Borrowings are taken over from another language and modifi ed in sounding, spelling, and paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language. According to many linguists, the percentage of borrowings in English is up to 70 %, and 30 % of the words are native. However, according to I.V. Arnold, “although the mixed character of the English vocabulary belongs to word-formation and semantic changes patterned according to the specifi c features of the English language system. This system absorbed and remodelled the vast majority of loan words according to its own standards, so that it is sometimes diffi cult to tell an old borrowing from a native word” [Arnold, 2012: 96].
Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech and through written speech ( through books, newspapers, etc.). Oral borrowings took place in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowings have gained importance. Borrowings may be direct or indirect, i.e. through another language. For example, Latin through which many Greek words came into the English language and French by means of which many Latin words were borrowed. In the fi rst century B.C. most of the territory now known to us as Europe was occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of continent were Germanic tribes, called ‘barbarians’ by arrogant Romans. They had really a rather primitive stage of development compared with the high civilization of Rome. They were primitive cattle-breeders and knew nothing about land cultivation. Their language contained only Indo-European and Germanic elements. After a number of wars between the Germanic tribes and the Romans, these two opposing peoples came into peaceful contact. Trade is carried on, and the Germanic people gain knowledge of new things. They learn how to make butter and cheese and, as there are no words for these products in their tribal languages, they are to use the Latin words to name them. They also borrow the names of some fruits and vegetables such as cherry, pear, plum, pea, beet, and pepper. The word plant is also a Latin borrowing of this period. There were numerous scientifi c and artistic terms like datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music, of which the words philosophy, phenomenon, method, music were borrowed into English from Latin and had earlier come into Latin from Greek. From the end of the 8th c. to the middle of the 11th c. England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which inevitably left their trace on English vocabulary. Here are some examples of early Scandinavian borrowings: call, take, cast, die, law, husband, window, ill, loose, low, and weak. Some of the words of this group are easily recognizable as Scandinavian borrowings by the initial skcombination, e.g. sky, skill, ski, skirt etc. England became a bilingual country, and the impact of the French language on the English vocabulary is huge. French words penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief list of examples of Norman French borrowings:
Administrative words: state, government, parliament, council, power, empire.
Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.
Military terms: army, war, soldier, offi cer, battle, enemy.
Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil.
Numerous terms of everyday life were also borrowed from French in this period: e.g. table, plate, saucer, diner, supper, river, autumn, uncle, etc.
The Renaissance Period in England, as in all European countries, this period was marked by significant developments in science, art, and culture and, also, by a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. This time they came from the Parisian dialect of French and are known as Parisian borrowings. Examples: regime, routine, police, ballet, matinee, scene, bourgeois, etc. However, they are different from Norman French borrowings in that the former have for a long time been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English language; the words, as table, plate, courage, chivalry, bear no phonetic traces of their French origin. Contemporary English is a unique mixture of many languages and this mixing has resulted in the international character of the vocabulary. For example, the new borrowed word ‘parkour’– (free running) has the French origin parcuors du combat, a type of military training. In English ‘parkour’ means the sport of moving through a city by running jumping, and climbing under, around things. New English has borrowed the Japanese words: kaizen in the meaning ‘continuous improvement’ in business and karaoke, a combination of two words kara-(meaning empty) and oke – as the English word ‘orchestra’. English has proven accommodating to words from many languages, in 17-19 centuries due to the establishing of cultural, trade relations many words were borrowed from Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German and other languages. Especially Italian borrowings are famous by its infl uence in music in all Indo-European languages: libretto, violin, opera, operetta, alarm, piano, tenor, solo, duet, trio, basso.
In the comparison with other languages English possesses great richness of vocabulary. Today the English language contains words from different sources. They have developed naturally over the course of centuries from ancestral languages and they are also borrowed from other languages: Spanish: hurricane, tomato, tobacco, chocolate.
Portuguese: albino, palaver, verandah and coconut.
German: yacht, dog, landscape.
Irish: whiskey, phoney, trousers
Japanese: honcho, sushi, kimono and tsunami
Russian: taiga, kaftan, sable and sputnik
Arabic: mosque, Muslim, orange, safari, sofa and zero.
Hindi: karma, khaki, bungalow, mango.
American vocabulary is also rich in borrowings. There are some groups of specifi cally Americans borrowings which refl ect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations and possess distinctive characteristics.
For instance, Spanish borrowings – ranch, sombrero, canyon and Indian borrowings – wigwam, canoe, moccasin, tomahawk, pale face (this name for all white people).
