Classical Studies 2800A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Lexeme, Frankincense, Canker

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 2800A/B
• Professor: David Lamari

Document Summary

English has borrowed freely from all languages, but especially latinate ones. In the next few slides, we will look at why that happened. Bring latin when they invade britain: mille passuum ( 1000 paces ) > mil > mile, castrum (fort) > ceaster > chester/city. Phase 2: the angles & saxons (ad 50-600) Germanic peoples borrowed latin lexemes, and brought them to britain. L vallum (fortified wall) > oe weall > wall. L vinum (wine) > oe win > wine. L calcis (lime) > oe cealc > chalk. Christian missionaries bring christian (latin) vocabulary to britain. French is a latin dialect; when the french conquered england, latin stems entered the english language. L cancer (crab, cancer) > of cancre > canker. L dignitas (dignity) > of daint > dainty. L potio (drink) > of poisson > poison. L gaudium (happiness) > of joie > joy. L misericordia (pity) > of merci > mercy. Upper-class terms from french/latin; lower-class in english.