Many place-names with Celtic elements are hybrids; the Celtic component, combined with a Latin or a Germanic component, make a compound place-names, e.g.
Celtic plus Latin
Man-chester
Win-chester
Glou-cester
Wor-cester
Devon-port
Lan-caster
Celtic plus Germanic
York-shire
Corn-wall
Salis-bury
Lich-field
Devon-shire
Canter-bury
Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few: no more than a dozen. Examples of common nouns are: OE binn (NE bin 'crib'), cradol (NE cradle), bratt 'cloak', dun (NE dun ‘dark coloured'), dun 'hill', cross (NE cross), probably through Celtic from the crux.
A few words must have entered OE from Celtic due to the activities of Irish missionaries in spreading Christianity, e.g. OE ancor 'hermit', dry 'magician", cursian (NE curse). In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects e.g. loch dial, 'lake', coomb dial, 'valley'.
4. The Roman conquest and Latin borrowings
In 55 B.C. the Romans under Julius Caesar first landed in Britain. This first appearance of the Romans had no further consequences: after a brief stay the Romans went back to Gaul. In the year 54 Caesar landed in Britain for a second time, he routed the Britons and advanced as far as the Thames. But this stay was also a short one.
Permanent conquest of Britain began in 43 A.D., under the emperor Claudius. The Romans subdued the Britons, and colonized the country, establishing a great number of military camps, which eventually developed into English cities. About 80 A.D., under the emperor Domitian, the Romans occupied the territory including the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In this period Britain became a Roman province and that lasted for almost 4 centuries. This colonization had a profound effect on the country (though not as profound as in Gaul). Roman civilization — paved roads, powerful walls of military camps — completely transformed the aspect of the country.
The Latin language superseded the Celtic dialects in townships and probably also spread over the country-side. In the 4th century, when Christianity was introduced in the Roman Empire, it also spread among the Britons.
The Latin language exerted considerable influence on different aspects of English: the OE alphabet, the growth of writing and literature.
Early OE borrowings from Latin indicate the new things and concepts, which pertained to war, trade, agriculture, building and home life.
Words connected with trade indicate general concepts, units of measurements and articles of trade unknown to the Teutons before they came into contact with Rome: OE ceapian, clap, ceapman and mansion, тап ип , man re ('to trade', 'deal', 'trader', 'to trade',
'trading', 'trader') came from the Latin names for 'merchant' — caupo and mango. Evidently, the words were soon assimilated by the language as they yielded many derivatives.
Units of measurement and containers were adopted with their Latin names: OE pund (NE pound), OE ynce (NE inch) from L pondo and uncia, OE mynet, OE flasce, ciest (NE flask, chest).
The following words denote articles of trade and agricultural products introduced by the Romans: OE win (from L vinum), OE butere from L butyrum), OE plume (from L prunus), OE ciese (from L caseus),OE pipor (from L piper), (NE wine, butter, plum, cheese, pepper).
Romnan contribution to building can be perceived in words like OE coper (NE chalk, tile, copper). A group of words relating to domestic life is exemplified by OE cytel, disc, cuppe, pyle (NE kettle, dish, cup, pillow), etc.
Borrowings pertaining to military affairs are OE mil (NE mile) from L millia passuum, which meant a thousand steps made to measure the distance; OE weall (NE wall) from L vallum, a wall of fortifications erected in the Roman provinces; OE strэet from Latin strata via, — a "paved road" (these "paved roads" were laid to connect Roman military camps and colonies in Britain; the meaning of the word changed when houses began to be built along these roads, hence NE street.
Among the Latin loan-words adopted in Britain were some place-names or components of place-names used by the Celts. L castra in the shape caster, ceaster 'camp' formed OE place-names which survive today as Chester, Dorchester, Lancaster and the like (some of them with the first element coming from Celtic); Lcolonia 'settlement for retired soldiers' is found in Colchester and in the Latin-Celtic hybrid Lincoln', L vicus 'village' appears in Norwich, Woolwich, L portus— in Bridport and Devonport.. Place-names made of Latin and Germanic components are: Portsmouth, Greenport, Greenwich and many others.
The third period of Latin influence on the OE vocabulary began with the introduction of Christianity in the late 6th c. and lasted to the end of OE. Numerous Latin words which found their way into the English language during these 500 years fall into main groups:
1. words pertaining to religion;
2. words connected with learning.
The rest are miscellaneous words denoting various objects and concepts which the English learned form Latin books and from closer acquaintance with Roman culture. The total number of Latin loan-words in OE exceeds 500 years, this third layer accounting for over four hundred words.
The new religion introduced a large number of new conceptions, which require new names; most of them were adopted from Latin, some of the words go back to Greek prototypes:
OE
Apostol
Antefn
Biscop
Candel
Cleric
NE
Apostle
Anthemn
Bishop
Candle
Clerk
From Latin
Apostolus
Antiphona
Episcopus
Candela
Clericus
From Greek
Apostolus
Antiphona
Episcopos
Klericos
To this list we may add many more modern English words from the same source: abbot, alms, altar, angel, ark, creed, disciple, hymn, idol, martyr, noon, nun, organ, palm, pine ('torment’), pope, prophet, psalm, psalter, shrine, relic, rule, temple and others.
After the introduction of Christianity many monastic schools were set up in Britain. The spread of education led to the wider use of Latin: teaching was conducted in Latin, or consisted of learning Latin. The written forms of OE developed in translations of Latin texts. These conditions are reflected in a large number of borrowings connected with educations and also words of a more academic, "bookish" character. Unlike the earlier borrowings scholarly words were largely adopted through books; they were first in OE translations from Latin. Other modern descendants of this group are: accent, grammar, meter, gloss, notary, decline.
A great variety of miscellaneous borrowings came from Latin probably because they indicated new objects and new ideas, introduced together with their Latin names by those who had a fair command of Latin: monks, priests, school-masters. Some of these scholarly words became part of everyday vocabulary. They belong to different semantic spheres: names of trees and plants — elm, lily, plant, pine; names of illnesses and words pertaining to medical treatment — cancer, fever, paralysis, plaster; names of animals — camel, elephant, tiger, names of clothes and household articles — cap, mat, sack, sock; names of foods - beet, caul, oyster, radish; miscellaneous words — crisp, fan, place, spend, turn.
The Latin impact on the OE vocabulary was not restricted to borrowing of words. There were also other aspects of influence. The most important of them is the appearance of the so-called "translation- loans” – words and phrases created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations. The earliest instances of translation-loans are names of the days of the week found not only in OE but also in other Old (and modern) Germanic languages:
OE Monan-dэeз (Monday) 'day of the moon', L Lunae dies, etc.
5. The Scandinavian element in the English Vocabulary
Under the year 787 three shiploads of Northmen landed upon the coast of Britain and invaded the country.
These invaders were Scandinavian tribes: The Danes, the Swedes. They inhabited the north of Europe (modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden).
They started their invasion taking possession over the East of Britain and the Danish invasion resulted in the occupation of a great part of the territory by Scandinavian settlers. In the year 878 the English King Alfred the Great, by the Treaty of Wedmore was obliged to recognize Danish rule over a territory covering two-thirds of modern England; all Northumbria, all East Anglia and one half of Central England made up District called the Danelaw.
The effect of the Danish Conquest was a contribution of many Scandinavian words to the English vocabulary.
The criterion of sound in many cases may be applied in distinguishing Scandinavian words. Since in native English words the sk sound had regularly changed to sh and since the k sound before the vowels e and i had regularly changed to ch, the greater part of the Germanic words in English with the sk sound such as scare, skill, skin, skirt, sky and many words with the k sound before e and i, such as kettle, keg, kirk are to be assigned to Scandinavian origin.
In cases where the Scandinavian form of a word differed from the English form, sometimes both forms survived with a different meaning.
The Scandinavian influence was especially marked in place-names in Northern England, Among the more common ones are those ending in-by (0. N. byr, a dwelling, village); in -beck (has been used as an independent word since 1300 especially in the North; 0. N. bekker, a brook, Ger. Bach); in-dale (O. N. Dalr, a valley, Ger. Thai); in thorp or-torp (0. N thorp, a hamlet, village); in -toft (O. N, toft a homestead, enclosure) and in -twaite (0. N. veiti, a clearing).
In some cases when the English word and the Scandinavian agreed in form, the Scandinavian form has imported a new meaning to the English. Thus dream in О. Е. meant toy, but in Middle English the modern meaning of dream was taken over from O.N. draumr. The same is true of bread (formerly meaning a fragment or bloom (O. E. bloma, mass of metal), plough (О. Е. ploh, a measure of land); holm (О. Е. holm, ocean).
A number of common words which existed in Old English have been assimilated to the kindred Scandinavian synonyms only in form (e. g. sister descends not from the Old English sweoster, but from the O. N. syster. The same is true of such everyday words as birth, get, give, etc.
Sometimes the Scandinavians gave a fresh lease of life to obsolescent or obsolete native words. The preposition till, for instance, is found only once or twice in Old English texts belonging to the pre-Scandinavian period, but after that time it begins to be exceedingly common in the North, from whence it spreads southward. The same is true of the words barn, blend and dale.
A lot of Scandinavian law-terms entered Old English but as a consequence of the Norman Conquest when the conquerors took the Courts of Justice into their own hands; with the exception of law, by-law, thrall, crave, they disappeared from the language. The same is true of Scandinavian words relating to war and more particularly to the navy.
One of the most important importations was that of the pronominal forms they, them and their; these readily entered into the English system pronouns beginning with the same sound (the, that, this) and were felt to be more distinct than the old native forms which they supplanted. Indeed these were liable to constant confusion with some forms of the singular number (he, him, her) after the vowels had become obscured, so that he and hie and heora could no longer be kept easily apart. Although the th- forms must consequently be reckoned a great advantage to the language, it took a long time before the old forms were finally displaced. The dative hem still survives in the form 'em (take 'em), which is often by mistake taken to be a shortened form of them. One more Scandinavian pronoun is same, which was speedily associated with the native adverb swa (consequently, in this way, so that).
The Scandinavian element in English amounts to over 650 words. So, we find such everyday nouns of Scandinavian origin as husband, fellow, sky, skull, skin, wing, haven, root, skill, anger, gate, etc.
Among the adjectives adopted from Scandinavian, we find meek, low, scant, loose, odd, wrong, ill, ugly, rotten. The adjectives happy and seemly too are derived from Danish roots, not to speak of stor, which was common in Middle English for great, and dialectical adjectives like glegg (clear-sighted, clever) neat, and tidy. The one thing common to the adjectives then, is that they are all very commonplace, and the same impression is confirmed by the verbs. Such verbs as thrive, die, cost, hit, take, call, want, scare, scrape, scream, scrub, scowl, skulk, bash, drown, ransack, gape, etc.
From no other foreign source has the English language derived words so elemental in character. Scandinavian elements combine with native elements in hybrid compounds such as awkward and greyhound. Since these Scandinavian words are, as has been mentioned already, so nearly related to the Anglo-Saxon, and since they were borrowed so early and have consequently undergone changes in form and in meaning along with the Anglo-Saxon element, one may almost reckon them as belonging to the native stock of English words. In later periods of English, history the contact between English and Scandinavian-speaking peoples was never so close.
6. The Norman Conquest and the French element in the English Vocabulary
Down to the time of the Norman Conquest the Old English form of speech remained essentially the same. Up to this time the English language had been in contact with three other tongues which to some extent affected its vocabulary. These were: Celtic, the speech of the native Celtic inhabitants of England, Latin and then Norse. Of these Latin was the only one which at that time added any appreciable number of words to the literary language. Terms from Celtic or Norse may have been adopted into colloquial speech, but it is not until the break-up of Old English which followed the Norman Conquest, that they occur to any extent in writing. Some French words had entered English before the Norman Conquest (e.g. chancellor, pride, proud and a few more). Here also must be mentioned that a characteristic feature of almost all loanwords in Old English is that they were borrowed in a purely oral manner, were mostly monosyllabic and words (except for religious words and a few miscellaneous words borrowed in the 6th, and 7th centuries) of everyday use.
The effect of the Norman Conquest on the English vocabulary was very great but it did not make itself felt for a considerable period. For nearly one hundred and fifty years the two languages, Old English and Norman-French, existed side by side without mingling, French being the language of the government and the aristocracy, while English was reduced almost to the condition of a peasant's dialect, and ceased to be the literary language.
The largest class of words adopted into English between the conquest and the year 1200 are of an ecclesiastical character. The remaining words are almost all connected with government and war. In the 13th century the process of borrowing went on with great rapidity, and a great many French words were adopted into English. In the first place we find many additions, especially in the first half of the century, to the vocabulary of religion (e, g, devotion, patience, salvation, etc.).
Apart from the religious terms already mentioned, there are words connected with feudalism, the law, government and war. The campaigns of Edward I in the second half of the 13th century against the Welsh and the Scotch seem to have furnished his subjects with many new military terms. It is at this time that armour, battle, assault, conquer and pursue are first found in the vocabulary of English which gradually absorbed all the vocabulary of medieval culture.