An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

brengan, there is a particle,
including not only a particle such as to¯ but also the negator ne, then
the particle intervenes between the two parts of the compound. The first
element may also be placed after the verb. It is possible to group such
constructions into separable and inseparable categories, but there is
also a large group which falls into both categories, often, but not always,
with a difference in meaning. By the very end of the Old English period
there are signs that verbal constructions are about to be lost, only few
types remaining, with the rise of the modern verb-particle construction.
The variation in Old English between inseparable understándan ‘under-
stand’ and separable únderstàndan ‘stand under’ is at most only opaquely
preserved today.
8.5 Latin loans
As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, there was in Old English
only a very limited use of words taken from other languages, i.e.
borrowed or loan words, and those words were primarily from Latin.
Apart from Latin, Old English borrowed words from the Scandinavian
languages after the Viking invasions, from the Celtic languages mostly at
a very early date, and there was also a scattering of forms from the other
Germanic languages. At the very end of the period we begin to see the
first loan words from Norman French.
The obvious place to start, therefore, is with Latin. Writers often talk
about Latin loans being in three groups: (1) continental period; (2) settle-
ment period; (3) Christian period. In fact it is probably preferable to
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divide the last of these into two further periods, but I shall discuss that
later. Firstly, however, let us examine the first group. This consists of
words borrowed into one or more different Germanic dialects, including
the predecessors of Old English, from about the time of Julius Caesar
onwards. Clearly they are the result of contact between the Germanic
tribes and the expanding and dominating Roman Empire. These loan
words come from diverse areas of vocabulary (although in terms of
grammar nouns greatly predominate, but this is the case with all loans
during the Old English period), which is a good indication of the wide-
spread influence of the Empire. A representative listing of words would
include, perhaps, candel, ‘candle’, catte ‘cat’, elpend ‘elephant’, planta
‘plant’, stræ¯t ‘road’ and, a verbal example, c
.
ypan ‘buy’. Many such
examples come not from classical Latin, but from Vulgar Latin, the form
of the language likely to have been used by the ordinary soldiers and
camp-followers.
It is estimated that Old English contained about 170 Latin loans due
to pre-settlement, that is continental, borrowing. During the first two or
three centuries following the settlement of Britain, rather fewer Latin
loans were borrowed. If the withdrawal of the Roman Empire in 410 was
accompanied by the immediate loss of Latin as the official language,
then the number of new loans accepted by the new Germanic invaders
would have been minimal. But even if Latin remained, as is perhaps
more likely, at least for a time, it would, in Britain, have been associated
in the minds of the new invaders with a subordinate group, namely the
Celtic aristocracy and a few Latin speakers left behind in towns. The
extent to which the settlement period should be distinguished from
the continental period remains an open question. A few words certainly
stem from this time, of which the best known is undoubtedly c
.
easter
‘castle’, because of its frequent use in place-names.
I mentioned above that loans from the period of Christianity can
usefully be divided into two groups. The first group belongs to the first
two or three centuries after the wholesale adoption of Christianity in the
seventh century. The Latin loans borrowed in this period are mostly of a
political nature, that is to say they tend to be forms associated with the
organisation of the church, rather than with the concepts of the new faith
itself. Thus we find words such as abbod ‘abbot’, mæsse ‘mass’, offrian ‘offer’.
An extension of this consists of words related to learning, for example