OLD ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Celtic borrowings

There is, surprisingly, very little Celtic influence - or perhaps it is not so surprising, given the savage way in which the Celtic communities were destroyed or pushed hack into the areas we now know as Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, and the Scottish borders. Some Celts (or Romano-Celts) doubtless remained in the east and south, perhaps as slaves, perhaps intermarrying, but their identity would afrer a few generations have been lost within Anglo-Saxon society. Whatever we might expect from such a period of cultural contact, the Celric language of Roman Britain influenced Old English hardly at all. Only a handful of Celtic words were borrowed at the time, and a few have survived into modern English, sometimes. in regional dialect use: crag, cumb 'deep valley', binn, 'bin', carr 'rock', dunn 'grey, dun', brock 'badger', and torr 'peak'. But there cannot be more than two dozen loan words in all. And there are even very few Celtic-based place names in what is now southern and eastern England. They include such river names as Thames, Avon 'river'. Don, Exe, Usk, and Wye. Town names include Dover 'water'. Eccles 'church', Bray 'hill', London (a tribal name), Kent (meaning unknown), and the use of caer 'fortified place' (as in Carlisle) and pen 'head, top, hill' (as in Pendle).

Latin loans

Latin has been a major influence on English throughout its history, and there is evidence of its role from the earliest moments of contact. The Roman army and merchants gave new names to many local objects and experiences, and introduced several fresh concepts. About half of the new words were to do with plants, animals, food and drink, and household items: Old English pise'pea', plante 'plant', win 'wine', cyse 'cheese', catte 'cat', cetel 'kettle', disc 'dish' candet 'candle'. Other important clusters of words related to clothing (belt 'belt', cernes 'shirr', sutere 'shoemaker'), buildings and settlements (tigle 'tile', weall 'wall', ceaster 'city'), military and legal institutions (wic 'camp', diht 'saying', scrifan 'decree'), commerce (mangian 'trade', ceapian 'buy', pund 'pound'), and religion (munuc 'monk', mynster minster). Whether the Latin words were already used by the Anglo-Saxon tribes on the continent of Europe. or were introduced from within Britain, is not always clear (though a detailed analysis of the sound changes they display can help), but the total number of Latin words present in English at the very beginning of the Anglo-Saxon period is not large -less than 200. Although Vulgar Latin (the variety of spoken Latin used throughout the Empire) must have continued in use - at least, as an official language - for some years after the Roman army left, for some reason it did not take root in Britain as it had so readily done in Continental Europe.

The vocabulary of Old English presents a mixed picture, to those encountering it for the first time. The majority of the words in the Cædmon extract are very close to Modern English – once we allow for the unfamiliar spelling and the unexpected inflections. In the Cædmon text we would have little difficulty recognizing singan as sing or stōd as stood; and ondswarede is quite close to answer and onsepte to asleep, and ȝeleornode to learned. Omitting the ȝe- prefix helps enormously, making -seted more like seated, -seah like saw, and -hyrde like heard. Most of the prepositions and pronouns are identical in form (though not always in meaning): for, from, in, æt('at'), he, him, his. On the other hand, some of the words look very strange, because they have since disappeared from the language. In the Cædmon extract these include gelimplice 'suitable', neata 'cattle', swefn 'dream', bebo- den 'entrusted', and frumsceaft 'creation', as well as some of the grammatical words, such as se 'the'. These examples also illustrate the chief characteristic of the Old English lexicon, the readiness to build up words from a number of parts - a feature which has stayed with English ever since. Frequent use is made of prefixes and suffixes, and compound words are everywhere in evidence. The meaning of these words often emerges quite quickly, once their parts are identified. Thus, endebyrdnesse is a combination of ende 'end' + byrd “birth, rank” + -ness, which conveys the meaning of “arrangement”, or (in the present context) of people “taking their turn”. Gebeorscipe seems to have nothing to do with 'banquet' until we see that it is basically 'beer' + 'ship'. Particular care must be taken with words which look familiar, but whose meaning is different in Modern English. An Anglo Saxon wīf was any woman, married or not. A fugol 'fowl' was any bird, not just a farmyard one. Sōna (soon) meant 'immediately', not 'in a little while'; won (wan) meant 'dark', not 'pale'; and fæst (fast) meant 'firm, fixed', not “rapidly”. These are 'false friends', when translating out of Old English.

WORD-BUILDING

The way Old English vocabulary builds up through the processes of affixation and compounding can be seen by tracing the way a basic form is used throughout the lexicon. (Only a selection of forms is given, and only one possible meaning of each form)

gān/gangan “go”

gang “journey”

Compounding

Prefixation

Not all Old English prefixes have come down into Modern English. Among those which have been lost are ge-,oþ ('away'), niþe- ('down'), and ymb- ('around'). There is a memorial to tō- in today, towards, and together.

SELF-EXPLAINING COMPOUNDS

gōdspel < gōd 'good' + spel 'tidings': “gospel”

sunnandæg< sunnan 'sun's' + dæg'day': “Sunday”

stæfcræft<stæf 'letters' + cræft 'craft': “grammar”

mynstermann< mynster 'monastery' + .mann 'man':”monk”

frumweorc < frum 'beginning' + weorc 'work': “creation”

eorþcræft < eorþ 'earth' + cræft 'craft': “geometry”

rōdfæstnian < rōd 'cross' +fæstnian 'fasten': “crucify”

dægred <dæg 'day' +red 'red': “dawn”

lēōhtfæt <1ēōht 'light' + fæt 'vessel': lamp

tīdymbwlātend <tīd 'time' + ymb 'about' + wlātend 'gaze': “astronomer”

LEXICAL INVASIONS

The history of early English vocabulary is one of repeated invasions with newcomers to the islands bringing their own language with them, and leaving a fair amount of its vocabulary behind when they left or were assimilated. In the Anglo-Saxon period, there were two major influences of this kind - one to do with this world, the other to do with the next.

The effect of Latin

The focus on the next world arrived first, in the form of the Christian missionaries from Ireland and Rome. Not only did they introduce literacy, they brought with them a huge Latin vocabulary. The Anglo-Saxons had of course already encountered Latin as used by the Continental Roman armies and the Romano-British, but only a few Vulgar Latin words had come into Old English as a result. By contrast, the missionary influence resulted in hundreds of new words coming into the language, and motivated many derived forms. The new vocabulary was mainly to do with the Church and its services, theology, and learning, but there were also many biological, domestic, and general words, most of which have survived in Modern English. At the same time, many Old English words were given new, 'Christian' meanings under missionary influence. Heaven, hell, God, Gospel, Easter, Holy Ghost, sin, and several others were semantically refashioned at the time. The loans came in over a long time scale, and differed in character. Up to c.l000, many continued to arrive from spoken Latin, and these tended to relate more to everyday, practical matters. After c. 1000, following the rebirth of learning associated with King Alfred and the 10th-century Benedictine monastic revival, the vocabulary came from classical written sources, and is much more scholarly and technical.

EARLY LATIN LOANS (BEFORE 1000)

Ecclesiastical

abbadissa > abudesse “abbess”

altar > alter “altar”

apostofus > apostol “apostle”

culpa> cylpe “fault”'

missa > mæsse “Mass”

nonnus> none “monk”

offerre > offrian “sacrifice”

praedicare > predician “preach”

scola> scol “school”

General

calendae> calend “month”

cavellum> caul “basket”

epistula >epistol “letter”

fenestra> fenester “window”

lilium > liIie “lily”'

organum> orgel “organ”

picus > pic “pike”

planta > plant “plant”

rosa > rose “rose”

studere> studdian “take care of”

LATE LATIN LOANS (AFTER 1000)

Ecclesiastical

apostata >apostata “apostate”

chrisma> crisma “chrism”

clerlcus> cleric “clerk”

credo> creda “creed”

crucem> cruc “cross”

daemon > demon “demon”

discipulus> discipul “disciple”

paradisus > paradis “paradise”

prior >prior “prior”

sabbatum > sabbat “sabbath”

General

blbliotheca >biblioþece “library”

chorus> chor “choir, chorus”

dec1inare >dec1inian “decline”

delphinus> delfin “dolphin”

grammatica > grammatic “grammar”

hymnus > ymen “hymn”

mechanicus> mechanisc “mechanical”

persicum > persic “peath”

philosophus > philosoph “philosopher”

scutula> scutel “scuttle, dish”

THE KIRKDALE INSCRIPTION

The best surviving example of an inscribed Anglo-Saxon sun-dial, now placed above the south porch of the church at Kirkdale, North Yorkshire. The inscription reads as follows:

Orm – son of Gamal, bought St Gregory's church when it was all ruined and tumbled down and he caused it to be built afresh from the foundation (in honor of) Christ and St Gregory in the days of King Edward and in the days of Earl Tosti. This is the day's sun-marking at every hour. And Hawarh made me and Brand, priest.