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criterions of the receiving language. The extent of assimilation hinges on amount of
time during which words were used in a receiving language, on degree of
significance and frequency of usage of words in a receiving language.
Assimilation of French borrowings in English is the consequence of the
Norman invasion into England and following French influence on English. During
Middle English Period English took over 10 000 French words (about 95 per cent),
40 per cent of the words were assimilated. That was because of the lack
of terms and
notions in numerous life spheres. Assimilated words enriched semantic groups of
English words and became a part of synonymous rows. Assimilation of French words
had a valuable role in the English word-stock formation as the largest number of
words and terms was adopted from French.
Borrowed words according to the degree of assimilation can be divided into
three big groups: completely assimilated borrowings, partially assimilated borrowings
and non-assimilated borrowings.
Completely assimilated French borrowings are the most numerous and
commonly used in English. Most of the words were adopted during the Norman
governance in England. The Norman French was influential and strong enough to
displace much of English words. Completely assimilated borrowings are
characterized by the fact that they are not seemed foreign, because they correspond to
all orthographic, morphological, phonetic standards of a receiving language. Thus,
such widely used every day words like “robe”, “garden”, “lake”, “question”, “place”,
“table” do not seem to be French, because they were borrowed without any changes.
Completely assimilated words are stylistically neutral. They can be predominant in
synonymous rows. Such borrowings play an active role in word-building. Completely
assimilated verbs are referred to the regular group in English.
The verbs are added
affixes to modify their meaning. For example, cry-cried, demand-demanded, appear-
appeared, consider-considered, cover-covered, count-counted, suffer-suffered, touch-
touched, travel-traveled. To form a plural form of completely assimilated nouns is
quite enough to add “-s” suffix. For example, face-faces, pearl-pearls, mirror-mirrors,
mountain-mountains, bottle-bottles. The stress in completely assimilated words was
transferred from the original final French stress to the second syllable that was
regarded as a stem syllable. For example, question, conversion. Morphological
structure of French borrowings filled the English word stock with free word forms
and linked. Thus, free borrowed words can be modified with different types of
affixes. For example, painful, beautiful, changeless, fashionable, married, arrived,
enjoyable, increased,
dangerous, faithless, experienced. Linked forms of borrowed
words remain their native affixes. For example, -ance; -age; -tion; -ment; -ant; -able/-
ible; -et; -our; -esse. Completely assimilated borrowings do not transfer all semantic
meanings to a receiving language, if the word is polysemantic. Sometimes
borrowings can acquire a new semantic meaning.
The second group consists of the borrowings that were partially assimilated
grammatically. The borrowed words in this case acquire the grammatical form of a
receiving language. The loan words that contain only root are added grammatical
morphemes of a borrowing language. For example, the suffix “-s” is added to the
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stems of countable nouns to form plural form (e.g.
table-tables, question-questions,
client-clients, coin-coins, chance-chances). To form Past Simple tense the suffix “-
ed” is used. The suffix is added to French root verbs as well as English ones. For
example,
damage-damaged,
achieve-achieved,
divorce-divorced,
discover-
discovered). Root words can be added derivational affixes to modify their meaning.
For example, power-powerful, fair-unfair, nation-national, safe-unsafe. Most
borrowings of French origin saved their native affixes. It is easy enough to identify
by the affixes French origin of a word. For example, suffixes like “-our” (e.g. honour,
labour, glorious, hour), “-ible/-able” (e.g. miserable, favourable, invisible, table,
considerable), “-ance/-ence” (e.g. finance, innocence, fragrance, romance, ordinance,
evidence), “-age” (e.g. courage, page, village, baggage, marriage), “-tion” (e.g.
action, illustration, devotion, absolution, exception, civilization), “-et” (e.g. cabriolet,
basket, cabinet, blanket), “-ant/-ent” (e.g. pheasant, merchant, consent, ancient,
arrogant), prefixes like “-des” (e.g. destruction, deserve, desire, destination, despair,
destroy), “-dis” (e.g. disease, distress, discover, distemper), “-en/-em” (e.g. emperor,
entrance, embrace, enjoy, encourage).
The third group includes borrowings that were partially assimilated
phonetically. The process of phonetic assimilation was quite hard, because there were
many sounds in French which never existed in English before.
French sounds were
adapted to the pronunciation patterns and rules of English. Nasalized vowels no
longer had their nasal feature in such words like chance, change, chamber, demand,
question, possession. Palatalized “l” sound was replaced with the normal English “l”
sound in the words like village, admiral, blanket, lamp, cathedral, original, table,
cable. The sound [∫] that exists in the beginning in such French borrowings like
chance, chamber was adapted to the sound [t∫]. Soft sound [g] at the end of the words
like marriage, garage, large, cabbage, stage was replaced by [dg] sound. Some words
remained their special French sounds. For example, sound [wa:] in the words like
memoir, reservoir. The stress of French words that constantly falls on the final
syllable was changed according to the English stress norms.
Some French borrowed words were not completely assimilated graphically and
saved their original spelling in English words. Thus, a big number of French words in
English are subordinated to the spelling rules of French. As is well known,
consonants like p, t, s, etc. are considered to be silent at the end of words like ballet,
coup, bouquet. The combination of letters “ou” in the
word like rouge saved its
spelling, but it came to sound as [u:]. The letter combination “qu” that has French
origin changed its pronunciation only to [kw] while the spelling was identical, for
example, word like question, quality. The French letter “i” can be read as long [i:] in
the word like machine. The triple letter combining “eau” maintained its original
spelling in English. The pronunciation of the mixture became closer to English
diphthong [ou] in the word beau. The French letter é preserved its spelling at the
English endings while its sound became closely to English vowel sound [e], for
example, in words like café, cliché. As it is known during the Norman domination
the Old English writing was approximately replaced by the Norman French as the
language was binding in all the prominent spheres of England. Not exactly
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comfortable Old English consonant blending hw was altered to “wh” to achieve
similarity with combinations like “th” and “ch”. Thus, the ancient words hwaer,
hwaenne, hal, hwo and hwil took a new shape in the form of words like where, who,
whole, while, when that we used nowadays.
The latest group of assimilated borrowed words is known under the name of
non-assimilated borrowings. The group of borrowings has another name for it,
sometimes the group is entitled barbarisms. Barbarisms
are words that come from
another language, such words have foreign origin, but they go unnoticed in a native
language for speakers. Non-assimilated French words were not modified by any
English language aspects at all over many centuries. Barbarisms exist in the English
word-stock on an equal basis with the original English words. These words
maintained their special spelling, and the meaning of the barbarisms is known for all
English speakers. The number of not assimilated words in English is not less than
other groups. Among them there is a large group of examples. The famous expression
“tete-a-tete” means to keep the conversation eye-to-eye, in private way. The word
“cuisine” that has an original French roots is used as a term for denoting traditional
food of a country. The famous French wishing “Bon appétit!” kept its usage through
many decades and it is still actual on an equal way with the phrase “Enjoy your
meal!”. Another well-known saying “Bon voyage!” is preserved in the same
principle. It is still spread as well as the sentences like “Have a good trip!”, “Safe
journey!”. The expression “comme il faut” is used to
show that something is done
perfectly, as it should be. The mix of two French words chef d’ovre is a synonym of
the English words “masterpiece” and “piece of work”. The phrase déjà vu is often
used in the moments when people experienced the same occasions again. The
expression is literary interpreted as “have already seen it”. The utterance “haute
couture” serves for identification designer-label clothes, to mention a high quality of
clothes.
Assimilated borrowings comprise the major portion of words in the English
vocabulary.
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