratic life: ball, ballet, beau, billet, intrigue, miniature, serenade, suite. -culture: belles lettres, brochure, connoisseur, critique, editor, memoir, novelist, tableau, etc; -military life: brigadier, bombard, cannonade, espionage, parade; -commercial activity: capital, discount, dividend, insurance, investment, manufacture, currency; -politics: administration (management of public affairs, government), budget (annual estimate of revenue and expenditure of a state), minister (in the sense of political agent accredited by one state to another), premier (prime minister).

Italian loan words -terms relating to literature and arts: cameo, carnival, inferno, lottery, motto, opera, piazza, sonnet, stanza. -terms related to music: alto, allegro, adagio, andante, aria, baritone, basso, cantata, concerto, contralto, crescendo, diminuendo, duet, fugue, falsetto, forte, intermezzo, libretto, madrigal, maestro, operetta, oratorio, rallentando, rondo, staccato, prima donna, solo, sonata, soprano tempo, tenor, trio, violin, violoncello, etc. -more recent borrowings: balcony, balloon, bravo, broccoli, casino, gondola, incognito, influenza, lagoon, lasagna, lava, malaria, motto, macaroni, pergola, portico, pasta, pizza, ravioli, regatta, scope, studio, umbrella, vendetta, volcano, cupola, design, fresco, giraffe, grotto

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Spanish and Portuguese borrowings - alligator, anchovy, apricot, armada, banana, barricade, bilbo, bravado, cannibal, cargo, canoe, cocoa, condor, cockroach (which is the English adaptation of the Spanish cuccaracha), corral, embargo, guitar, hammock, hurricane, maize, marmalade, mosquito, mulatto, potato (from Haiti), port (wine), sombrero, sherry (named after Jerz in Andalusia), tank, tobacco, tomato, (from Mexican), chili (red pepper) and coyote from Mexican, papaw (tropical tree and its fruit), iguana (large South American tree-lizard), savannah, yucca (white-flowered American plant) guava ('tropical tree) from Cuban, alpaca, coca (a shrub from whose leaves cocaine is obtained), llama, pampas, puma, quinine from Peruvian, and jaguar, petunia, poncho from Brazilian Portuguese.

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Dutch borrowings cruise, hoist, yacht, buoy, monsoon, reef, slop (one-masted ship), to swab (to clean the deck of a vessel), aloof, boor (boer), boss, hop (plant), jeer, landscape, easel, frolic, kit (originally a vessel for carrying a soldiers equipment), onslaught, pickle, sketch, smuggle, tattoo drum signal, military entertainment, toy, trick, wagon, wiseacre (sententious, slow-witted person), snuff (powdered tobacco taken by sniffing) brandy (Dutch brandewijn), dope (Dutch doop), bouse, now spelt booze, gin (short for ginger borrowed by the Dutch from Old French, ultimately Latin juniperus juniper) -suffix kin comes from Dutch, e.g. as in manikin (Dutch mannekin), lambkin, pip kin (a small earthenware jar or pot).

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German borrowings

-mineralogy: bismuth, cobalt, gneiss, meerschaum, nickel (originally Kupfernickel) quartz, zinc, etc. -Others: edelweiss, ersatz, hinterland, leitmotiv, poltergeist, rucksack, yodel, plunder, switch, iceberg, master, zigzag, Zeitgeist, Bildungsroman, waltz, etc.

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Indian borrowings

bandanna (richly coloured handkerchief), bangle, bungalow, calico, cashmere, coolie, cot, curry (from Tamil), dungaree (from dungri, a coarse cloth), dinghy (small boat in Bengalese), jungle, jute, khaki (dustcoloured), loot, mongoose (from Marathi), nirvana, nabob, pariah, polo, punch (drink), pundit (Hindi learned Hindu, authority), pajamas (from Hindi), yoga (from Hindi), shampoo (from the Hindi word champo, meaning massage), rajah, rupee, sahib, sari, sepoy (Indian soldier), topi (hat), thug (robber, strangler; it comes from the name of a fraternity of professional murderers who terrorised parts of India during the 1820s).

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Borrowings from other languages MALAY :amok (furious), bamboo, cockatoo, gingham, gong, mango (tree and fruit), mangrove (tree), orangutan (literally wild man of the forest), paddy (rice in the husk), rattan (kind of palm-tree), sago (sort of starch). ARABIC (Persian): check mate (from Al-shah mat the King is dead), caravanserai (a company of pilgrims or merchants travelling together), shawl, tulip (comes from a word meaning turban), bazaar, divan, cotton, calibre, gazelle, harem (literally forbidden), syrup, baksheesh (meant simply a present without implication of greasing the palm), jasmine (in Arabic 'yasmin' became the name of a scent, and hence presumably a name given to girls), whore (Persian houri, literally meaning a gazelle-like woman of Paradise), bint (from saida bint good-day girl/prostitute) TURKISH: by, caftan, afghan, yoghurt, kiosk, fez, caviar, coffee (Turkish kahv, which is said to have meant some kind of wine). From HEBREW, English borrowed words such as: cherub, kosher, seraph, CHINESE borrowings: tea, china, kowtow (Chinese custom of kneeling with the forehead touching the ground), ketchup, typhoon, pidgin (for the quaint jargon so called; the Chinese found difficulty in pronouncing business)

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 AUSTRALIAN: boomerang, kangaroo, wallaby (small kangaroo), wombat (kind of opossum), dingo, budgerigar [a kind of parrot. In England this word is often clipped to budgie). NORTH AMERICAN: tomahawk, wigwam, totem, moccasin, hominy, toboggan.. JAPANESE: kimono, jujitsu (literally pliant art), the geisha girl (originally a dancing person), the ceremonial form of suicide, hara-kiri (a belly-slitting, generally by its owner), rickshaw, karaoke, kimono, sake, samurai HUNGARIAN has enriched the English hotchpotch with the words goulash, paprika, possibly coach (from the town of Kocs where such carriages were first made), vampire, hussar. RUSSIAN: czar, troika, steppe, mammoth. More recent Russian borrowings are Bolshevik, muzhik, pogrom, soviet, kolkhoz, sputnik, vodka, samovar. NORWEGIAN: ski, saga, troll, fjord.

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