Сборник научных статей научно-практической конференции «Байтанаевские чтения-Х»

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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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