The Lexicon

Loan Resistance

English	computer	mobile phone/cell phone
Dutch	computer	mobiele telefoon/mobieltje
German	Computer/Rechner	Handy
French	ordinateur	téléphone mobile
Finnish	tietokone	matkapuhelin/kännykkä
Icelandic	tölva	farsími

Medieval Loans: Celtic

• A very small number of landscape terms: crag survives
• Evidently considered a low-status source (cf. wealh)

Medieval Loans: Latin

• OE period: ecclesiastical word-field
  • psealm, prēost, mæsse
• Generally: learning and administration
  • contradiction, item, scribe, simile

Medieval Loans: Old Norse

• OE period
  • Nautical word-field: wīcing, æsc, cnearr, liþ
  • Legal word-field: lagu, griþ, saclēas
• Later loans: thousands, many now core vocabulary
  • Function words: Both, same, they, though
  • Lexical words:
    • Verbs: choose, die, get, hit, rid, seem, loan, raise, take, want
    • Nouns: anger, dirt, egg, fellow, guest, husband, keel, knife, leg, outlaw, skull, sky, window, wing
    • Adjectives: flat, ill, loose

Medieval Loans: French

~900 pre-1250 (Norman), ~10,000 after; especially higher-register lexical words:

• Law and administration: administration, count, crime, duke, judgement, judge, jury, liberty, peasant, prince, prison, state; accuse, complain, condemn, govern
• Church: abbey, clergy, confession, convent, creator, devotion, miracle, religion, saint, sermon, theology; adore, convert, pray, preach
• High culture: beef, diamond, fur, jewel, mutton, pearl, pork, satin, venison
• Military: banner, battle, siege, standard

Lexical Competition

OE ey ↔ ON egg
OE þēah ↔ ON þó
NF reward ↔ CF regard
NF wile ↔ CF guile
Latin debita (< dēbitum) ↔ French dette

Word Formation

• negative prefix: OE un-; today also Gr a-, Lat/Fr in-, non-
• privative prefix: OE un-; today also Lat/Fr de-, dis-
• new noun/adjective suffixes: Fr -age, -ist, -ique, -ment

(Early) Modern Loans: Science

• Latin: antenna, data, fauna, genus, inertia, larva, nucleus, pendulum, species, tentacle, vertebra, virus
• Greek: cosmos, metereology, narcosis; indirect: anaesthesia, camera, electric
• French: anatomy, muscle

(Early) Modern Loans: Culture and Food

• French: ballet, beau, cabaret, casserole, champagne, elegant, etiquette, genteel, liqueur, ragout, salon, soup, vogue (food terms mostly c18)

(Early) Modern Loans: Law, Military, Politics

• Latin: propaganda, ultimatum, veto
• French: bayonet, brigade, colonel, envoy, platoon

(Early) Modern Loans: General

• Latin: agenda, area, dismiss, exit, instructor, popular
• French: role, trophy
• Greek: attic, crisis

(Early) Modern Loans: Trade, Art

• Dutch: cookie, dock, dollar, landscape, sketch, tea, yacht
• Portuguese
• Celtic
• British colonial languages

Semantic Field

Consociated Versus Dissociated Lexicon

Base Word	Derivative	Base Word	Derivative
Mund	mündlich	mouth	oral
Gesetz	gesetzlich	law	legal
Zahn	Zahnarzt	tooth	dentist