And early 17th centuries English grammar in the 18


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Borrowings
The number of French words, which was borrowed by English, was great. There is nothing comparable to it in the previous or subsequent history of the language. Two stages can be observed, an earlier and, а later, with the year 1250 as the borderline. The borrowings of the first stage differ from. Those of the second in being much less numerous, being more likely to show peculiarities of Anglo-Norman phonology, and, especially, in the circumstances that brought about their introduction (Roughly 900 in number). The largest single group of words was associated with the church; another single group was associated with а French-speaking society.
(1) The Normans became masters of England, and they remained masters for а sufficiently long time to 1еаvе а deep impress on the language. It is true that they left the old words 'king' and 'queen' intact, but apart from these пеаг1у all words relating to government and. to the highest administration are French: government, govern, administer, crown, state, empire, realm, reign, authority, sovereign, majesty, tyrant; oppress , court, parliament, assembly, treaty, alliance, tax, revenue, tally, exchequer; subject, treason, traitor, rebel, exile, liberty; office, chancellor, treasurer, marshal, governor, councilor, minister, warden, mayor, coroner; noble, nobility, peer, prince, princess, duke, duchess, count, countess, marquis, baron, page, squire, courtier, sir, madam, mistress, vassal, peasant, slave.
(2) as ecclesiastical matters were also chiefly under the control of the upper classes; there are many French words connected with the church, such as religion, service, trinity, savior, virgin, saint, relic, abbey, cloister, friar, clergy, parish, sacrifice, homily, altar, miracle, preach, pray, prayer, sermon, feast; rule, lesson, save, 'blame, order, nature; virtue, vice, duty, grace, charity, cruel, chase, desire, jealousy, pity, mercy, discipline, piety, mystery, immortality, vicar, hermitage; crucifix, image, sanctuary, creator, savior, Ха1th, heresy, temptation, damnation; solemn, devout, preach, chant, confess, adore.
(3) The upper classes, as a matter of course, took into their hands the management of military matters; there is а host of French military terms, many of them of very early introduction. Such are war, peace, battle, arms, armour, mail, lance, dart, cutlass, banner, ensign, assault, siege, defence, ambush, retreat, guard, soldier, officer, sergeant, lieutenant, chieftain (captain' and colonel' аrе later), troops, navy, enemy, company, force, march. Some words which are now used very extensively outside the military sphere were without any doubt: at first purely military, such as challenge, danger, escape, aid, prison, gallant, etc.
(4) Another natural consequence of the power of the Norman upper classes is that most of the terms pertaining to the law are of French origin, such as justice, just, judge; suit, sue, plaintiff and defendant, plea, plead, summon, cause, assize, session, attorney, fee, accuse, crime, felony, damage, dower, heritage, property, real estate, tenure, penalty, injury, privilege. Some of these are now hardly to be called technical juridical words, and there are others which belong still more to the ordinary vocabulary of everyday life, but which were undoubtedly at first introduced by lawyers at the time when procedure was conducted, entirely in French; for instance, case, marry, marriage, prove, fault, heir, male and. female, while 'defend' and 'prison' are common to the juridical and the military worlds. There are many French verbs associated with legal processes: sue, implead, accuse, indict, depose, blame, arrest, seize, pledge, arrant, assail, condemn, convict, award, distrain, imprison, banish, acquit, pardon, the names of many crimes and misdemeanors are French: felony, trespass, arson, fraud, libel, slander perjury, adultery, and many others. Suits involving property brought into use such words as property, estate, tenement, chattels, bounds, tenant, dower, legacy, patrimony, heritage, heir, executor, etc.
А variety of new words suggests the innovations made by the French in domestic economy and social life. Improvements in domestic arrangements were implied in such words as recreation, jollity, leisure, рlеаsure, dance, revel, lute, music, melody, chess, checkers, conversation, parlor, wardrobe, closet, pantry, scullery; chase, tournament, pavilion, sport, cards, dice, асе, deuce, trey, size, etc.
The French were the teachers of the English in most things relating to art; not only such words as art, beauty, colour, image, design, figure, ornament, to paint, but also the greater number of the more special words of technical significance are French: arch, tower, pillar, porch, column, aisle, choir, chapel, cloister, palace, castle, manor, mansion, etc. One cannot fail to be struck with the difference between the more elementary occupations (such as English baker, miller, smith, weaver, shoemaker, fisherman, shepherd. and others) and the more fashionable ones (French tailor, mason, painter, carpenter, butcher, and joiner).
(8) Literature is represented by the word itself and by poet, rime, prose, romance, lау, story, chronicle, tragedy, соmedy, prologue, preface, title, volume, chapter, paper, pen, parchment; and learning is represented by study, grammar, logic, geometry, compilation, noun, gender, clause, and many more. Among the sciences medicine has brought in the largest number of early French words still in common use, among them being the word medicine itself, ch1rurgy, physician, surgeon, apothecary, malady, pain, ague, palsy, gout, leper, paralytic, plague, pestilence, anatomy, anatomy, remedy, ointment, balm, alkali, poison.
One has only to glance over а misсе11аneous list of words - nouns, adjectives, and verbs - to realize how universal was the French contribution. For instance, nouns which were already in English by 1300: action, adventure, affection, age, air, bucket, bushel, business, calendar, cheer, city, coast, country, courage, coward, cruelty, damage, deceit, debt, envy, error, face, fame, fault, flower, folly, force, grief, glutton, harlot, hour, jest joy, malice, manner, marriage, metal, mischief, mountain, noise, number, ocean, opinion, order, pair, people, реr11, person, рiесе, point, poverty, powder, quality, quart, rage, reason, river, scandal, seal, season, sign, sound, spirit, square, strife, substance, sum, task, tavern, tempest, unity, use, vision, waste. The same universality is shown in the adjectives: able, active, actual, am1sble, amorous, barren, blank, brief, calm, certain, chief, clear, common, contrary, courageous, courteous, соу, cruel, curious, debonair, double, eager, easy, faint, feeble, fierce, final, firm, foreign, frail, frank, gay, gentle, gracious, hardy, hasty, honest, horrible, innocent, jо11у, large, liberal, luxurious, malicious, mean, moist, natural, nice, obedient, original, perfect, pertinent, plain, poor, precious, principal, probable, proper, рurе, quaint, real, rude, safe, savage, scarce, second, secret, simple, single, sober, solid, special, stout, strange, subtle, sudden, sure, tender, treacherous, universal, usual. А list of the verbs borrowed at the same time shows equal diversity. Examples are: advance, advice, aim, allow, approach, arrange, arrive, betray, carry, change, chase, close, commence, complain, conceal, consider, continue, count, cover, cry, deceive, declare, defeat, defer, defy, delay, desire, destroy, embrace, enclose, endure, enjoy, enter, err, excuse, flatter, flourish, force, forge, form, furnish, grant, increase, inform, join, lmgu1sh, marry, mount, move, murmur, muse, nourish, obey, oblige, observe, pass, рау, pinch, please, practice, praise, prefer, proceed, propose, prove, purify, pursue, quash, quit, receive, refuse, rejo1cе, relieve, remember, reply, rob, satisfy, save, serve, spoil, strive, succeeded, suppose, surprise, tempt, trace, travel, tremble, wait, waste, wince, Finally, the influence of French may be seen in numerous phrases and turns of expression, such as to take leave, to draw near, to hold one’s peace, to do justice, on the point of, according to, subject to, at large, in vain, without fail. In these and other phrases, even when the words are English the pattern is French.
The calculations of French words show that the total number of borrowings adopted during the Мiddle English period was slightly over ten thousand, of these about 75 per cent are still in current use.
It must not be thought that the extensive modification of the English language caused by the Norman Conquest had made of it something else than English. It had absorbed several thousand French words as а natural consequence of а situation in which larger numbers of people were for а time bilingual and then gradually turned from the habitual use of French to the habitual use of English. It had lost а great many native words but basic elements of the vocabulary were still English.
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