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Foreign Influences on Old English - Coggle Diagram
Foreign Influences on Old English
53. The Contact of English with Other Languages.
In the course of the first 700 years of its existence in England it was brought into contact with at least three other languages, , the languages of the Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians.
58. Continental Borrowing (Latin Influence of the Zero Period).
The first Latin words to find their way into the English language owe their adoption to the early contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent. Several hundred Latin words found in the various Germanic dialects at an early date—some in one dialect only, others in several—testify to the extensive intercourse between the two peoples.
Such intercourse between the two peoples was certain to carry words from one language to the other. The frequency of the intercourse may naturally be expected to diminish somewhat as one recedes from the borders of the empire.
The words adopted naturally indicate the new conceptions which the Germanic peoples acquired from this contact with a superior civilization. Besides agriculture, the main occupation of the Germanic tribes in the empire was warfare.
On the whole, if we are surprised at the number of words acquired from the Romans at so early a date by the Germanic tribes who came to England, we can see, however, that the foreign influences on the Old English words were such as they were likely to borrow and such as reflect very reasonably the relations which existed between the two peoples.
59. Latin through Celtic Transmission (Latin Influence of the First Period).
It would be hardly too much to say that not five words outside of a few elements found in place-names can be really proved to owe their presence in English to the Roman occupation of Britain. It is probable that the use of Latin as a spoken language did not long survive the end of Roman rule in the island and that such vestiges as remained for a time were lost in the disorders that accompanied the Germanic invasions.
There was thus no opportunity for direct contact between Latin and Old English in England, and such Latin words as could have found their way into English would have had to come in through Celtic transmission.
It is possible that some of the Latin words that the Germanic speakers had acquired on the continent, such as street (L. strāta via), wall, wine, and others, were reinforced by the presence of the same words in Celtic.
60. Latin Influence of the Second Period: The Christianizing of Britain.
The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned by the conversion of Britain to Roman Christianity beginning in 597.
However, 597 marks the beginning of a systematic attempt on the part of Rome to convert the inhabitants and make England a Christian country
There were periods of reversion to paganism, and some clashes between the Celtic and the Roman leaders over doctrine and authority, but England was slowly won over to the faith. It is significant that the Christian missionaries were allowed considerable freedom in their labors.
61. Effects of Christianity on English Civilization
The introduction of Christianity meant the building of churches and the establishment of monasteries. Latin, the language of the services and of ecclesiastical learning, was once more heard in England.
The beginning of this movement was in 669, when a Greek bishop, Theodore of Tarsus, was made archbishop of Canterbury. He was accompanied by Hadrian, an African by birth, a man described by Bede as “of the greatest skill in both the Greek and Latin tongues.”
In the eighth century England held the intellectual leadership of Europe, and it owed this leadership to the church. In like manner vernacular literature and the arts received a new impetus. Workers in stone and glass were brought from the continent for the improvement of church building.
In short, the church as the carrier of Roman civilization influenced the course of English life in many directions, and, as is to be expected, numerous traces of this influence are to be seen in the vocabulary of Old English.
62. The Earlier Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary.
From the introduction of Christianity in 597 to the close of the Old English period is a stretch of more than 500 years. During all this time Latin words must have been making their way gradually into the English language.
Some words came in almost immediately, others only at the end of this period. In fact, it is fairly easy to divide the Latin borrowings of the Second Period into two groups, more or less equal in size but quite different in character.
The one group represents words whose phonetic form shows that they were borrowed early and whose early adoption is attested also by the fact that they had found their way into literature by the time of Alfred.
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54. The Celtic Influence.
The Celtic population of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons and the subsequent mixture of the two peoples should have resulted in a corresponding mixture of their languages.
For it is apparent that the Celts were by no means exterminated except in certain areas, and that in most of England large numbers of them were gradually assimilated into the new culture.
In the east and southeast, where the Germanic conquest was fully accomplished at a fairly early date, it is probable that there were fewer survivals of a Celtic population than elsewhere.
It is altogether likely that many Celts were held as slaves by the conquerors and that many of the Anglo Saxons chose Celtic mates.
56. Three Latin Influences on Old English.
Latin was not the language of a conquered people. It was the language of a highly regarded civilization, one from which the Anglo-Saxons wanted to learn.
Contact with that civilization, at first commercial and military, later religious and intellectual, extended over many centuries and was constantly renewed. It began long before the Anglo-Saxons came to England and continued throughout the Old English period.
Later when they came to England they saw the evidences of the long Roman rule in the island and learned from the Celts additional Latin words that had been acquired by them.
And a century and a half later still, when Roman missionaries reintroduced Christianity into the island, this new cultural influence resulted in a quite extensive adoption of Latin elements into the language.
57. Chronological Criteria.
A number of words found in Old English and in Old High German, for example, can hardly have been borrowed by either language before the Anglo-Saxons migrated to England but are due to later independent adoption under conditions more or less parallel, brought about by the introduction of Christianity into the two areas.
Much the most conclusive evidence of the date at which a word was borrowed, however, is to be found in the phonetic form of the word.
The changes that take place in the sounds of a language can often be dated with some definiteness, and the presence or absence of these changes in a borrowed word constitutes an important test of age.
55. Celtic Place-Names and Other Loanwords.
When we come, however, to seek the evidence for this contact in the English language, investigation yields very meager results.
Outside of place-names, however, the influence of Celtic upon the English language is almost negligible. Not more than a score of words in Old English can be traced with reasonable probability to a Celtic source.
Within this small number it is possible to distinguish two groups: those that the AngloSaxons learned through everyday contact with the natives, and those that were introduced by the Irish missionaries in the north.
The Anglo-Saxon found little occasion to adopt Celtic modes of expression, and the Celtic influence remains the least of the early influences that affected the English language.