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THE PRONOUN 4 страница






due to their rapproachement after the East Teutons (the Goths) left the coast of the Baltic Sea. The languages of the West Germanic sub­group had a number of words which must have appeared after the loss of contacts with the East and North Teutons but before the West Ger­manic tribes started on their migrations.

§ 232. The third etymological layer of native words can be defined as specifically OE, that is words which do not occur in other Germanic or non-Germanic languages. These words are few, if we include here only the words whose roots have not been found outside English: OE clipian 'call', OE brid (NE bird) and several others. However, they are far more numerous if we include in this layer OE compounds and derived words formed from Germanic roots in England. For instance, OE wifman or wimman (NE woman) consists of two roots which occurred as separate words in other OG languages, but formed a compound only in OE (cf. OHG wib, О Icel vif, NE wife-, OE man, Gt mann(a), NE man). Other well-known examples are—OE hlaford, originally made of hiaf (NE loaf, cf. R хлеб) and weard 'keeper' (cf. Gt wards). This compound word was simplified and was ultimately shortened to NE lord. OE hlxfdiie was a compound consisting of the same first component hiaf of the root *di$e which is related to parallels in other OG languages: Gt digan, О Icel deigja 'knead' — lit. 'bread-kneading', later simplified to NE lady. Some compounds denoted posts and institutions in OE king­doms^ OE scir$erefa 'chief of the shire' (NE sheriff), OE witenazemol meeting of the elders, assembly'.

Foreign Element in the Old English Vocabulary

§ 233. Although borrowed words constituted only a small portion of the OE vocabulary — all in all about six hundred words, — they are of great interest for linguistic and historical study. The borrowings reflect the contacts of English with other tongues resulting from diverse political, economic, social and cultural events in the early periods of British history. OE borrowings come from two sources: Celtic and Latin.

Borrowings from Celtic

§ 234. There are very few Celtic loan-words in the OE vocabulary, for there must have been little intermixture between the Germanic settlers and the Celtic in Britain. Though in some parts of the island the Celts population was not exterminated during the WG invasion, linguistic evidence of Celtic influence is meager. Obviously there was little that the newcomers could learn from the subjugated Celts. Abun­dant borrowing from Celtic is to be found only in place-names. The OE kingdoms Kent, Deira and Bernicia derive their names from the names of Celtic tribes. The name of York, the Downs and perhaps London have been traced to Celtic sources (Celtic dun meant 'hill'). Various Celtic designations of 'river' and 'water' were understood by the Germanic invaders as proper names: Ouse, Exe, Esk, Vsk, Avon, Evan go back to Celtic amhuin 'river', uisge 'water'; Thames, Stour, Dover also come from Celtic. Some elements frequently occurring in Celtic place-names can help to identify them: -comb 'deep valley' in Batcombe, Duncombe, Winchcombe-, -torr 'high rock' in Ton, Tor cross-, -llan 'church' in Han- daff, Llanellu; -pill 'creek' in Pylle, Huntspill. Many place-names with Celtic elements are hybrids; the Celtic component, combined with a Latin or a Germanic component, make a compound place-name; e.g.

Celtic plus Latin Celtic plus Germanic

Man-chester York-shire

Win-chester Corn-wall[8]

Glou-cester Salis-bury

Wor-cester Lich-field

Devon-port Devon-shire

Lan-caster Canter-bury

§ 235. Outside of place-names Celtic borrowings in OE were very few: no more than a dozen. Examples of common nouns are: OE binn (NE bin 'crib'), cradol (NE cradle), bratt 'cloak', dun (NE dun Mark coloured*), dUn 'hill', cross (NE cross), probably through Celtic from the L crux. A few words must have entered OE from Celtic due to the activities of Irish missionaries in spreading Christianity, e, g. OE ancor 'hermit', drp 'magician', cur& ian (NE curse). In later ages some of the Celtic borrowings have died out or have survived only in dialects, e.g. loch dial, 'lake', coomb dial, 'vallev'.

Latin Influence on the Old English Vocabulary

§ 236. The role of the Latin language in Medieval Britain is clearly manifest; it was determined by such historical events as the Roman occupation of Britain, the influence of the Roman civilisation and the introduction of Christianity. It is no wonder that the Latin language exerted considerable influence on different aspects of English: the OE alphabet, the growth of writing and literature. The impact of Latin 0n the OE vocabulary enables us to see the spheres of Roman influence on the life in Britain.

§ 237. Latin words entered the English language at different stages of OE history. Chronologically they can be divided into several layers.

The earliest layer comprises words which the WG tribes brought from the continent when they came to settle in Britain. Contact with the Roman civilisation began a long time before the Anglo-Saxon inva­sion (see § 91).

The adoption of Latin words continued in Britain after the invasion, since Britain had been under Roman occupation for almost 400 years. Though the Romans left Britain before the settlement of the West Teut­ons, Latin words could be transmitted to them by the Romanised Celts.

Early OE borrowings from Latin indicate the new things and con­cepts which the Teutons had learnt from the Romans; as seen from the examples below they pertain to war, trade, agriculture, building and home life.

§ 238. Words connected with trade indicate general concepts, units of measurements and articles of trade unknown to the Teutons before they came into contact with Rome: OE ceapian, ceap, сёартал and mansion, man$uns, man$ere ('to trade', 'deal', 'trader', 'to trade', 'trading', 'trader') came from the Latin names for 'merchant' — caupo and mango.

Evidently, the words were soon assimilated by the language as they yielded many derivatives.

Units of measurement and containers were adopted with their Lat­in names: OE pund (NE pound), OE ynce (NE inch) from L pondo and uncia, OEmynet, mynetlan ('coin', 'to coin'), OE flasce, ciest (NE {task, chest).

The following words denote articles of trade and agricultural prod­ucts, introduced by the Romans: OE win (from L vinum), OE but ere (from L bQtyrum), OE plume (from L prunus), OE ciese (from L caseus), OE pipor (from L piper), (NE wine, butter, plum, cheese, pepper).

Roman contribution to building can be perceived in words like OE cealc, ti$e! e, coper (NE chalk, tile, copper). A group of words relating to domestic life is exemplified by OE cytel, disc, cuppe, pyle (NE kettle, dish, cup, pillow), etc.

Borrowings pertaining to military affairs are OE mil (NE mile) from L mi Ilia passuum, which meant a thousand steps made to measure the distance; OE weall (NE wait) from L vallum, a wall of fortifications erected in the Roman provinces; OE street from Latin strata via, — a " paved road" (these " paved roads" were laid to connect Roman military camps and colonies in Britain; the meaning of the word changed when houses began to be built along these roads, hence NE sfreei); to this group of words belong also OE pit 'javelin', OE pytt (NE pile, pit).

There is every reason to suppose that words of the latter group could be borrowed in Britain, for they look as direct traces of the Roman occu­pation (even though some of these words also occur in the continental Germanic tongues, cf. G Strafie).

§ 239. Among the Latin loan-words adopted in Britain were some place-names or components of place-names used by the Celts. L castra in the shape caster, ceaster 'camp' formed OE place-names which sur-. vive' today as Chester, Dorchester, Lancaster and the like (some of them with the first element coming from Celtic); L cotonia 'settlement, for re­tired soldiers' is found in Colchester and in the Latin-Celtic hybrid Lin­coln] L vicus 'village' appears in Norwich, Woolwich, L portus — in Bridport and Devonport (see also the examples in §234). Place-names made of Latin and Germanic components are: Portsmouth, Greenport, Greenwich and many others.

§ 240. It should be noted that the distinction of two layers of early Latin bor­rowings is problematic, for it is next to impossible to assign precise dates to events so far back in history. Nevertheless, it seems more reasonable to assume that the earlier, continental layer of loan words was more numerous than the layer made in Britain. In the first place, most OE words quoted above have parallels in other OG languages, which is easily accounted for if the borrowings were made by the Teutons before their migrations. At that time transference of loan-words Irom tribe to tribe was easy, even if they were first adopted by one tribe. Second­ly, we oufcht to recall that the relations between the Germanic conquerors and the subjugated Britons in Britain could hardly be favourable for extensive borrowing.

§ 241. The third period of Latin influence on the OE vocabulary began with the introduction of Christianity in the late 6th c. and lasted to the end of OE.

Numerous Latin words which found their way into the English lan­guage during these five hundred years clearly fall into two main groups: (1) words pertaining to religion, (2) words connected with learning. The rest are miscellaneous words denoting various objects and concepts which the English learned from Latin books and from closer acquaint­ance with Roman culture. The total number of Latin loan-words in OE exceeds five hundred, this third layer accounting for over four hundred words,

§ 242. The new religion introduced a large number of new concep­tions which required new names; most of them were adopted from Lat­in. some of the words go back to Greek prototypes:

OE apostol NE apostle from L apostolus from Gr apostolos

antefn anthem antiphona antiphona

bfscop bishop eptscopus episcopos

candel candle candela

clerec clerk clericus klerikos

'clergyman'

deofol devil diabolus diabolos

in«sse mass missa

mynster minster monasterium

munuc monk monachus monachos

To this list we may add many more modern English words from the same source: abbot, alms, altar, angel, ark, creed, disciple, hymn, idol, martyr, noon, nun, organ, palm, pine ('torment'), pope, prophet, psalm, psalter, shrine, relic, rule, temple and others.

§ 243. After the introduction of Christianity many monastic schools were set up in Britain. The spread of education led to the wider use of Latin: teaching was conducted in Latin, or consisted of learning Latin. The written forms of OE developed in translations of Latin texts. These conditions are reflected in a large number of borrowings connected with education, and also words of a more academic, " bookish" character. Unlike the earlier borrowings scholarly words were largely adopted through books; they were first used in OE translations from Latin, e.g.:

OB scol NE school L schola (Gr skhole)

scolere scholar scholaris

magister master, 'teacher' magister

fers verse versus

dihtan 'compose' dictare

Other modern descendants of this group are; accent, grammar, meter, gloss, notary, decline.

§ 244. A great variety of miscellaneous borrowings came from Latin probably because they indicated new objects and new ideas, introduced into English life together with their Latin names by those who had a fair command of Latin: monks, priests, school-masters. Some of these scholarly words became part of everyday vocabulary. They belong to different semantic spheres: names of trees and plants — elm, lily, plant, pine; names of illnesses and words pertaining to medical treatment — cancer, fever, paralysis, plaster; names of animals — camel, elephant, tiger, names of clothes and household articles — cap, mat, sack, sock; names of foods — beet, caul, oyster, radish; miscellaneous words — crisp, fan, place, spend, turn.

§ 245. The Latin impact on the OE vocabulary was not restricted to borrowing of words. There were also other aspects of influence. The Dost important of them is the appearance of the so-called " translation- loans" -— words and phrases created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations. The earliest instances of translation-loans are names of the days of the week found not only in OE but also in other Old (and modern) Germanic languages:

OE Monan-diE5 (Monday) 'day of the moon', L Lunae dies;

Tiwes-dasi (Tuesday) 'day of Tiw' L Mortis dies (Ttw — a Teutonic God corresponding to Roman Mars).

The procedure was to substitute the name of the corresponding Ger­manic god for the god of the Romans. Other translation-loans of the type were OE zodspell (NE gospel) 'good tidings', L euangelium; OE priness (lit. 'three-ness'), NE Trinity.

In late OE, many new terms were coined from native elements ac­cording to Latin models as translation-loans: OE eorpbi$en$a 'inhabitant of the earth' (L terricola)\ OE 3oldsmip (NE goldsmith) 'worker in gold' (L aurifex); OE tun^olcraeft 'astronomy', lit. 'the knowledge of stars' < L astronomos).

Some grammatical terms in ^Blfric's GRAMMAR are of the same origin: OE d& lnimend 'participle', lit. 'taker of parts' (L participium); OE nemni^endlic (L Nominatiaus), OE wre^endlic 'Accusative', lit. 'accusing, denouncing' (L Accusativus). This way of replenishing the vocabulary may be regarded as a sort of resistance to foreign influence: instead of adopting a foreign word, an equivalent was produced from native resources in accordance with the structure of the term.

§ 246. Another question which arises in considering borrowings from a foreign language is the extent of their assimilation. Most Latin loan­words were treated in OE texts like native words, which means that they were already completely assimilated.

Judging by their spellings and by later phonetic changes they were naturalised as regards their sound form.. Like native English words, early Latin loan-words participated in the sound changes, e.g. in disc and ciese the consonants tskl and [k'l were palatalised and eventually changed into Ц] and [tj] (NE dish, cheese). Note that some later bor­rowings, e.g. scol, scolere did not participate in the change and [sk] was retained

Loan-words acquired English grammatical forms and were inflected like respective parts of speech, e.g. cirice, cuppe (NE church, cup). Fem. nouns were declined as л-stems: типе, deofol (NE monk, devil), Masc. — like a-stems, the verbs pinion, temprian were conjugated like weak verbs of the second class ('torture', NE temper).

Important proofs of their assimilation are to be found in word-for­mation. Stems of some Latin borrowings were used in derivation and word compounding, e.g. the verbs fersian 'versify', plantian (NE plant) were derived from borrowed nouns fers, plant; many derivatives were formed from the early Latin loan-words caupo, mengo (see § 238); ab­stract nouns — martyrdom, martyrhad were built by attaching native suffixes to the loan-word martyr (NE martyrdom)-, compound words like cirice$eard (NE churchyard), mynster-ham (lit. 'monastery home'), myn- ster-man 'monk' were Latin-English hybrids.

The grammatical form of several loan-words was misunderstood: pisum on losing -m was treated as a plural form and -s- was dropped to produce the sg: OE pese, NE pi peas, hence sg pea; in the same way L cerasum eventually became cherries pi, cherry — sg.

§ 247. Etymological Layers of the Old English Vocabulary

Table 2
Native Words Borrowings
Common Common West Specifically Latin
IE Germanic Germanic OE Celtic

WORD-FORMATION IN OLD ENGLISH

 

Word Structure

§ 248. The bulk of the OE vocabulary were native words. In the course of the OE period the vocabulary grew; it was mainly replenished from native sources, by means of word-formation.

According to their morphological structure OE words (like modern words) fell into three main types:

a) simple words {" root-words") or words with a simple stem, contain­ing a root-morpheme and no derivational affixes, e.g. land, sinzan, 35d (NE land, sing, good);

b) derived words consisting of one root-morpheme and one or more affixes, e.g. be-zinnan, weorp-un^, un-scyld-iz, ze-met-inz (NE begin, 'worthiness', 'innocent', meeting).

c) compound words, whose stems were made up of more than one root-morpheme, e.g. mann-cynn, norpe-weard, feower-tiene, weall-^eal, scir-ze-refa (NE mankind, northward, fourteen, wait gate, sheriff).

As stated above (§ 66), in Late PG the morphological structure of the word was simplified. By the age of writing many derived words had lost their stem-forming suffixes and had turned into simple words. The loss of stem-suffixes as means of word derivation stimulated the growth of other means of word-formation, especially the growth of suffixation.

Ways o! Word-Formation

§ 249. In OE there existed a system of word-formation of a com­plexity similar to that of Mod E. One of the most striking examples of the potentials of OE word-formation was the ability of a single root to appear in an abundant store of simple, derived and compound words. For instance, OE m6d (NE mood) yielded about fifty words: derived words, such as m6di$, 3emoded, ofermod ('proud', 'disposed', 'arrogance'), compound words mod-caru, mod-leof, mod-zepdht, zl& dmddnis ('care', 'beloved', 'thought', 'kindness'). Scores of words contained the roots of OE idd, monn, weorp, ton$ (NE day, good, man, worth, long). •Many derivational affixes appear to have been very productive as they occurred in numerous words: wip- a prefix in more than fifty words, °fer- in over a hundred words.

It is not always possible for the present-day linguist to assess с or- rectly the productivity of OE word-building means. It is difficult to distinguish processes which were active from those that had ceased to be productive but whose products were still in use. Due to the scarcity of written evidence sometimes we cannot say whether the word was in common use or it was created by the author of a certain text for one occasion — these kinds of words " said once" are termed " hapax lego- rnena".

OE employed two ways of word-format ion: derivation and word- composition.

Word-Derivation

§ 250. Derived words in OE were built with the help of affixes: prefixes and suffixes; in addition to these principal means of derivation, words were distinguished with the help of sound interchanges and word stress.

Sound Interchanges

§ 251. Sound interchanges in the roots of related words were fre­quent, and nevertheless they were used merely as an additional feature which helped to distinguish between words built from the same root. Sound interchanges were never used alone; they were combined with suffixation as the main word-building means and in many cases arose as a result of suffixation.

Genetically, sound interchanges went back to various sources and periods.

§ 252. The earliest source of root-vowel interchanges employed in OE word-building was ablaut or vowel gradation, inherited from PG and IE.

Vowel gradation was used in OE as a distinctive feature between verbs and nouns and also between verbs derived from a single root. The gradation series were similar to those employed in the strong verbs:

rldan v — rad n (i: —a: ] (like Class 1 of strong verbs), NE ride, raid sin3an v — son3 n Lt—a 1 (like Class 3 of strong verbs), NE sing, song

sprecan у — spraece n [е~эе: ] (see Class 5 of strong verbs) beran v — baere n — the same; NE speak, speech., bear, bearer.

In the following pairs both words are verbs; the weak verbs given in the second column are derived from the strong verbs with the vowel grade of the Past sg:

findan — Past sg fand — fandian, NE find, 'find out' sittan — Past sg sast — settan, NE sit, set drincan — Past sg dranc — drencan, NE drink, drench. (The two latter verbs, settan and drencan were built with the help of the stem-suffix -t, therefore the vowels of the Past tense stems were narrowed; their earlier forms were *ssetjan, *drankjan — see weak verbs of Class 1, § 205.)

§253. Many vowel interchanges arose due to palatal mutation; the element li/j] in the derivational suffix caused the mutation of the root- vowel; the same root without the suffix retained the original non-mu- lated vowel, e.g.;

a) nouns and verbs: dom— deman from the earlier *ddmjan {NE doom — deem); fod —■ fedan (NE food — feed); bot — be tan and also bettre ('remedy', 'improve1, NE better);

b) adjectives and verbs: full — fyllan (NE full — fill); hal — h& lan {'healthy' — heal), cf. Gt fulljan;

c) nouns and adjectives: long— len$pu (NE long, length), strong — strenspu (NE strong — strength)-, brad — brsedpu (NE broad — breadth); the nouns were originally derived with the help of the suffix -in, which was later replaced by -pu.

§ 254. Vowel interchanges could also go back to Early OE breaking, or to several phonetic changes, including breaking. Cf. beran — beam (NE bear, 'child', dial, barn) — breaking has modified the vowel [asJ which developed from the Germanic (a) by splitting; the original vowel interchange le~al is a case of ablaut.

§255. The use of consonant interchanges as a distinctive feature in word-building was far more restricted than the use of vowels. Like most vowel interchanges consonant interchanges arose due to phonetic changes: Verner's Law, rhotacism, hardening of [3] and the Early OE splitting of velar consonants (see relevant paragraphs). Cf. the following pairs:

risan — гдагап (NE rise, rear) — Verner's Law+rhotacism deap — dead (NE death, dead) — Verner's Law-\-hardening talu — tellan (NE tale, tell)—gemination of consonants зргжс [к'] — sprecan [k] (NE speech—speak) — splitting of velar consonants.

Word Stress

§ 256. The role of word accentuation in OE word-building was not great. Like sound interchanges, the shifting of word stress helped to differentiate between some parts of speech being used together with other means. The verb had unaccented prefixes while the corresponding nouns had stressed prefixes, so that the position of stress served as an additional distinctive feature between them, e.g. ond-'swarian v — 'ond- swaru n (see more examples in § 115, dealing with word stress). In some nouns, however, the prefix was as unaccented as in the verbs.

Prefixation

§ 257. Prefixation was a productive way of building new words in OE. Genetically, some OE prefixes go back to IE prototypes, e.g. OE a negative prefix (the element -n- is found in negative prefixes in roany IE languages, cf. Fr ne, R не, ни). Many more prefixes sprang in PG and OE from prepositions and adverbs, e.g. mis-, be-, ofer-. Some °f these prepositions and adverbs continued to be used as independent words as well.

§ 258. Prefixes were widely used with verbs but were far less pro­ductive with other parts of speech. We can cite long lists of verbs derived from a single root with the help of different prefixes:

 

 


зе-зап —'go', 'go away'

зап —'go'

а-зап —'go away* be-зап — 'go round' fore-зап — 'precede' ofer-зап — 'traverse'

faran —'travel' 3-faran — 'travel' to-faran — 'disperse' for-faran — 'intercept'

forp-faran — 'die' зе-faran— 'attack', etc.


 

 


The most frequent, and probably the most productive, OE prefixes were: a-, be-, for-, fore-, зе-, ofer-, un-. Of these only un- was common with nouns and adjectives, the rest were mainly verb prefixes.

§ 259. The prefix modified the lexical meaning of the word, usually without changing its reference to a part of speech: 5e-boreti — unseboren {adjectivised participle; NE born — unborn); sip — for-sip n 'journey', 'death'; d& d — un-dsd n NE deed 'crime'; iepelice—un-iepetice adv 'easily', with difficulty', spedis — unspedft adj 'rich', 'poor'.

Some prefixes, both verbal and nominal, gave a more special sense to the word and changed its meaning very considerably: e.g. 3ytan — on-iytan (NE get), 'perceive', weordan — for-weordan v, forwyrS n 'be­come', 'perish', 'destruction', Ьй$ап — bebuzan (NE bow), 'surround'. A distinct semantic group was constituted by negative prefixes un-, mis-, wan-, or- (the two latter were nominal prefixes only), e.g.: hat — unhat or wan-hal 'healthy', 'unhealthy', wisdom — unwisdom (NE twisdom), 'folly'; lician — mistician (NE tike), 'displease', lint pan or 3 elimpan

— mislimpan 'happen' — 'go wrong', 50Г3 n — orsor$ adj (NE sorrow), 'unconcerned, careless'.

Some prefixes had a very weak or general meaning bordering on grammatical, e.g.: the commonest verb prefix, conveyed the meaning of result or completion and was therefore often used as a marker of the Past Participle — sittan — 3e-sett, stelan — 3estolen (NE s(7, steal). (For the use of зе- with Participle II and as a marker of aspect see § 193 and § 197). se- and a- changed the aspective meaning of the verb and turned it from durative into perfective or terminative without affecting its lexical meaning as in feran — зе/егал 'go —reach', drincan — ie- drincan 'drink — drink off', winnan —- zminnan 'fight — win', sendan

— asendan 'send — send off'. With some verbs the meaning of the prefix was so weak and vague that there was practically no difference between the verb with the prefix and without it, e.g.: abidan — bidan 'await', swerian — aswerian 'swear'. With other verbs the same prefix could bring about a shift of meaning, e.g.: sittan — 3e-sittan 'sit — oc­cupy' (see more examples in § 193).

Suffixation

§ 260. Suffixation was by far the most productive means of word derivation in OE. Suffixes not only modified the lexical meaning of the word but could refer it to another part of speech. Suffixes were mostly applied in forming nouns and adjectives, seldom — in forming verbs.

EtymologicallyOE suffixes can be traced to several sources: old stem- suffixes, which had lost their productivity, but could still be distin­guished in some words as dead or non-productive suffixes; derivational suffixes proper inherited from PIE and PG; new suffixes which devel­oped from root-morphemes in Late PG and OE in the course of morpho­logical simplification of the word.

§261. The old stem-suffixes cannot be regarded as means of deri­vation in OE. They must have been productive at earlier stages of his­tory, probably in PG, and had left their traces in the morphological classes of nouns, verbs and adjectives. Their application in word deri­vation can be best shown in reconstructed, pre-written forms of weak verbs. Weak verbs of Class I were originally derived from nominal or verbal roots with the help of the stem-forming suffix -('//-, e.g. *tssl- i-an, *mdt-i-an, OE tellan, me tan — from the roots of OE talu, зе-mot1; verbs of Class II were formed with the help of the most productive stem- suffix -о-, or -oj-, e.g.: *hop-o-jan, *luf-6-jan, OE hopian, lufian from corresponding nouns hopa, lufu (NE tell, meet, hope, love).

The productivity of -of- in verb derivation is confirmed by the fact that Class II was the most numerous of all classes; verbs of this class continued to be formed in Early OE (see §207).

Most stem-suffixes had been lost by the age of writing; the surviving suffixes were dead or non-productive, e.g. -t in OE meaht (NE might), see also §263, 264.

§ 262. Suffixes are usually classified according to the part of speech which they can form. In OE there were two large groups of suffixes: suffixes of nouns and suffixes of adjectives. Noun suffixes are divided into suffixes of " agent nouns" (" nomina agentis") and those of abstract nouns.

§ 263. Among the suffixes of " agent nouns" there were some dead, unproductive suffixes: -a, as in the Masc. a-stem hunt a (NE hunter), •end, originally the suffix of the Present Participle, e.g. OE freond, fiend, h& lend (NE friend, fiend, 'saviour'). -end in word-building was later replaced by -ere, a suffix of IE descent, whose productivity grew after the adoption of numerous Latin words with the same suffix, e.g. scolere, sutere (NE scholar, 'shoemaker').[9] OE agent nouns in -ere were derived from nouns and verbs: bocere, fiscere, leornere, b& cere, etc. (NE 'scribe', fisher, learner, baker).

The nouns in -ere were Masc.; the corresponding suffix of Fem. nouns -estre was less common: bxcestre, spinnestre ('female baker', 'female spinner'). The suffix -тз was used to build patronymics and to show the descent of a person, e.g.: Mpelwulfin^ 'son of /Epelwulf', Centinz 'a man coming from Kent', cynin$ 'head of clan or tribe' —OE cynn 'clan'.

§ 264. Among suffixes of abstract nouns there were some survivals? f old stem-suffixes and numerous later formations: the stem-suffix m meaht, siht or sihp (NE might, sight) was dead; -p reinforced by the addition of a vowel, was more alive: alongside-pu the element -p- appears






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