A study on the changing of french loanwords in english

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH
====o0o====
CODE: 15

GRADUATION THESIS
TOPIC: A STUDY ON THE CHANGING OF
FRENCH LOANWORDS IN ENGLISH

Name of student : Nguyễn Thùy Dung
Date of birth

: 25/06/1992

Class

: K18-BPD1

Supervisor

: M.A Lưu Chí Hải

HÀ NỘI - 2015
DECLARATION


I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and the
whole content in the study has not been submitted from any other studies.
Where other sources of information has been used, they have been
acknowledges.

Hanoi, 4th May 2015

Student

Supervisor

ACKOWLEDGEMENT


First of all, I would like to thank Management Board of the English
Faculty at Hanoi Open University for giving me a great opportunity to study
on the loanwords in English.

I am very grateful to all the teachers at the English Faculty of Hanoi
Open University for their interesting and useful lectures which help me to
develop ideas for the fulfillment of this paper.

In addition, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my
supervisor, M.A Lưu Chí Hải, from whom I received enormous kindness and
guidance.

In particular, my special thanks go to my parents and my sister who
have encouraged and supported me in all aspects.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my friends who have shared
with me a lot during my studies.
Hanoi 4th May 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A. INTRODUCTION........................................................................ 1
1. Rationale ................................................................................................ 1
2. Aims and objects of the study ................................................................. 3
3. Scope of the study .................................................................................. 3
4. Research questions ................................................................................. 4
5. Methods of the study .............................................................................. 4
6. Design of the study ................................................................................. 4
PART B. DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................ 6
CHAPTER I. AN OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY AND
LOANWORDS ........................................................................................... 6
1.1. Vocabulary ...................................................................................... 6
1.1.1. Definition of vocabulary ........................................................... 6
1.1.2. Source of English Vocabulary ................................................... 6
1.2. Definition of loanwords ................................................................... 7
1.3. Reasons for language borrowing .................................................... 10
1.4. Methods of loanwords’ absorption................................................. 11
1.4.1. Direct borrowing ..................................................................... 12
1.4.2. Indirect borrowing .................................................................. 13
1.5. Classification of English borrowings ............................................. 14
1.5.1. On the degree of linguistic aspects .......................................... 14
1.5.2. On the degree of assimilation .................................................. 16
1.6. The origin of French language in English ...................................... 17
CHAPTER II. THE ANALYSIS ON THE CHANGING OF FRENCH
LOANWORDS INTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...................................... 20
2.1. Middle English Period (1066-1500) ............................................... 21
2.1.1. Changes in terms of social background ................................... 21
2.1.2. Changes in terms of pronunciation .......................................... 30
2.1.3. Changes in terms of spelling ................................................... 32
2.1.4. Changes in terms of word-formation ....................................... 33

2.1.5. Changes in terms of grammar.................................................. 34
2.2. The Early Modern English period (1500-1800) ............................. 35
2.2.1. Changes in history background ............................................... 35
2.2.2. Changes in terms of pronunciation .......................................... 37
2.2.3. Changes in terms of grammar.................................................. 38
2.3. The Modern English/The Late Modern English (1800-present) ..... 39
2.3.1. Changes in history background ............................................... 39
2.3.2. Changes in terms of pronunciation .......................................... 40
CHAPTER III. APPLICATION OF STUDYING FRENCH
LOANWORDS IN ENGLISH ................................................................... 43
3.1. Applying in studying English for students and further research on
loanwords in English ............................................................................ 43
3.2. Applying in translating English – French and French – English texts . 44
3.3. Applying in teaching English......................................................... 45
3.4. Applying in being a reference for further study ............................. 45
PART C. CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 47
REFERENCE ............................................................................................. 49


Graduation Thesis - 2015

PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages exist over the world;
however, only 13 out of 6,500 languages are considered as the most populous
language, including Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi and English, etc.
Among those languages, English has always been chosen as the official
language in many countries and extensively used by more than 2 billion

people nowadays. More and more people believe that English is a dominant
business language and it is necessary for them to learn English to enter a
global workforce. Furthermore, learning English also gives people
opportunities to access the knowledge source that is currently available in
English on the Internet. Therefore, it will allow everyone to achieve an
incredible amount of information that people may not find in different
languages.
When different cultures have become involved in each other, the result
will be a trade of transferring linguistic material from one language to another
language. The exchange of words has happened between many cultures and
left its marks in many modern languages, and English is not an exception in
this development. English has become a common language for the reason
that it absorbed a great quantity of foreign vocabulary or phrases in the
process of formation and development. It is said that about 80 percent of
English vocabulary are borrowed from different foreign languages. The
loanwords obviously had great benefits for the language since they enriched
the English vocabulary sources in different fields and made its impression
various, enabling English users to express the ideas relevantly and vividly.
In general, English has two major characteristics including flexibility
and diversity; thus, the feature of any type of languages can be seen in the use

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of English. English contains a rich vocabulary resource because of its ability
to absorb new words from other languages, as well as to accept the customs

and cultural concepts of foreign nations. These basic features, thus, provide
English a potential of borrowing foreign languages. According to many
surveys, there is a mutual dependence between language and culture. The
linguistic development would exist unless there were culture and the culture
exchange between different countries. Thanks to its complex and specific
formation and development, the most outstanding feature of English is the
mixture of vocabulary, which is named “world-wide vocabulary”.
In fact, the quantity of borrowing words in English is numerous and it
comes from a great variety of language sources. It illustrates that the field of
loanwords in English is very diverse. According to many linguistic figures,
Latin, French, Germanic and other languages established up to 29 per cent, 29
per cent, 26 per cent, 16 per cent, respectively. The data shows that the
connection between English and French is very close. The integration of
French into English, in the aspects of time and historical background, leads to
a great change of French words entering the English.
In Vietnam, learning French is quite popular, along with learning
English. The researching in French language is also an interesting field that
stimulates students majoring in linguistic. For example, a topic about French
loanwords in English is rather new to students in Vietnam though there are
few documents and research related to this field available. Therefore, it is
necessary to study the topic carefully and provide correct and helpful
information about the origin, development and influences of loanwords in
English. In this paper, I expect to introduce main aspects of loanwords in
English vocabulary source, which help people understand the important role
of these words in varying expression.

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2. Aims and objects of the study
The overall aim of the study is to collect valid and reliable information
on the topic of French loanwords in English, including its origins, historical
background, classification and development. To be more specific, the study
elaborates the history of the process of absorbing borrowed words from
French in English in different periods. It also analyses the process of
absorbing

loanwords

in

English

and

their influences on

English

pronunciation, grammar, meaning and word-formation.
During the process of collecting data and information, the research may
have some specific purposes. The first aim is to understand the process of
accepting and forming new words from other languages in English. The
second aim is to provide more information on the origins, the historical
background of the integration of French loanwords in English. The final aim
is to clarify the changes of French loanwords when being imported to English.

In short, I hope the thesis will be a helpful document for students to
understand further about the importance of loanwords in English and the use
of these words in studying English.
The field of loanwords plays an important part in developing English
language and enlarging the language’s vocabulary source. Hence, this study
will particularly focus on an objective, the loanwords from different countries
in English.
3. Scope of the study
The study was conducted to provide knowledge and information on
French loanwords in English language. The intended audience of this thesis
includes teachers, students of Hanoi Open University or other universities and
colleges, who are interested in the topic and expect to read some correct
definitions and theories as well as the viewpoints of a student majoring in

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English. Thus, in the thesis, I hope to provide them an overview of French
loanwords in English, which may become a crucial factor to enrich the
amount of vocabulary for English language learners.
4. Research questions
• When were French words borrowed into English?
• Why were French words absorbed in English?
• What are changes of French loanwords when being absorbed in
English?
5. Methods of the study

• Gathering and summarizing information available on the Internet or in
relevant books, documents, newspaper.
• Arranging and classifying the data in an appropriate order for every
chapter.
• Data analysis
6. Design of the study
My graduation paper is divided into three main parts:
Part A: Introduction
This part has introduced:
1.

Rationale

2.

Aims and Objects

3.

Scope of the study

4.

Method of the study

5.

Design of the study

Part B: Development

This part has three chapters:
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Chapter I. An overview of English vocabulary and loanwords
Chapter II. The Analysis on the Changing of French loanwords into
English language
Chapter III. Application of studying French loanwords in English
Part C: Conclusion

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PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I. AN OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH
VOCABULARY AND LOANWORDS

1.1. Vocabulary
1.1.1. Definition of vocabulary
In Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, “vocabulary” is defined as
“a set of carefully chosen words used to write the explanations in some
dictionaries”.

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, “vocabulary” refers to “the
words that make up a language”
1.1.2. Source of English Vocabulary
In terms of Etymology, the vocabulary of English is considered as
various and diversified source of language. It is made up of two types of
words including the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words
(loanwords).
Several previous analysis of linguists shows that the amount of
borrowed words is much larger than the amount of native words. In fact,
native words constitute only 30% of the total number of words in the English
vocabulary; however, the 30% native words form a great quantity of the most
common words used in spoken and written languages. In addition, the native
words have a great variety of grammatical and lexical valence. The loanwords
are considered to be highly polysemantic and productive in creating word
clusters and set expressions. Native words are divided into 3 basic groups:
• The words which have cognates (words of the same etymological
root, of common origin) in many Indo-European languages
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• The words which have cognates with words of the language of the
Germanic group
Some of the main groups of Germanic words are the same as in the
Indo-European group.
For example:
- words indicate parts of human body, including head, hand, arm,

finger;
- words indicate animals: bear, fox;
- words describe natural phenomena: rain, frost;
- words describe furniture: house, bench;
- words are adjective: green, blue, old, good, small, high;
- words are verbs: see, hear, tell, say, drink, give.
• The English element proper,
For example: bird, boy, girl, woman, lord, always
1.2. Definition of loanwords
Borrowing words is considered an effective linguistic phenomenon to
enrich the vocabulary of a language. English has borrowed a large quantity of
new words from different languages over the world in the course of its
development. The vocabulary and expression borrowed from French take up a
considerable portion of the loanwords currently existing in English language.
According to thehistoryofenglish.com, loanwords are defined as “words
adopted by the speakers of one language from a different language (the source
language)”. Another term of “loanwords” is “borrowings”. The word
“borrowing” refers to the process of people accepting new words from a
source language into their native language. It is clear that the words “loan”
and “borrowing” are metaphors since there is no literal lending process in the
development of any language. The methods of “transferring” or “returning”

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words between one and another language are not existed. Loanwords, purely,

became a part of a language as the community speaks a different language
beside their own mother tongue.
Borrowing may be internal and external. The internal one is concerned
with the importance of: dialectal terms, or of archaisms (words belonging to
earlier stages of the respective language), as opposed to the external type,
concerning loans/loanwords proper (terms coming from foreign languages).
According to Wikipedia, A loanword is “a word borrowed from a
donor language and incorporated into a recipient language without
translation”.
Although the number of loanwords are less numerous than the nature
words of most language, they are commonly used by people since they
express certain purposes of users.
According to dictionaries, there are many definitions for the term
“loanwords”. For instances, Webster’s New Word College Dictionary, third
edition defines it “loanword” as “a word of one language taken into another
and naturalized” (Neufeldt, 1995). “Naturalized” means “to introduce into
common use or into the vernacular” (Neufeldt, 1995). Loanwords are often
even more widely known than native words because their borrowing served a
certain purpose, for example to provide a name of a new invention (P.12).
“Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged of the English Language” gives
another definition of the term “loanword”, as “a word in one language that has
been borrowed or taken over from another language”. In Longman Dictionary
of Contemporary English, “loanwords” mean “a word taken into one language
from another” (Summers, 1993).
Besides, in Longman Dictionary of language Teaching & Applied
linguistics, “loanword” is defined as “Borrowing is a word or phrase which
has been taken from one language and used in another language. When a

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single word is borrowed, it is called a loanword.” (Richards, 2000). During
many periods of history, the definition of “loanword” was a highly
controversial topic loans while other would prefer to draw a conclusion that
borrowings refer to both phonetic loans and translated loans.
The word “loanwords” itself, actually, is a type of a loanword. It
originated in a German word “lehnwort”, which means precisely loanword. In
this case, the meaning of the German words (lehn + wort), the English
equivalents are used. Obviously, the speakers of “borrowing” language must
be able to understand and speak two languages (their native language and the
“lending” language) so that words can be borrowed from the “lending”
language.
A majority of linguists supports the opinion that all imported or coined
for new objects, ideas and experiences should be called “loanwords”,
including hybrid, phonetic and semantic loans. A Swiss linguist, Saussure,
mentioned in his study that there is no natural boundaries in languages, as
well as “intercourse” actually exists between a language and its importation of
foreign languages in the general process of developing languages. Saussure’s
aim was to prove geographical diversity and coexistence of languages without
merging; therefore, he did not give many details on language importation.
However, the statements might be regarded as one of the initial and
convincing opinions on language borrowing in linguistic perspective.
Sapir (2001) indicated that the act of “borrowing” words is the most
specific way to show the influence of one language on another. It is obvious
that a language new borrowed words and terms from other kinds of languages
as a result of cultural borrowings. For instance, when Christianity was first

introduced to England, some religion-related words, namely, bishop and
angel, has become gradually common by English priests and Christians. The

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word-borrowing process has continued until the present day when each
cultural wave contributed a great number of loanwords to the language.
1.3. Reasons for language borrowing
The reasons for a language such as English to borrow words from other
languages are manifold. In this case, Katamba notes that there is no purely
linguistic reason for borrowing. He believes that no limit exists to the number
of words that can be generated in any language (Katamba, 1994). But still,
whenever the need for a new term arises, due to the contact between people
from different cultures, the formation of a neologism, composed of elements
of the own language, is only rarely done. The first reason for borrowing a
suitable word from other language is to find a suitable term for an unfamiliar
thing, animal, or cultural device. Then borrowing seems to be the easiest
solution to this problem.
Another reason for just borrowing a term might also be the question of
identity. This is especially the case with bilingual speakers who, by using a
foreign element in their speech, make a statement about their own selfperception (Katamba, 1994). In this context, code-switching also becomes an
irreplaceable part borrowing. If a word is habitually used in code-switching, it
is likely to pass over from one language to the other before becoming fully
integrated into the borrowing language.
Moreover, a further, often underestimated reason for borrowing is

prestige. Katamba notes here that people have “always liked to show off”
(Katamba, 1994). Gramley indicated that these terms frequently come from
the languages called “languages of classical learning (Gramley, 2001).
On the one hand they serve to enrich the language, but on the other
hand the words make certain stylistic registers more inaccessible to the
masses. The meaning of some of these highly prestigious words is often not

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directly obvious to the average speaker of English, and thus, their meaning
has to be learned.
Amongst the above mentioned reasons for borrowing from foreign
languages, the most obvious and maybe also the most profound one is the
introduction of new concepts for which there are no suitable words in the task
language. Concerning this, Katamba writes that that at various periods in
world history different civilisations have been pre-eminent in one field or
another (like for example sciences, trade, military, and medicine). He claimed
that the normal course of development was then that the language of this
civilisation became the lingua franca for that specific field during the period
of their pre-eminence (Katamba, 1994). This is also reflected by the
concentration of borrowings in certain semantic fields from that language to
others.
The obvious thing here is a very basic distinction that can be made
between borrowings. Direct borrowing is when a language takes over a term
directly from another language. The English word omelette is an example for

direct borrowing because it has been taken over from French directly, without
any major phonological or orthographical changes (Katamba, 1994).
1.4. Methods of loanwords’ absorption
Language is rarely self-sufficient; therefore, the method of mutual
borrowing between languages is a widespread phenomenon. English imported
a lot of foreign vocabulary from Old English to Mediaeval English to modern
English. The importation of new words has greatly enriched the vocabulary
source of English. French loanwords integrated into English though several
times and became an important part of English, making up for the lack of
English vocabulary. The language has also been witness to the interaction of
culture, politics and economy between the two European countries. French

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language influenced the English language only by the means of borrowing
words. Not in all cases, the French words and terms are borrowed into English
with its original spelling and notions. It is more often the case that only parts
of its meaning are transferred. Occasionally, the spelling of French words is
kept but its meaning in English is changed. And other times, the opposite is
the case. With the purpose of avoiding confusion about the many different
types of lexical borrowings, it is crucial to understand the different ways in
which French words can enter the English language.
There are two types of borrowing, which are direct borrowing and
indirect borrowing.
1.4.1. Direct borrowing

Direct borrowing means the spelling and the meaning of the loanwords
are borrowed at the same time, in other words, new words entered English
without distortion. Take examples, some words like chargéd affairs (agency),
café, coup déta (coup) (Katamba, 1994) are directly transferred from French
words.
Direct borrowings can be classified into foreign words, loanwords,
pseudo-loanwords and mixed compounds.
The borrowing of an English terms with its original spelling and
meaning is the most common case in lexical borrowing. Nevertheless, it is
rather uncommon that the French words is borrowed into English with all of
its meaning. Normally, the words which is borrowed is only used in the
recipient language with one of its meanings in the donor language. These
words are regarded as foreign words and loanwords.
The difference between a foreign word and a loanword is the degree of
integration into English language. It is quite easy to identify a foreign word
because it does not subject to

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morphological and semantic changes in the recipient language. In contrast, a
loanword has experienced some of the changes mentioned above.
The pseudo-loanwords was adapted in such a way into English that
their original meanings are no longer readily recognized by indigenous French

speakers due to the new circumstances in which they were being used in
English (Wikipedia). Some example can be listed here, namely, bon viveur (a
fashionable man), entrée (first course), rendez-vous (meeting/appointment),
etc.
1.4.2. Indirect borrowing
Indirect borrowing refers to the loanwords that are converted before
being imported to English.
(Haugen, E., The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing. Language, 1950)
Haugen’s excellent research on borrowing languages can be seen as an
important reference for further study of loanwords and loanwords integration.
In his book, Haugen divides loanwords into three main types predicated on
their extent of morphemic substitution, including loanwords (the morphemic
importation free of substitution), loan blends (the morphemic substitution and
importation) and loan shifts (the morphemic substation without importation).
In this article, the most importance, however, is the criterion used by Haugen
to differentiate the three types. The concepts of importation and substitution
are defined as follows:
If the loan is similar enough to the model so that a native speaker
would accept it as his own, the borrowing speaker may be said to have
imported the model into his language, provided it is an innovation in that
language. but insofar as he has reproduced the model inadequately, he has
normally substituted a similar pattern from his own language. this
distinction between importation and substitution applies not only to a
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given loan as a whole but to its constituent patterns as well, since
different parts of the pattern may be treated differently.
(Haugen 1950: 212)
By these three indirect borrowing methods, numerous French
loanwords has been imported to English, which not only enlarges and develop
the English vocabulary source but also has a great impact on native English.
Weinreich (1964) distinguishes loanwords as a simple (non-compound)
lexical items) and compound words. The non-compound words, which are
outright transfer of the phonemic sequence from one language to another, are
very common in many languages. The compound words are from analyzed
compounds in which its elements are adapted to word- formative or syntactic
patterns of the target languages. The Italian linguist Masini claims that the
lexicon can either simply absorb a feature of new language without
transformations or adapt it to its system. Nevertheless, in reality, whenever a
language adopts a foreign expression, few traits of that language may
experience changes.

1.5. Classification of English borrowings
1.5.1. On the degree of linguistic aspects
Borrowings in the English language were divided into four groups,
including phonetic borrowings, translation loans, semantic borrowings, and
morphemic borrowings.
The most typical type among four borrowings is phonetic borrowings,
which is also called loan words. These are words borrowed with their
spelling, pronunciation and meaning. After that, the words go through
assimilation; each sound in the loanwords is replaced with the corresponding
sound of the borrowing language. Sometimes, the spelling of loanwords could
change and so does the structure of the loanwords. Besides, when the
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loanwords is imported to English, the position of the stress is easy to be
influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. Other features,
including paradigm and the meaning of borrowed words could also be
changed in some situations. For example, labour, travel, table, chair, people
are phonetic borrowings from French.
Translation loans refer to word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme)
translations of some foreign words or expressions. Concerning this type of
loanwords, native lexical units would be used to express the concept which
are borrowed from other languages. For example:
• to take the bull by the horns (Latin)
• fair sex (French),
• living space (German)
Semantic borrowings involves in those loanwords which their
meanings exist in the borrowed language. The semantic borrowings can
appear when two relative languages, English and French for example, have
common words with different meanings.
Semantic borrowing happens when an English word was imported into
other languages and developed a new meaning of it owns, then this new
meaning was borrowed back into English.
Morphemic borrowings mean the borrowings of affixes in the language
when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into
another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes familiar
to the people speaking the borrowing language.
However, David Crystal provides the most comprehensive typology of
loans in “A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics”. In his book, D.Crystal

distinguished following classes:

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• Loan words, where both form and meaning are borrowed, or
‘assimilated’, loan blends, where the meaning is borrowed, but only part of
the form,
• Loan shift, where the meaning is borrowed and the form is native,
• Loan translation, where the morphemes in the borrowed word are
translated item by item, also known as calque.
1.5.2. On the degree of assimilation
New words, which are borrowed from a foreign language to another
often adjust themselves, in order that they can get adapted to the recipient
languages. After a long process of changing, the foreign features of the
borrowed words are eliminated, leading to the assimilation of loanwords.
Sometimes, the assimilation even changed the whole origin words, making
people unable to recognize the origin of the borrowed words. For example,
cup, cat, take, dinner are “common” words in the English language but they
are not originated in England.
Four factors directly affect the borrowings on the degree of
assimilation, including:
• The group of languages the word was borrowed (if the word belongs
to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language belongs it is
assimilated easier)
• The way the word is borrowed: orally or in the written form, words

borrowed orally are assimilated quicker
• The frequency of the loanword’s usage in the language (the greater
the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated)
• The time the word exists in the language, the longer it lives, the more
assimilated it is.

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Therefore, borrowings are divided into: completely assimilated, partly
assimilated and non-assimilated.
Completely assimilated borrowings are different from foreign words in
the language. Completely assimilated verbs usually happen when the
language adopt regular verbs, for example: correct -corrected. To form a
plural noun from the root word, completely assimilated nouns add s-inflexion,
for example: gate- gates. The stress of a completely assimilated French word
would be shifted from the last syllable to the last one.
Semantic assimilation of borrowed words relies on the words existing
in the borrowing language. Along with that, a borrowed word does not convey
all its meanings into the borrowing language, if it is polysemantic.
Partly assimilated borrowings are divided into four groups:
•Borrowings non-assimilated semantically
•Borrowings non-assimilated grammatically
•Borrowings non-assimilated phonetically
•Borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically
Non-assimilated borrowings are borrowings which are seldom used by

Englishmen, For example: addio (Italian), tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita
(Italian), duende (Spanish), an homme a femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.
1.6. The origin of French language in English
Borrowings become a part of a language in a very natural way. The
process begins with the act of people using words from another language
beside their native language. The people prefer to use foreign words in some
particular situations, as they believe the foreign words are more prestigious
than words in their native language. More and more people, then, learn the
foreign words and start using them more often, as time passes by. An example
of this is that the upper class in the old English society often spoke French

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and used it as official language in important documents. During the period
from 1650 to 1770, French was the leading political and cultural country in
Europe. Along with that, the French language was very prestigious and
common during this time. Although the native words often exists a long with
the borrowed ones, sometimes, the native words died out and were replaced
by loanwords with same meanings.
French words have been added to the English lexicon for many reasons.
cross-cultural communication and economic integration bring French spelling
and pronunciation to English, however, many of them emanated from a few
centuries ago, as a result of mainly two historical reasons.
The Norman Conquest could obviously one of the reasons for
absorbing loanwords. The Normans, the people of Normandy in today's

France, genuine Vikings, had surmounted Normandy a few centuries earlier.
In 1066, William the Conqueror led The Normans to take over the whole of
England. For centuries thereafter, French became the main language of the
ruling class in England.
The colossal influence of France on Europe from the Renaissance to the
end of the 19th century also plays an important role in the contribution to the
amount of loanwords, along with the geographic proximity of France and
England.
Another reason is that a language uses words that are not semantically
differentiated enough. A clear example in this case is the word “lufu” (love)
with the meaning of “charity” before the 12th century. It was sometimes very
difficult to indicate what the speaker means with “lufu”; therefore, English
borrowed the word “charity” from French, so as to specifically distinguish
between the two words.
Most English loanwords have existed as an indispensable part of the
English source of vocabulary for a very long time. The word “simple” was

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Graduation Thesis - 2015

adopted from the French language centuries ago, around 1220; however, it
was not originally a French word, but had been borrowed from Latin. The
example illustrates that no matter how long the loanwords have existed in our
vocabulary, it still be loanwords. The loanwords have gone through many
periods of history; thus, to distinguish between native words and loanwords,
we have to understand and know the history of the English language.

Summary
To wrap up, the Chapter I - An overview of English vocabulary and
loanwords provides clear definitions, classification, method of absorbing,
reason and origin of vocabulary and loanwords/borrowings in English
according to trustful source of dictionaries and famous linguists. It is very
essential to understand the foundation of loanwords in English so that we can
analyze and study about the changing process of French loanwords being
accepted to English language.

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Graduation Thesis - 2015

CHAPTER II. THE ANALYSIS ON THE CHANGING OF FRENCH
LOANWORDS INTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Loanwords, which also refer to the term “guests from another
language,” invaded the English language. Through the history periods of
language development, words from other languages were taken to English
mainly due to the constant uninvited arrival of invaders to the British island.
How could a country of Celtic people develop such a language as
English? It is obviously because of several invasions by foreign countries to
the British Isles, bringing the countries’ languages, dialects and customs into
England. During the time of their settlement, the invaders make changes to
both the written and spoken words of the English residents, who were able to
adapt through the assimilation of borrowed words.
The Romans was the first one to occupy England, bringing Latin to

some English inhabitants. The Latin language started influencing the Celt’s
native language as the new-arrivals settled in. When the Angles, Saxons and
Jutes arrived in Britain, they displace the Celts. Thus, while the Angles
Saxons and Jutes carried the original English language over, the foundation of
the modern English language is Germanic with a great influence of French
language.
An analysis in Jespersen’s book “Growth and Structure of the English
Language” shows that the English language is a “chain of borrowings” as a
result of the invasions of Britain by various invaders. The invaders failed to
impose completely their languages on the British but their languages were
intermixed with the native speaker’s language. According to Lerer S., if the
Normans had not invaded England in 1066, English might have retained more
of its older inflectional structure. However, it has been argued that the
Norman Conquest changed the whole course of the English language. It

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