Lectures 6&7

Question 1

these words form the nucleus of the vocabulary of English

Answer 1

Anglo-Saxon words

Question 2

Four major varieties of the language were distinguished:

Answer 2

1. Kentish
2. Mercian
3. Northumbrian
4. West-Saxon

Question 3

Kentish

Answer 3

associated with the Jutes

Question 4

Mercian

Answer 4

the Anglian dialect spoken in Mercia, a kingdom stretching from the Thames to the Humber

Question 5

Northumbrian

Answer 5

the northernmost of the Anglian dialects, spoken from the Humber to the Forth

Question 6

West-Saxon

Answer 6

in the southern region called Wessex, the most powerful of the Saxon kingdoms (Old English is a West-Saxon dialect)

Question 7

Anglo-Saxon words have the following characteristics (4):

Answer 7

a. they tend to be short (usually 1-2 syllables)
- parts of the body: arm, bone, chest, ear, eye, foot, hand; natural landscape: field, hill, land, wood;
- domestic life: door, floor, home, house; the calendar: day, month, moon, sun, year; animals: cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, wine;
- common adjectives: black, white, wide, good, long;
- common verbs: become, do, eat, fly, help, kiss, love, say, see, sell, send

b. they are associated with informality: begin (AS) – commence (Fr)
c. they enter a great number of phrases
d. Anglo-Saxon words have great power to create new words: wood
wooden/woody/woodland/woodcutter/woodcraft/woodwork;

Question 8

aber

Answer 8

(‘river mouth’) Aberystwyth (‘mouth of the Ystwyth’)

Question 9

llan

Answer 9

(‘church’) Llanfair (‘St Mary’s church’)

Question 10

inis

Answer 10

(‘island’) Innisfree

Question 11

caer

Answer 11

(‘fortified place’) Carlisle, Caernarfon

Question 12

pen

Answer 12

(‘head, top, hill’) Pendle

Question 13

llyn

Answer 13

(Scots ‘loch’, Irish ‘lough’, lake) Llyn Tegid (‘Tegid’s lake’)

Question 14

cwm

Answer 14

(‘valley’) Cwmafan (‘valley of the Afan’)

Question 15

Viking raids began in

Answer 15

the 8th century and continued for some 200 years

Question 16

The Danes spoke dialects of

Answer 16

Old Norse (Germanic language, related to OE)

Question 17

by mid-ninth century the Danes controlled eastern England called

Answer 17

Danelaw

Question 18

How can we identify words of Scandinavian origin?

Answer 18

1. Notice some endings in Scandinavian place names
2. Notice the cluster sk-/sc- e.g. skill, skin, sky, skirt, score, scrape
3. Notice the ending –son in personal names e.g. Henderson, Jackson, Davidson
4. Notice that OE personal pronouns hie, hiom, hiera were replaced by their Scandinavian equivalents giving modern they, them their

Question 19

endings in Scandinavian place names

Answer 19

• -by (‘town’, ‘farm’) Derby, Rugby, Grimsby
• -thorpe (‘village’) Althorpe, Linthorpe
• -thwaite (‘clearing’) Braithwaite, Applethwaite
• -toft (‘homestead’) Sandtoft, Eastoft
• -scale (‘hut’) Seascale
• -kirk (‘church’) Selkirk
• wick/-wich (‘creek’, ‘bay’) Greenwich

Question 20

Latin borrowings are often recognized from their typical endings

Answer 20

e. g. -um/quorum, referendum;
- us/campus, chorus;
- a/diploma, formula;
- ex, ix/index, appendix.

Question 21

a result of the Norman conquest was

Answer 21

the absorption of hundreds of French words into English, and the loss of many OE words.

Question 22

Some of the suffixes can reveal their French origin:

Answer 22

-age/homage;
-ance/abundance;
-ence/diligence;
-ee/devotee;
-ese/journalese;
-ity/felicity;
-our/favour/
-ant/infant.
The prefix de/de la also reveals the French origin of the borrowing, e.g. Marquis de Lafayette. There are also loan translations: that goes without saying (cela va sans dire).

Question 23

Suffixes used in connection with medicine: (greek)

Answer 23

• itis (arthritis)
• oma (hematoma)
• osis (tuberculosis)

Question 24

cardi-(cardiologist)
chondr- (chondrocyte)
 cyan- (cyanide)
 cyt- (cytology)
 hepat- (hepatomegaly)
 melan-(melanosis)
 nephr- (nephritis)
 oste- (osteotome)
 sclera- (arteriosclerosis)
 aden- (adenoid)
hyster-(hysterotomy)
 mast- (mastectomy)
 leuc-, leuk- (leucoma, leukemia)
neur- (neurosis)
 rhin- (rhinitis).

Answer 24

greek bases

Question 25

bibli-, crypt-, cryph-, gloss-, icon-, pyr-, and cycl-

Answer 25

The following are some Greek bases

Question 26

a-, amphi-, ana-, cata, dia-, dys-, endo-, ec-, en-, epi-, hyper-, hypo-, meta-, para-, pro-, or syn-

Answer 26

Prefixes of Greek origin

Question 27

-ic, -ism, -al, -ist, -ics, -tics, -al, –an, -ast, -y, -ma, -sis, -logy, -nomy, -cracy, -ous, -arch, -mania, -phobia, -meter, graph, scope, -gram, -ize, or-ous.

Answer 27

Greek Suffixes

Question 28

-is (crisis, analysis) and -on (phenomenon, neutron).

Answer 28

Greek endings

Question 29

the greatest supplier of words to English (geographical proximity)

Answer 29

French