The Celtic Element in the English Vocabulary
When the invading Anglo-Saxon tribes came to the British Isles and encountered the aboriginal population, the latter did not influence Anglo-Saxon to any serious extent – these were not more than some 10-12 Celtic words. Besides not all of them were originally Celtic. No historian as yet has explained the reason why the Celtic traces in the English vocabulary have been so slight. One of the explanations may be that before the Anglo-Saxons came Britain had been under Roman oppression for about four centuries and the native Celtic population must have been greatly reduced by the Roman invaders. The Roman legions left Britain to defend their capital from the advancing Goths. At the approach of the new invaders the Britons fled to Wales and Cornwall, the Celtic tribes of Ireland accepted the English language and the Celtic tribes of Scotland were influenced in their speech by the Northern form of English. Now the Celtic tongues exist in the form of Welsh, Irish, Gaelic and Highland Scotch and exercise their influence upon the local dialects.
The Celtic element includes such words as crag (rock), dun (greyish-brown), down (hill). There are some geographical names like Kent, Avon (river), Dover (water). Celtic elements are found in such place names as Duncombe, Helcombe ( cum – canyon), Llandaff (llan – church), Inverness (inver – river mouth). Some of the early Latin, French, Spanish borrowings came through Celtic (cloak, car, clock, carry).
On the whole, Celtic borrowings in the English language can be considered of the least importance.
The Classical Element in the English Language
By the classical element we mean Latin and Greek.
Lexicographers have estimated that approximately a quarter of the Latin vocabulary has been taken over by English. But Latin words are not a homogeneous layer. We must distinguish between those borrowed through the immediate contact at the early stages of the development of the language and those later borrowings that came through writing. The first are mostly monosyllabic and denote things of everyday importance while the latter are mostly polysyllabic bookish words. The first are completely assimilated: pea, wine, cup, line.
Borrowings of the 5th century have a military favour about them for the Romans built fortifications, military camps and roads: port, street, wall. All these words got completely assimilated in the English language. Many of the Latin borrowings of this period did not survive but they are sometimes retained in English place-names: Manchester (castra – camp), Greenwich, Harwich (vicus – village).
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Taken together these two periods form the first stratum of Latin borrowings.
The second great stratum of Latin words came into English at the end of the 6th-7th centuries when the people of England were converted to Christianity. Since Latin was the language of the church many Latin words denoting religious concepts came into English: abbot, bishop, candle, mass, temple. Some words changed their meanings. Many Latin words borrowed at that period can be referred to other spheres of life, such as things of everyday life (cap, chest), names of vegetables and plants (beet, plant). Since monasteries were also cultural centres where books were written and translations made such words as school, verse were borrowed.
Another great influx of Latin words came through French after the Norman conquest. They are generally referred to as the 3rd stratum of Latin borrowings. Their original source is Latin and their immediate source is French.
The greatest stream of Latin borrowings poured into the English vocabulary during the period of Renaissance. At that time words belonging to the following spheres were borrowed: terms of philosophy, mathematics, physics (fundamental, vacuum), terms of law and government (alibi, veto), terms of botany (mallow, petal), topographical terms (equator, tropical).
Nowadays when there appears a need to coin some term it is coined from the existing Latin or Greek elements.
Greek borrowings are recognised by their specific spelling (ch – character, ph - philosophy, pn – pneumonia, rh – rhetoric, ist – socialist, ics – mathematics, osis – neurosis).
To a certain extent Greek borrowings were latinized in form with the change of the Greek u into Latin y, the Greek k into the Latin c. When the Latin c changed its pronunciation before e, i, y many Greek words were changed beyond recognition
( kuriakon – church, kyklos – cycle). Some Greek proper names are widely used in Great Britain (Margaret, Sophia, Irene). Many Greek words were borrowed during the period of Renaissance. They belong to the following lexico-semantic fields: literature and art (poet, comedy), lexicology (antonym, dialect, philosophy and mathematics (theory, thesis, diagram), medicine (diagnosis, rheumatism), physics (pneumatic, thermometer).
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