Latin Influence on OE

As for Latin it was not the language of a conquered people. It was the language of a highly regarded civilization, one from which the Anglo-Saxon wanted to learn.

The adopted words indicated the new conceptions that the Germanic peoples acquired from the higher civilization. The influence is reflected in the following groups of words, connected with the most widespread activities of the people of that time:

-War: camp (battle), weall (wall), pytt (pit), stræt (road, street), mīl (mile).

-Trade: cēap (bargain; cf. Eng. cheap), mangian (to trade) with its derivatives mangere (monger), mangung (trade, commerce) and mangunghūs (shop), pund (pound), mynet (coin).

-Wine trade: wīn (wine), must (new wine), eced (vinegar), and flasce (flask, bottle).

-Domestic life: cytel (kettle; L. catillus, catīnus), mēse (table), teped (carpet, curtain; L, tapētum), pyle (L. pulvīnus, pillow), cap, sock, silk, purple, chest, sack. -Building: cealc (chalk), copor (copper), pic (pitch), and tigele (tile).

-Religion: Latin influences OE greatly during the conversion of Britain to Roman Christianity beginning in 597. Most of these words have survived in almost the same form in Modern English: abbot, altar, angel, anthem, candle, canon, cleric, deacon, hymn, martyr, noon, nun, offer, organ, pope, priest, psalm, rule, stole, temple, and others.

-Education: school, master, Latin, grammatic(al), verse, meter, gloss, notary (a scribe).

--Food: beet, caul (cabbage), pear, radish, oyster (OE ostre), lobster, cook, plant

-Verbs and adjectives: āspendan (to spend, L. expendere), bemūtian (to exchange, L. mūtāre), sealtian (to dance, L. saltāre), crisp (L. crispus, ‘curly’).

As a result about 450 Latin words appeared in English during the OE period. This number does not include derivatives or proper names. Of them only 350 made their way into general use and can be considered part of the English vocabulary. The word is completely assimilated when it can enter into compounds and be made into other parts of speech just like native words. E.g. 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.

In the place names such elements as –caster, -chester (Lancaster, Manchester), - wich (Greenwich), -port (Portsmouth, Devonport) have Latin origin.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1049