Athelwold prepared a version of the Benedictine Rule, known as the Concordia Regularis, to bring about a general uniformity in their organization and observances. One of the objects was the improvement of education, the establishment of schools and the encouragement of learning among the monks and the clergy.
By the close of the
century the monasteries were once more centres of literary activity. Works in English for the popularizing of knowledge were prepared and manuscripts both in Latin and the vernacular were copied and preserved. It is significant that the four great codices in which the bulk of Old English poetry is preserved date from this period. We doubtless owe their existence to the reform movement.
The
influence of Latin upon the English language rose and fell with the fortunes of the church and the state of learning so intimately connected with it. As a result of the renewed literary activity just described, a new series of Latin importations took place. These differed somewhat from the earlier Christian borrowings in being words of a less popular kind and expressing more often ideas of a scientific and learned character. Many have to do with religious matters (apostle, creed), literary and learned words (accent, decline). In general the later borrowings of the
Christian
period
come
thorough
books.
Specific members of the church organization such as pope, bishop, and priest, or monk and abbot represented individuals for which the English had no equivalent and therefore borrowed the Latin terms; however they did not borrow a general word for clergy but used a native expression meaning the spiritual folk. 4.5.- LATIN BORROWINGS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH.- (1066-≈1470). 1470→The Chancery Standard, a form of London based English, began to become widespread,
a process aided by the introduction of the printing press in England by Caxton in the 1470s.... Normand conquest began in 1066 with the invasion of the kingdom of England by the troops of William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror). The influence of the Norman Conquest is rd
generally known as the Latin Influence of the 3 Period. But it is right to include also under this designation the large number of words borrowed directly from Latin in Middle English. These differed from the French borrowings in being less popular and in gaining admission generally through the written language. It must not be forgotten that Latin was a spoken language among ecclesiastics and men of learning, and a certain number of Latin words could well have passed directly into spoken English. Their number, however, is small in comparison with those that we can observe entering by way of literature. th
th
14 and 15 c. were especially prolific in Latin borrowings. Wycliffe and his associates are credited with more than a thousand Latin words not previously found in English. Since many of them occur in the so-called Wycliffe translation of the Bible and have been retained in subsequent translations, they have passed into common use. Some examples of borrowings from this period are: adjacent, allegory, custody. Here we have terms relating to law, medicine, theology, science, and literature, words often justified in the beginning by technical or professional use and later acquiring a wider application. Among them may be noticed several with endings like –able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -ive, and others which thus became familiar in English and, reinforced often by French, now form common elements in English derivates.
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Aureate Terms: The introduction of unusual words from Latin became a conscious stylistic th
device in the 15 c., extensively used by poets and occasionally by writers of prose. By means of such words as abusion, dispone, tenebrous, poets attempted what has been described as a kind of stylistic gilding, and this feature of their language is accordingly known as “aurate diction”. This tendency occurs in moderation in the poetry of Chaucer (1343? -1400), becomes
a distinct mannerism in the work of Lydgate, and runs riot in the production of the Scottish Chaucerians – James I, Henryson, Dunbar, etc. Some words which were aureate in Chaucer have sometimes become part of the common speech (like laureate, mediation, oriental ), although this is not the general case. The result of this mingling of Latin, French and native elements is a richness in synonyms. In some cases we have a synonym at three different levels (popular, literary and learned): rise-mount-ascend (E/F/L). Latin word is generally more bookish.
4.6.- THE RENAISSANCE 1500 -1650: THE PROBLEM OF ENRICHMENT. Enlarging the vocabulary was one of the major problems confronting the modern languages for th
the men of the 16 c.
It was the time of rediscovery of Latin and Greek literature.
The scholarly monopoly of Latin throughout the Middle Ages had been broken (Revival of Learning), the deficiencies of English were at the same time revealed. Translations were numerous at this time, and the very act of translation brings home to the translator the limitations of his medium and tempts him to borrow from other languages the terms whose lack he feels in his own. In this way many foreign words, mainly Latin, French or th
th
Italian, were introduced into English, which acquired in the 16 and 17 c. thousands of new and strange words. The use of learned words (foreign words) had its detractors who called them “inkhorn” terms.
The strongest objection was on the score of their obscurity (a great exponent of this view is Thomas Wilson, Arte of Rhetorique, 1553). The opposition to inkhorn terms was at its height in th
the middle of the 16 c. At the end of Elizabeth´s reign (1533-1603)it had largely spent its force. Nevertheless, there were many supporters of importations. And something interesting about this is that they aroused popular interest, getting even to the playhouses (B.Jonson pag.12). The words that were introduced at this time were often basic words -nouns, adjectives and verbs- : anachronism, expensive, exit , etc. Some words, in entering the language, retained their original form (appendix); others underwent change, sometimes by cutting off the Latin ending (consult – are). But more often a further change was necessary. Latin ending – us in adjectives was changed to – ous (conspicu -us, -ous ), or replaced by – al (extern – us, -al). Latin nouns ending in – tas were changed in English to – ty (celeritas, -ty ), and nouns ending in –antia, -entia appear in English with the ending – ance (consonance), -ence (concurrence), -ancy (constancy), ency (frequency), while adjectives ending in -bilis take the usual English ending – ble
(susceptible). It was a common thing in English to make verbs out of adjectives ( busy, dry ). Reintroduction and new meanings: Sometimes the same word has been borrowed more than
once in the course of time. Old English as bishop and dish, was later borrowed again: Episcopal
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nd
and disc. A word when introduced a 2 time often carries a different meaning, thus it is as essential to consider new meanings as new words. Chaucer, for instance, uses the words artificial, declination, hemisphere in astronomical senses, but their present use is due to the th
16 c.; and the word abject (nowadays= without self-respect), although found earlier in the sense of `cast off, rejected´, was introduced in its present meaning in the Reinassance. Among the many new words that were introduced into English at this time there were a goodly number that have not been permanently retained. The most convincing reason for the failure of a new word to take hold is that it was not needed. In fact, we must look upon the borrowings of this period as often experimental. It is not always possible to say whether a word borrowed at this time was taken over directly from Latin or indirectly through French, for the same enrichment was going on in French simultaneously and the same words were being introduced i n both languages. th
4.7.- One of the characteristics of the 18 c. was its strong sense of order and the value of regulation, a desire for system and regularity. The most important consideration in the foundation of this standard is reason, which was often supported by the force of authoritative example, particularly classical example. Not only in literature but in language Latin was looked upon as a model, and classical precedent was often generalized into precept. Attention was turned to the grammar, and it was discovered that English had no grammar. Labouring under the mistaken notion that the classical languages had continued unchanged for many centuries, some men held that English might be rendered equally stale. In order to settle the language reason, etymology, and the example of Latin and Greek were settled as the main considerations to be made. Johnson expressed himself in those terms but throughout the 18
th
c. a feeling grew up that there were more disadvantages than advantages in trying to fit English into the pattern of Latin grammar. 4.8.- THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES.The great developments in science and rapid progress in every field of intellectual activity is reflected in the English vocabulary. Most of the new words coming into the language since 1800 have been derived from the same sources or created by the same methods as those that have long been familiar.
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