lOMoARcPSD|46342985 lOMoARcPSD|46342985 HANOI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY ENDTERM ASSIGNMENT
LOANWORD IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
Supervisor: Nguyen Phuong Anh, MA
Students’ names and ID numbers:
1. Mai Huu Bac – 1907010041
2. Nguyen Phan Minh Thu – 1907010300
3. Pham Thi Ngoc – 1907010217
4. Bui Thi Tinh – 1907010264 Hanoi, January, 2022 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that to the best of our knowledge, the
content of this paper is our own work.
This paper has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. We certify that the intellect ua l
content of this paper is the product of our own work and that all the assistance received in preparing
this paper and sources have been acknowledged. Date: 18/01/2022
Group leader’s name: Mai Huu Bac
Leader’s signature: _________Bac__________ 2 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
LOANWORDS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH I- Introduction:
1. Background of the study:
The Early Modern English era, also known as the Renaissance or the Rebirth of the Antic,
is said to have begun at the end of the Middle Ages, with the introduction of printing by Willia m
Caxton in 1476. English came into touch with a variety of other languages throughout the early
Modern Period, including French, Latin, Greek, and Scandinavian (Old Norse). As a result, this
study will look at the quantity and significance of loanwords in Early Modern English, as well as
how borrowed words represented the cultures and histories of the nations, how lexical values the
loanwords had, and where the borrowing originated. 2. Rationale:
Languages borrow primarily to communicate; borrowing occurs as a consequence of
necessity or need when a language lacks a readily accessible term for a certain concept. Borrowed
words, on the other hand, might be difficult to understand. As a result, the purpose of this study is
to investigate at how loanwords are classified in Early Modern English, as well as the roles these
borrowed words play in the language. In this paper, we focus on provide overview on the
loanwords in Early Modern English with an emphasis on their origins.
3. Scope of the study:
This study will concentrate on the previous researches into borrowed words in Early
Modern English in term of lexical aspects. The study will examine how the borrowed words in
Early Modern English are classified by analyzing the origins and the roles.
4. Significance of the study:
The findings of this study will have a part in effective classification loanwords in Early
Modern English in general. For readers, the study will provide them with information about the
way loanwords are classified and the roles of loanwords in Early Modern English in the right way.
For researchers, the study will help them discover loanwords in Early Modern English and analyse
the roles of loanwords in Early Modern English.
5. Research question:
This study focuses on exploring the answers to the questions: 3 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
 How are loanwords classified?
 What are the roles of loanwords in Early Modern English? II- Methodology:
The data attributed to this research was collected through some printed materials such as
previous researches, periodicals, journals, and books. Another source of information was collected
through some search engines such as Google Scholar, and Microsoft Bing. The information was
carefully chosen to be covered in the study as there is a vast quantity of data regarding loanwords in
Early Modern English on the internet.
The data selected would then be divided into different categories following the logical order
of the topic. Therefore, the main points including the definition, the classification, and the roles of
loanwords in Early Modern English, would be equitably organized and analyzed in the research to
help readers have better understanding on the topic.
III- Definition of loanwords and Early Modern English:
Before getting deeper into the research, this section would clarify more about the two terms
that are most mentioned in this paper: loanwords (in lexicology) and Early Modern Englis h.
Loanwords: Loanwords, or sometimes referred to as borrowed words or borrowing, are
an important part of English lexicology, with many sources estimated that up to 80% of Englis h
vocabulary are loanwords. In lexicology, a loanword is defined as "a word that is transferred from
a donor language to a recipient language" (Haspelmath & Tadmor, 2009). Borrowing appears
when there are cultural contacts between two language communities, and the process can go to
both directions between the two languages (Kemmer, 2016).
Early Modern English: Early Modern English or Early New English (abbreviated as
EModE), is a term to describe a stage of English language from the late 15th century to the early
18th century, approximately coincided with the Tudor dynasty (1485 - 1603) and Stuart dynasty
(1603 - 1714) in English history, as well as the Renaissance cultural movement in Europe.
EModE was the gaping bridge between Middle English (starting with the Norman victory in 1066
until the late 15th century) and the Modern English that we are using today. The English language
in this era had gone through a drastic change in many aspects, including the introduction of many
loanwords. The huge amount of loanwords coined in EModE can be traced back to the limited
vocabulary of Middle English, as the rapid development in culture in England during this period 4 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
coincided with the Renaissance movement throughout Europe, thus creating the need for an
expanded vocabulary for newer concepts and ideas. In “Early Modern English: Lexicon
and semantics” (2012), Lancashire wrote that “the mother tongue remained small, well
under 10,000 words, until the 17th century.” IV- Classification:
An outstanding finding indicated that out of a total of 179 new words that appeared in
1604, about 60% were words of Latin and French origin, followed by Native Germanic, with 20%,
and the remaining 20% belongs to other sources (Nevalainen, 2006). 1. Latin:
In the period from the 15th to the 17th century, along with the flourishing of the
Renaissance cultural movement, people also witnessed the mass influx of Latin loanwords into
English vocabulary. In particular, the largest number of borrowings is recorded in the second half
of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century (Serjeantson, 1968).
To explain this borrowing, Sheard (1970) believed that the splendor of the Renaissance
culture period spurred the import of classical languages. Meanwhile, Latin was considered to be
the representative language of the Church at that time, and was also the main language used to
record valuable scholarly, missionary, and scientific documents. As a result, a large number of
Latin words related to major topics of the Renaissance such as science, philosophy, art, and so on,
were imported into the English vocabulary during this period.
Scientific Latin loan words in the Renaissance were quite diverse, ranging from the fields
of biology, calculus to anatomy, typically the following words: equilibrium, pendulum, data,
pneumonia, rabies, abdomen, anatomy, appendix, catastrophe, delirium, imm une,... Philosophy
was also a large area for the influx of Latin borrowings, numerous Latin loanwords belonging to
this field appeared and were used until now such as theory, extinguish, consolidate, erupt, exist,
meditate, economist,... Not only that, Latin loanwords also enrich the artistic vocabulary with the
following list of words: idiom, artist, vindicate, conspicuous, minatory,... 2. French:
From the 16th century onwards marked the pouring of a large number of French loanwords
into English vocabulary. More specifically, Serjeanston (1968) identified four major instances of
borrowing from French during this time period: through conquest, colonization, commerce, and
literature, respectively. Webster (1789) also reached an agreement with her when emphasized that 5 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
loanwords from France were mainly in military and conquest terms. For example, common milita r y
terms in English that people often encounter such as trophy, pioneer, jacquerie, brigantine, pilot,
sally, colonel, corsair, volley, cartridge, rendezvous, bastion, brigade, battalion, grenade,
infantry, palisade, rebuff, bayonet,... were actually of French origin.
In addition, Kemmer (2016) noted that from the 1650s was also the beginning of a series of
industrial, technological and trading revolutions. Trade promotion has contributed significant l y to
stimulating exchanges between countries, including the process of borrowing words. And France,
with its commercial influence at the time, as a consequence, had provided a large number of high
culture words for English vocabulary. The list of words included hotel, ballet, salon, cachet,
champagne, cognac, grill, chard, cuisine, cutlet,... were all imported from France during this period. 3. German:
Felleis (2018) noted that throughout Early Modern English and even in later periods,
Science has always been a favored field of German loanwords. In particular, in the period from
1500-1800, Felleis (2018) recorded that out of a total of 439 German loan words, 152 words were in
the category of Science. In other words, more than a third of the total number of words borrowed
from German belong to Scientific vocabulary. In which, loans related to the Life Sciences sub -
category were dominant over other sub-categories. Some words that fall under this sub-category
are crowberry, hollow-root, hamster, yogurt,... The remaining words belong to other Science
subcategories such as Mineralogy: zinc, quartz, cobalt, wolfram, uranium, graphite,... or Physica l
Science: to wobble, slap, slag, spar,...
Additionally, he also pointed out that Trading and Military were two fields that are pushed
by German loanwords. Similar to the case of French word borrowing, the commercial and
technological revolutions of this period accelerated the borrowing of German words. Borrowings
from Germany in this area are mainly in monetary and financial terms such as heller, kreutzer, gelt,
thaler, schilling,... or a few common occupationslike scabbard, textiles, drilling,... Furthermore,
numerous military terms from Germany were also introduced into the English vocabulary around this
time: howitzer, knapsack, spanner, swine’s feather,... The cause of this situation is attributed
to the fact that military equipment was invented in the German-speaking territory. Another
plausible explanation could be the instability among several European nations at the time, which
led to conflicts (typically the Thirty Years War), thereby causing exchanging military terminolo
gy between countries (Fulbrook, 1990). 6 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
4. Other source languages:
Although English loanwords originated mainly from Latin, French, and Germany, other
source languages namely Arabic, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese also have a certain
influence on English vocabularies.
According to Smith (2007), when other parts of the world apart from Europe were
explored by the English merchant navy during the time of Elizabeth I, wealthy, peculiar items
and norms were also brought from the Middle East and other areas to Europe. Specifically,
tourists carried various Arabic words which implied extravagant and chivalrous lifestyles during
this time (Darwish, 2015). For example, several ingredients for food such as sugar, syrup, julep,
sherbet and marzipan are of Arabic origin. In a similar way, a few well-known drinks including
coffee and mocha also originated from Arabic as well. In addition, caraway, saffron, and cumin
are aromatic spices coming from Arabic as well.
Greek loanwords started making their way into English in the 16th century (Culpeper,
1996). According to Pyles and Algeo (1993: 291), it is recommended that Greek loanwords were
used as English due to the fact that Greek refugees scholars arriving in western Europe in 1453
raised the comprehension of Greek. However, until the 16th century, borrowings of Greek
actually happened. Culpeper (1996) indicated that each century during Early Modern English
included 2% of vocabularies which are Greek loanwords. According to Kemmer (2019), words
such as anonymous, parasite, climax, comedy, critic, tragedy, and skeleton come from Greek
words. Furthermore, Greek is the origin of two common bound morphemes namely -ism and -ize.
The first bound morpheme comes from Greek -ismos, noun ending signifying the practice or
teaching of a thing while the latter originating from Greek -izein, a verb-forming element
denoting the doing of the noun or adjective to which it is attached.
Even though Italian, Spanish and Portuguese borrowing didn’t account for the major
percentage in English words, their effects can be seen in the period of Early Modern English. In more
details, Italian loanwords in that period reflected art, architecture and music such as apartment, bas-
relief, balcony, chiaroscuro, fresco, forte, opera, piazza, violin, and virtuoso. Portuguese and Spanish
borrowing have appeared since the 16th century and most of them indicate fighting, trading and
colonisation. However, the total number of English words of Portuguese and Spanish origins do not
surpass 1% of the vocabulary recorded during a particular period of time 7 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
(Culpeper, 1996). Some examplesof them are marrano, apricot, cacao, mestizo, molasses, padre and galleon.
V- Role of loanwords in Early Modern English:
Borrowing directly contributed to the rapid expansion of vocabulary in EModE. As
mentioned before, this was due to the fast growing of several specialist fields and literatur e
challenged the English language, as it did not have the ability to provide enough vocabulary for
those new abstract concepts and ideas, so “several often competingmethods of vocabulary
expansion were adopted, including both borrowing and coinages based on native word format io n
processes” (Nevalainen, 1999). It is also important to note that the borrowing process was initially
opposed by many as they believed it was not necessary. On the 3rd edition of Oxford Englis h
Dictionary, lexicologists suggested that twice as many words were first recorded between 1550
and 1699 (EModE) as in the previous 150 years from 1400 to 1549 (late Middle English and the
start of EModE) (Durkin & Allan, 2016). Many of the loanwords during the EModE era are still
surviving and have become commonly used today, namely benefit, include, interrupt (Latin root),
education, cuisine (French root), wolfram, uranium (Germanic root).
Loanwords, especially of Latin and Greek roots, were commonly borrowed to describe
terms in a range of specialist fields, including science. The tradition of borrowing Latin and Greek
vocabulary to name scientific concepts/subjects have become widespread in almost every field of
science nowadays, most notably in biological structures’ scientific naming. For instance, the term
Homo erectus in Biology was the combination of two Latin words: homo (literally “man”), erectus
(literally “upright”), or “upright man”, used to describe a species that had the signature
“upright” posture distinctive from other early human species. VI- Conclusion:
In conclusion, this research paper set out to identify and analyze the origins and the roles
of borrowed words in Early Modern English period. Firstly, the study show definitions and
background knowledge of loanwords and Early Modern English to provide their essential
information about this topic for readers. Furthermore, we take a closer look at the classification of
loanwords and its usage in Early Modern English. Borrowing supply the opportunity for
communication equivelent. Using loandwords in the Early Modern English not only contain lexica
l values but also enrich language vocabulary ; therefore, they reflect the culture and history of the nations. 8 lOMoARcPSD|46342985 VII- Recommendation:
This research seeks to provide readers with a general understanding of Early Modern
English loanwords, along with guidelines advice on how best adopt borrowed words more
effectively. It just emphasizes the classification and functions of loanwords in Early Modern Englis
h. We're fascinated to do more study to address our remaining restrictions. We are looking forward
to further research to get a handle on our remaining limitations.
(Word count : 2355 words) 9 lOMoARcPSD|46342985 REFERENCES
Culpeper, J., and Clapham, P. (1996). The borrowing of Classical and Romance words into English:
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Cambridge history of the English language: Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press.
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Webster, N. (1789). Dissertations on the English language. I. Thomas and Company. 10 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
GROUPWORK CONTRIBUTION ASSESSMENT SHEET Date: January 18t h 2022 Class: 8 Group: 5 Subject:Lexicology
Assignment topic: Loanwords in Early Modern English
Group leader’s name: Mai Huu Bac
HANU email: 1907010041@s.hanu.edu.vn Tel.No.: 0818821346 Student’s name Student’s Contribution (%)(The Special comments ID maximum percentage of each member is 100%) 1 Mai Huu Bac 1907010041 100% 2 Nguyen Phan Minh Thu 1907010300 100% 3 Pham Thi Ngoc 1907010217 100% 4 Bui Thi Tinh 1907010264 100% Group leader Bac Mai Huu Bac 11 lOMoARcPSD|46342985
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