A course In Modern English Lexicology

2 See ‘Semasiology’, § 21, p. 29.
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words pioneer and cadres which are international words have acquired new meanings under the influence of the Russian пионер and кадры.
Sometimes English words acquire additional meanings under the influence of related words having quite different roots, e.g. the political meanings of shock and deviation have come from the Russian ударный and уклон.
Influence of Borrowings on the Lexical Territorial Divergence. Abundant borrowing intensified the difference between the word-stock of the literary national language and dialects. On the one hand, a number of words were borrowed into the literary national language which are not to be found in the dialects (such as literary words, scientific and political terminology, etc.). In a number of cases the dialects have preserved some Anglo-Saxon words which were replaced by borrowings in the literary language. Thus the Scotch dialect has preserved such words as ken —
знать (ОЕ. cennan); eke — добавление (ОЕ. ēаса); eath — гладкий, легкий ( ОE. ēаđе); fleme — обратить в бегство, изгонять (ОЕ. fly-man).
On the other hand, a number of words were borrowed into dialects and are used throughout the country. Thus, the Scottish and Irish dialects have suffered much greater Celtic influence than the literary national language or the Southern dialect, as the Celtic languages were longer spoken in Scotland and Ireland — some sections of the population use them even now. The Irish dialect, for example, has the following words of Celtic origin: shamrock — трилистник, dun — холм, colleen — девушка, shil-lelagh — дубинка, etc. In the Northern, Scottish and Eastern dialects there are many more Scandinavian borrowings than in the national literary language as most Scandinavian settlements were found in the north of the country, e.g. busk — ‘get ready’; fell — ‘h il l’; mun — ‘mouth’; wapen-take — ‘division of shire’.
Some Scandinavian borrowings ousted native words in dialects. Since many of these words were of the same root a great number of etymological doublets appeared, e.g. dag — dew, kirk — church, benk — bench, kist —
chest, garth — yard, loup — leap, etc.
Influence of Borrowings on the Word-Structure, Word-Clusters and the System of Word-Building. The great number of borrowings could not but leave a definite imprint on the morphological structure of words in English. A number of new structural types appeared in the language. This took place when the morphological structure of borrowings, obscured at the time of adoption, became transparent in the course of time and served as a pattern for new formations.1
Among the affixes which can be considered borrowed by English2
some are highly-productive and can combine with native and borrowed items (e.g. re-, inter-, -able, -er, -ism, etc.), others are not so productive 1 See ‘Word-Formation’, § 14, p. 125.
2 Some lists of foreign affixes include 200 — 500 items, although the actual number is much smaller. In these lists no distinction is made between living affixes and those found only in borrowed words which are indivisible in English morphemically and deri-
\ationally, such as L. ab-, ad-, amb-; Gr. ana-, apo-, cata- in words like abstract, admire, ambition, anatomy, etc,
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and combine only with Romanic stems (со-, de-, trans-, -al, -cy, -ic, -ical, etc.), still others are often met with in borrowed words, but do not form any new words in English (-ous, -ive, -ent, etc.).
Some borrowed affixes have even ousted those of native origin, e.g. in Modern English the prefix pre- expressing priority of action has replaced the native prefix fore-, which was highly productive in Middle English and early New English, especially in the 16-17th centuries.
Another imprint of borrowings on “the structural types of words in English is the appearance of a great number of words with bound morphemes, such as tolerate, tolerable, tolerance, toleration, etc.
Clusters of words in English also underwent some changes — both quantitative and qualitative — due to the influx of borrowings. On the one hand, many clusters of words were enlarged. Not only were new derivatives formed with the help of borrowed affixes, but some borrowings entered the clusters of words already existing in English. Mention has already been made of Scandinavian borrowings like drip, tryst.1 Some Latin and French borrowings entered the clusters of words borrowed from Romanic languages before, e.g. when the French borrowings exploitation, mobilisation, militarism, employee, personnel, millionaire were taken over into English in the 19th century, they occupied the position of derivatives of the words exploit, mobilise, etc. borrowed much earlier.
On the other hand, the influx of borrowings in English has changed the very nature of word-clusters which now unite not only words of the same root-morpheme, but also of different synonymous root-morphemes, as in spring — vernal, two — second, dual, sea — maritime, etc.
Influence of Borrowings on the Phonetic Structure of Words and the Sound System. As a result of intense borrowing there appeared in the English language a number of words of new phonetic structure with strange sounds and sound combinations, or familiar sounds in unusual positions. Such are the words with the initial [ps], [pn], [pt] (as in Gr. psilan-thropism) which are used in English alongside with the forms without the initial sound [p].
If there were many borrowed words containing a certain phonetic peculiarity, they influenced to some extent the sound system of the language.
Thus abundant borrowing from French in the Middle English period accounts for the appearance of a new diphthong in English — [oi], which, according to Prof. B. A. Ilyish, could not have developed from any Old English sound or sound combination, but came into English together with such French words as point, joint, poise. The initial [sk], which reappeared in English together with Scandinavian and other borrowings, is nowadays a common beginning for a great number of words.
Abundant borrowing also brought about some changes in the distribution of English sounds, e.g. the Old English variant phonemes [f] and [v]
developed into different phonemes, that is [v] came to be used initially (as in vain, valley, vulgar) and [f] in the intervocal position (as 1 See ‘Etymological Survey ...’, § 5, p. 164. 174
in effect, affect, affair) which was impossible in Old English. The affri-cate [dз], which developed at the beginning of the Middle English period and was found at the end or in the middle of words (as in bridge — OE.
bricz; singe — OE. senczean), under the influence of numerous borrowings came to be used in the initial position (as in jungle, journey, gesture).
1. In spite of the numerous outside linguistic influences and the etymologi-